Angelus Rosedale Cemetery
The men and women are interred or cremated at Angelus Rosedale Cemetery in Los Angeles, California.
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- Director
- Actor
- Writer
Belonging to a well-situated family, Charles Browning fell in love at the age of 16 with a dancer of a circus. Following her began his itinerary of being clown, jockey and director of a variety theater which ended when he met D.W. Griffith and became an actor. He made his debut in Intolerance (1916). Working later on as a director, he had his first success with The Unholy Three (1925) (after about 25 unimportant pictures) which had his typical style of a mixture of fantasy, mystery and horror. His biggest hit was the classic Dracula (1931), in which he also appears as the voice of the harbor master.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Henry Armstrong, born Henry Jackson, decided to become a boxer after reading in a St. Louis newspaper that Kid Chocolate had beaten Al Singer at the Polo Grounds in New York, and was paid a purse of $75,000.
At the "colored" YMCA on Pine Street in St. Louis, he met an older fighter named Harry Armstrong, who became his friend, mentor, and trainer. After three amateur fights, he turned professional in 1931 under the name "Melody Jackson." He made $35 for his pro debut, and was knocked out in three rounds. After winning his second pro fight by decision, he moved to Los Angeles with Harry Armstrong.
Once in Los Angeles, he decided to return to the amateur ranks. However, since he already had two professional fights under the name Jackson, he told people that he was Harry's little brother, Henry Armstrong.
Armstrong competed in the 1932 Olympic trials. After losing at the trials, he returned to the professional ranks. In 1936, entertainer Al Jolson and actor George Raft underwrote the purchase of Armstrong's managerial contract from Edward Mead.
Armstrong knocked out Petey Sarron in six rounds in 1937 to win the World Featherweight Championship, and was named "The Ring Fighter of the Year in 1937."
In 1938, Armstrong defeated Barney Ross by a fifteen-round unanimous decision to win the World Welterweight Championship, and then defeated Lou Ambers by a fifteen-round split decision to win the World Lightweight Championship.
Armstrong was the only boxer to hold world titles in three different weight divisions simultaneously, and all three titles were undisputed championships. After Armstrong turned the trick in 1938, no boxer was ever again allowed to be a champion in more than one weight division simultaneously.
In 1939, Armstrong lost the World Lightweight Championship in a rematch with Ambers by a fifteen-round unanimous decision. Referee Arthur Donovan took five rounds away from Armstrong for low blows. Armstrong starred in the feature film Keep Punching (1939) in 1939. He played a boxer named Henry "Little Dynamite" Jackson.
In 1940, Armstrong challenged Ceferino García for a portion of the World Middleweight Championship. Garcia was recognized as champion only by New York and California. Because the fight was scheduled for just ten rounds, the fight was recognized as a title fight only by California. Garcia retained the title with a draw, but most at ringside felt that Armstrong had won. A victory would have given Armstrong a fourth divisional title at a time when there were only eight weight divisions.
Armstrong defended the World Welterweight Championship a division record 19 times. He was 27-0 with 26 knockouts in 1937, 14-0 with 10 knockouts in 1938, and 59-1-1 with 51 knockouts from December 1936 to October 1940. He defeated sixteen world champions.
After he quit boxing, he became an ordained minister and devoted himself to underprivileged children. He was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1990. Other honors include his being ranked 2nd on "The Ring's 2002 list of the 80 Best Fighters of the Last 80 Years." In his 2006 book "Boxing's Greatest Fighters," historian Bert Sugar ranked Armstrong as the second greatest fighter of all-time.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Ivie Anderson was born on 10 July 1904 in Gilroy, California, USA. She was an actress, known for The Hit Parade (1937), A Day at the Races (1937) and Corrina, Corrina (1994). She was married to Walter Collins and Marque Nea. She died on 28 December 1949 in Los Angeles, California, USA.Plot: Section 7 Lot 5A Grave Z NE- Writer
- Actress
- Script and Continuity Department
Betty Burbridge was born on 7 December 1895 in San Diego, California, USA. She was a writer and actress, known for In the Clutches of the Gangsters (1914), Anybody's Blonde (1931) and Paradise Express (1937). She died on 19 September 1987 in Tarzana, California, USA.- Campbell was born in Sale, Cheshire on 26th April 1880 and began acting as a boy. He married fellow music hall performer Fanny Gertrude Robotham on March 30, 1901 and was later hired by English music hall impresario Fred Karno for his "Fun Factory" comedy troupes that featured other comics like a young Charlie Chaplin and Stan Laurel. Campbell arrived in New York with a Karno troupe in July, 1914 and was soon hired by Broadway producer Charles Frohman. In late 1915 fellow Karno alum Chaplin and his brother Sid found Eric working in a George M. Cohan play "Pom Pom" and in March, 1916, brought him to Hollywood. Built like a wrestler, over 6' tall and over 250 pounds, topped by small shaved head. Chaplin smeared his face with exaggerated eyebrows and darkened eyes, with a scraggly and long beard. He was the menacing bearded ogre opposite Chaplin in his most famous silents. His first Chaplin film was The Floorwalker (1916), playing the role of the villainous heavy, reprised in subsequent classics like The Rink (1916), The Pawnshop (1916), The Adventurer (1917), The Cure (1917), The Immigrant (1917), Easy Street (1917) and Chase me Charlie (1917). By the summer of 1917 Campbell was Chaplin's favorite co-star and foil, and almost as famous as the little comedian. In early 1917 Campbell filmed his last Chaplin Mutual, The Adventurer, after which Chaplin began construction on his own studio on LaBrea Avenue in Hollywood (which still stands today). During the five-month construction period, Chaplin lent Campbell to Mary Pickford, the world's biggest star, to appear in her film Amarilly of Clothes-Line Alley (1917). He was on the verge of becoming a world-wide star as filming began. But at the same time that he was becoming famous his personal life was beset by tragedy and scandal. On July 9, 1917 his wife died suddenly of a heart attack after dinner at a Santa Monica restaurant near their home. Walking to a nearby store to buy a mourning dress, his 16-year-old daughter Una was hit by a car a seriously injured. At a September 12th party given for Artcraft Studio publicity man Pete Schmid, Campbell met Pearl Gilman, a diminutive vaudeville comedienne with a family reputation for gold-digging. She had been married to candy heir Charles W. Alisky in 1912, and a few years later divorced and married another wealthy man, Theodore Arnreiter. Her sister Mabelle was married to elderly steel magnate William E. Corey, the owner of U.S. Steel. Just five days after they met, Campbell and Gilman Alisky-Arnreiter were married at the home of Elaine Hardy at 824 5th Street in Santa Monica. His daughter Una, still recuperating at a friend's home in Santa Monica canyon, was not told of the wedding for several weeks. Less than two months after marrying the gentle giant, Gilman Alisky-Arnreiter sued him for divorce. He moved out of the Santa Monica bungalow and into the Los Angeles Athletic Club, taking a room next to his best friend Chaplin. A month later later on December 20, Campbell attended a Christmas party at the Vernon Country Club, and drove back to L.A. in a drunken stupor. Approaching the intersection of Wilshire Blvd. and Vermont Ave. at over 60 m.p.h., he lost control of his car, crossed Wilshire and hit another car head-on. He was killed instantly, his massive body locked in the crumpled wreckage for over five hours. Heartbreak never left Campbell, even in death. After his remains were cremated, his ashes were sent to the Rosedale Cemetery, where they remained for six months while the cemetery waited in vain for someone to pay for his funeral. When the bill remained unpaid, the urn was returned to the Handley Mortuary, where it sat unnoticed in a closet from 1917 until late 1938. When the mortuary closed the urn was sent back to Rosedale, where it sat in another closet for still another 13 years. In 1952 a kindhearted office worker arranged for Campbell's remains to finally be buried. But, unfortunately, he forgot to record exactly where Campbell was buried, so the burly Scotsman is lost among the markers and statues in the quiet cemetery. In conjunction with a Scottish film about Campbell's life, a memorial plaque was laid in 1996. Campbell's death had a profound effect on Chaplin, and a quieter effect on movie history. After that time, Chaplin's movies lost some of their comic mystery; that certain something that his Mutual films had but subsequent films did not. His later works were much more self-centered and missing the comic give-and-take of his work with Campbell. There's no telling how famous Eric Campbell would have become, or what different films Chaplin may have done with his burly best friend.Plot: Section H. This is a cenotaph placed by a British film company in 1995. His ashes were buried in an unrecorded location in the cemetery.
- Actress
Rita Carewe was born Violette Fox on September 9, 1909 in New York City. Her father was Native American director Edwin Carewe. The family moved to Hollywood in 1914 after he was hired by United Artists. When Rita was a teenager her father helped her get contract at First National. She made her film debut in the 1925 silent comedy Joanna. Then she appeared in High Steppers and Resurrection which were both directed by her father. Rita became known for polishing her legs to give the impression she was wearing silk stockings. In 1927 she was chosen to be a WAMPAS Baby Star along with Sally Rand and Adamae Vaughn. The beautiful blonde auditioned for the role of Lorelei Lee in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes but Ruth Taylor got the part.
Rita was briefly engaged to Tom McDonald, a real estate dealer. The couple never made it down the aisle. She married actor LeRoy Mason in 1928. Unfortunately her career never took off. Her final film was the 1930 comedy Radio Kisses with Marjorie Beebe. She divorced LeRoy in 1936 claiming he drank too much and had threatened her with a gun. They never had children, With her acting days behind her she started working as a saleswoman in a dress shop. Sadly in 1954 she was diagnosed with mouth cancer. On October 22, 1955 she died from the disease. Rita was only forty-six years old. She was cremated and buried in an unmarked grave at Angelus Rosedale Cemetery in Los Angeles, California.Plot: Section 9, urn garden (Unmarked)- Frank Chance was born on 9 September 1877 in Fresno, California, USA. He was married to Edythe L. Chance. He died on 15 September 1924 in Los Angeles, California, USA.Plot: Section N, Lot 109, Grave 2 NE
- Composer
- Actor
- Music Department
Eric Dolphy was born on 20 June 1928 in Los Angeles, California, USA. He was a composer and actor, known for Dynamite Chicken (1971), Suspension of Disbelief (2012) and A Matter of Degrees (1990). He died on 29 June 1964 in Berlin, Germany.- John Reynolds Gardiner was born on 6 December 1944 in Los Angeles, California, USA. John Reynolds was a writer, known for Stone Fox (1987). John Reynolds was married to Gloria Gardiner. John Reynolds died on 4 March 2006 in Anaheim, California, USA.
- Actress
- Producer
Louise Glaum was born on 10 September 1888 in Baltimore, Maryland, USA. She was an actress and producer, known for Sex (1920), Sweetheart of the Doomed (1917) and The Three Musketeers (1916). She was married to Zachary M. Harris and Harry J. Edwards. She died on 25 November 1970 in Los Angeles, California, USA.Plot: Section Q, Lot 197- Actress
- Soundtrack
Theresa Harris appeared with more stars of the Golden Era of Hollywood than anyone else. She sang, she danced, she appeared in movies and TV. She graced the screen with her magnetic presence and most times stole scenes from the top stars of the day every chance she got and made a lot of dull films worthwhile. Although stereotyped by receiving only maid roles, Theresa stepped outside the stereotype any chance she got, to show she was glamorous, classy, beautiful, and a true actress. While she often played maids, she always showed dignity, grace, and demanded respect. Theresa didn't exactly fit the mammy/maid stereotype fore she was a petite beauty, a stark contrast from Louise Beavers and Hattie McDaniel, and Theresa was one of the very few black women to not fit that stereotype on screen.
There were quite a few movies in which Theresa got a chance to let her light shine and make you forget her maid costume and see her as a talented actress. In the pre-Code classic Baby Face (1933), she and Barbara Stanwyck had equal screentime, which was rare between black and white actors at that time. Playing Chico, Stanwyck's friend and co-worker, Harris gave a moving and memorable performance that contributed to the film becoming one of the essentials of the classic genre. Theresa was allowed to be sexy, glamorous, and her own person, not simply a servant who jumped at her employer's every beck and call, a rarity for a black actress in a maid part in the 1930s, and a true friendship was shared between Stanwyck and Harris' characters, another rarity. In Professional Sweetheart (1933), Harris played a spunky, sexy maid who teaches Ginger Rogers a thing or two about being "hot", and ends up replacing Rogers as a singer, singing a hot song on the radio that turns on the white male listeners, another shocker and rarity at the time for a black actress. But pre-Code movies usually pushed the envelope, which shows in both 'Baby Face' and 'Professional Sweetheart'. Though Theresa played maid roles most of her movie career, she had showed moments of excellence in many other films such as Hold Your Man (1933), Black Moon (1934), Gangsters on the Loose (1937), Jezebel (1938), The Toy Wife (1938), Tell No Tales (1939), Buck Benny Rides Again (1940), Love Thy Neighbor (1940), Blossoms in the Dust (1941), Cat People (1942), and I Walked with a Zombie (1943), among others.
Theresa was a versatile talent; besides acting, she could sing beautifully and dance divinely, when she had the chance in such movies as Thunderbolt (1929), 'Baby Face', 'Professional Sweetheart', Banjo on My Knee (1936), 'Buck Benny Rides Again', What's Buzzin', Cousin? (1943), and The French Line (1953). When Theresa got the chance to show her beauty and sex appeal, it was often with her screen boyfriend, Eddie 'Rochester' Anderson; they were dynamic on screen together in 'Buck Benny Rides Again' and 'What's Buzzin', Cousin?'. In the former, they sing and dance tap, classical, Spanish, and swing in a musical number, "My, My".
Theresa Harris was perhaps the hardest-working woman in Hollywood, appearing in close to 90 films, working at every major studio with most of the big stars. She was respected by studio executives, producers, directors, and co-workers alike, who sometimes went out of their way to get her more lines and screentime. Harris married a doctor and retired from the movies in the late 1950s, living comfortably after having carefully invested the money she made during her career in the films. She was a patient woman who never gave up hope that there would come a time when she would be able to play more than just maid parts. Nevertheless, in every role, she displayed class, dignity, beauty, and true acting talent, not simply the old stereotypes associated with black actors at that time.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Singer/pianist Nellie Lutcher began her musical career in the late 1940s and worked on a variety of genres, including blues, jazz and pop. She had a string of hits in the late 1940s on Capitol, such as "Hurry On Down" and "Fine Brown Frame".
She first started singing in church in her home town of Lake Charles, LA. By age 20, however, she had left Lake Charles for Los Angeles, CA, and a career in non-gospel music. She played lounges and clubs in the L.A. area, and in 1947 she was signed to a contract by Capitol Records. Her records were quite successful and she toured the US and Europe. In the 1960s, as musical tastes shifted more toward rock than blues, her career began to fade, although she continued to perform in small clubs on the West Coast.
She retired from the music business in the 1980s.- Actress
- Soundtrack
After working as early as the 1910s as a band vocalist, Hattie McDaniel debuted as a maid in The Golden West (1932). Her maid-mammy characters became steadily more assertive, showing up first in Judge Priest (1934) and becoming pronounced in Alice Adams (1935). In this one, directed by George Stevens and aided and abetted by star Katharine Hepburn, she makes it clear she has little use for her employers' pretentious status seeking. By The Mad Miss Manton (1938) she actually tells off her socialite employer Barbara Stanwyck and her snooty friends. This path extends into the greatest role of her career, Mammy in Gone with the Wind (1939). Here she is, in a number of ways, superior to most of the white folk surrounding her. From that point her roles unfortunately descended, with her characters becoming more and more menial. She played on the "Amos and Andy" and Eddie Cantor radio shows in the 1930s and 1940s; the title in her own radio show "Beulah" (1947-51), and the same part on TV (Beulah (1950)). Her part in Gone with the Wind (1939) won her the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress, the first African American actress to win an Academy Award, it was presented to her by Fay Bainter at a segregated ceremony, she had to sit at the back away from the rest of the cast.- Although Tim Moore will forever be known as "The Kingfish" in the pioneering series The Amos 'n Andy Show (1951), he was actually far better known for his career on the stage and as a comedian in vaudeville than he was for his film and television work. In fact, he had only made (as far as is known) three films before "Amos 'n' Andy", and he had to be coaxed out of retirement to play in that show.
Moore was born into a family of 15 children in Illinois. He left school at age 11 to join a traveling vaudeville act called "Cora Miskel and Her Gold Dust Twins", which was such a hit in the U.S. that it toured Europe. He had a long and successful career in vaudeville and another successful run on Broadway in "Blackbirds". He also did much work on radio. The "Amos 'n' Andy" TV series was a major hit and made Moore--or, rather, "The Kingfish"--a household word. After the show's run he retired again, except for an occasional appearance on TV talk shows to reminisce about the series. He died of tuberculosis in 1958.Plot: Section O, Lot 120, Grave 1 NW - Actor
- Director
- Writer
In the early days of silent pictures, Marshall Neilan was a top director for Goldwyn Pictures. He had also directed a small number of Louis B. Mayer's independently produced melodramas, but there was a mutual dislike between the two men. During the festivities inaugurating the merger of Metro and Goldwyn Pictures on April 26, 1924, Neilan grew disgusted at the prospect of listening to Mayer's speech and interrupted everything by ordering his cast and crew back to the set of Tess of the D'Urbervilles (1924). Mayer later viewed the picture and ordered the downbeat ending re-shot over Neilan's loud protests. Mayer, wanting to instill his absolute authority over all production matters, held firm. The prospect of working for Mayer in the new Metro-Goldwyn super-studio was unbearable and Neilan quit. His was the first outright desertion from the studio that others over the next three decades would aspire to be a part of.Plot: Section K, Lot 35, Grave 3 S.W.- Actor
- Additional Crew
Prolific western utility player, in Hollywood from 1932. Noticeable for his dusky looks, hypnotic stare and crocodilian smile, Price was perhaps one of the busier small-part actors of the period, as attested by the fact, that -- in 1939 alone -- he worked for 52 weeks and earned $2700. He served in the military during the latter stages of World War I and thereafter acted on stage in the Midwest. Except for a part in a failed 1929 Broadway play, he did not make much of a splash on the Great White Way but apparently also sidelined as a playwright. From the early 30's, he was seldom out of film work, amassing numerous credits as nervous or craven second-string henchmen, Mexican bandidos, maniacal killers, gamblers, barflys and even the odd lawman in westerns. He was especially active for Republic and Monogram, supporting popular sagebrush heroes Johnny Mack Brown, William Boyd, Tex Ritter, Bob Steele and Charles Starrett. Price made occasional appearances in crime and science fiction serials. He received his most prominent billing (fourth) as 'the Phantom Ruler' in Republic's The Invisible Monster (1950). Price was known for his distinctively well-intoned, quiet delivery. Not surprisingly, then, that he was employed by Lippert Productions as a dialogue coach/director towards the latter stages of his career, from 1948 to 1955.- Music Department
- Soundtrack
Andy Razaf was born on 16 December 1895 in Washington, District of Columbia, USA. Andy is known for The Mask (1994), The Nutty Professor (1996) and When Harry Met Sally... (1989). Andy died on 3 February 1973 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Actor
- Producer
Monroe Salisbury was born Orange Salisbury Cash, the son of David Cash and Ellen Louise Salisbury Cash, and grandson of Aaron Cash and Ann Roat Cash of Evans, Erie County, New York. He grew up with two sisters, Adelaide Mary Cash and Anna Louise Cash. By 1900, he was a working actor supporting his widowed mother and living in Providence, Rhode Island. He performed on Broadway between 1903 and 1906. By 1914, he left New York for Hollywood to work in films and became well-known, playing opposite such actors as Douglas Fairbanks, Sr., Lon Chaney, and Ruth Clifford eventually becoming a movie idol. He was six feet tall and ruggedly handsome, making him a great choice for western films. His most famous part was that of Allesandro in the film "Ramona" (1916). By the late 1920s, the aging actor was less in demand and he struggled to find parts. His last movie was in 1930 after which he disappeared from the Hollywood scene. On July 2, 1935, Salisbury was admitted to Patton State Hospital for the Insane in San Bernardino, California, his name unknown, his occupation a hotel clerk. A month later, on August 6th he fell, hitting his head and fracturing his skull. He lay in the morgue for two days before his sister, Adelaide Cash Bosche, identified him giving his real name as Orr S. Cash. His cremated remains were buried in the same grave with his mother, Ellen, who died in 1929, in the Rosedale Cemetery, Los Angeles, California.Plot: Section D, Lot 100, Grave 2 NW- Actor
- Director
- Writer
Everett Sloane, the actor most known for playing Mr. Bernstein in Orson Welles classic Citizen Kane (1941) as a member of Welles' Mercury Players, was born in New York, New York on October 1, 1909. Sloane was bitten by the acting bug quite early, and first went on-stage when he was seven years old. After high school, he attended the University of Pennsylvania but soon dropped out to pursue an acting career, joining a theatrical stock company. However, he was discouraged by poor personal reviews and returned to New York City, where he worked as a runner on Wall Street.
After the Stock Market Crash of October 1929, Sloane turned to radio for employment as an actor. His voice won him steady work, and he even became the voice of Adolf Hitler on "The March of Time" serials. He made his Broadway debut in 1935 as part of George Abbott's company, in "Boy Meets Girl," which was followed by another play for Abbott, "All That Glitters" in 1938. Eventually, he joined Welles' Mercury Theatre, appearing in the 1941 stage production of Richard Wright's "Native Son," directed by Welles. However, before that Broadway landmark, Welles had cast Sloane as Mr. Bernstein in his first feature film, which ensured Sloane's immortality in the cinema. (Sloane would remain a Mercury Player until 1947, when he appeared as Bannister in Welles' The Lady from Shanghai (1947).)
Outside his two memorable supporting roles for Welles, Sloane's reputation rests on his portrayal Walter Ramsey, a ruthless corporate executive trying to crush another executive, in the TV and screen versions of Rod Serling's Patterns (1956). According to Jack Gould's January 17, 1955, "New York Times" review of the TV program, which debuted on Ponds Theater (1953): "In the role of Ramsey, Mr. Sloane was extraordinary. He made a part that easily might have been only a stereotyped 'menace' a figure of dimension, almost of stature. His interpretation of the closing confrontation speech was acting of rare insight and depth." Sloane was nominated for an Emmy in 1956 for the performance.
In addition to his movie work, Sloane appeared extensively on TV as an actor, directed several episodic-TV programs, and did voice over work for the cartoon series The Dick Tracy Show (1961) and Jonny Quest (1964). Plagued with failing eye sight, a depressed Sloane quit acting and eventually took his life at the age of 55.Plot: Mausoleum, Front North Wall, Niche 122- Actor
- Soundtrack
Art Tatum was born on 13 October 1909 in Toledo, Ohio, USA. He was an actor, known for The Great Debaters (2007), Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009) and They All Laughed (1981). He was married to Geraldine Williamson and Ruby Arnold. He died on 5 November 1956 in Los Angeles, California, USA.Cenotaph- Actress
- Soundtrack
Ernestine Wade was born on 7 August 1906 in Jackson, Mississippi, USA. She was an actress, known for The Amos 'n Andy Show (1951), The Guns of Fort Petticoat (1957) and Playhouse 90 (1956). She died on 15 April 1983 in Los Angeles, California, USA.Plot: Section 4, Lot 2 and one half, Grave 3 NW- Actor
- Soundtrack
Ernest Whitman was born on 21 February 1893 in Fort Smith, Arkansas, USA. He was an actor, known for The Green Pastures (1936), Road to Zanzibar (1941) and Maryland (1940). He died on 5 August 1954 in Hollywood, California, USA.- Actor
- Soundtrack
"You must remember this, a kiss is still a kiss, a sigh is just a sigh; the fundamental things apply, as time goes by...". . The gentleman who crooned this now legendary tune for the morose Humphrey Bogart and moist-eyed Ingrid Bergman at Rick's Cafe Americain amid the bleak WWII backdrop was none other than 56-year-old Arthur "Dooley" Wilson, an African-American actor and singer who earned a comfortable niche for himself in film history with this simple, dramatic, piano-playing scene.
Dooley was born Arthur Wilson in Tyler, Texas. His exact year of birth was debated for years, listed in reference books as either 1886 or 1894. His grave marker, however, at Angelus Rosedale Cemetery in Los Angeles gives the year 1886. At age 12 he performed in minstrel shows and later became a fixture in black theater in both Chicago and New York (circa 1908). He received the nickname "Dooley" while working in the Pekin Theatre in Chicago, because of his then-signature Irish song "Mr. Dooley," which he usually performed in whiteface as an Irishman. In subsequent years Dooley displayed his musical skills in various forms. As a vaudevillian, drummer and jazz band leader, he entertained both here and in 1920s European tours (Paris, London, etc). From the 1930s to the 1950s he focused on theatrical musicals and occasional films.
Appearing in such diverse Broadway plays as the comedy "Conjur Man Dies (1936) and the melodrama "The Strangler Fig" (1940), along with various Federal Theater productions for Orson Welles and John Houseman. This exposure led directly to his signing on as a contract player with Paramount Pictures in Hollywood. He unfortunately began things off in era stereotypes as porters, chauffeurs and the like. Unhappy with his movie roles he was about to abandon Hollywood altogether when Paramount lent him out to Warner Bros. for the piano-playing role of Sam and the rest is history. In Casablanca (1942), Dooley immortalized the song "As Time Goes By" as boss and nightclub owner Rick Blaine (Bogart) and lost true love Ilsa Lund (Bergman) briefly rekindled an old romantic flame. While paid only $350 a week for his services, Dooley achieved his own immortality as well. However, he was not a pianist in real life and was dubbed while fingering the keyboard. In addition to "As Time Goes By," Dooley's character did warm renditions of "It Had To Be You," "Shine," "Knock On Wood" and "Parlez-moi d'amour."
Back on the live stage Dooley portrayed an escaped slave in the musical "Bloomer Girl" (1946) and, as a result, made another song famous, "The Eagle and Me," which went on for inclusion in the Smithsonian recordings compilation "American Musical Theatre." He graced approximately twenty other motion pictures in all, including the war-era musicals Stormy Weather (1943) and Higher and Higher (1943).
In his final season of performing (1952-1953) Dooley was a regular on the TV sitcom Beulah (1950) which starred Ethel Waters. He played the title maid's boyfriend Bill Jackson and Dooley was the second of three actors who would play the role during its three-season run. Dooley died of natural causes on May 30, 1953, and was survived by wife, Estelle, who subsequently passed away in 1971.Plot: Section D, Lot 6, Grave 5 NE- Actress
- Additional Crew
- Soundtrack
Anna May Wong, the first Chinese-American movie star, was born Wong Liu Tsong on January 3, 1905, in Los Angeles, California, to laundryman Wong Sam Sing and his wife, Lee Gon Toy. A third-generation American, she managed to have a substantial acting career during a deeply racist time when the taboo against miscegenation meant that Caucasian actresses were cast as "Oriental" women in lead parts opposite Caucasian leading men. Even when the role called for playing opposite a Caucasian in yellowface, as with Paul Muni's as the Chinese peasant Wang Lung in The Good Earth (1937), Wong was rejected, since she did not fit a Caucasian's imagined ideal look for an Asian woman. The discrimination she faced in the domestic industry caused her to go to Europe for work in English and German films. Her name, which she also spelled Wong Lew Song, translates literally as "Frosted Yellow Willows" but has been interpreted as "Second-Daughter Yellow Butterfly." Her family gave her the English-language name Anna May. She was born on Flower Street in downtown Los Angeles in an integrated neighborhood dominated by Irish and Germans, one block from Chinatown, where her father ran the Sam Kee Laundry.
The Wong family moved back to Chinatown two years after Liu Tsong's birth, but in 1910 they uprooted themselves, moving to a nearby Figueroa Street neighborhood where they had Mexican and East European neighbors. There were two steep hills between the Wongs' new home and Chinatown, but as her biographer, Colgate University history professor Graham Russell Gao Hodges, points out, those hills put a psychological as well as physical distance between Liu Tsong and Chinatown. Los Angeles' Chinatown already was teeming with movie shoots when she was a girl. She would haunt the neighborhood nickelodeons, having become enraptured with the early "flickers." Though her traditional father strongly disapproved of his daughter's cinephilia, as it deflected her from scholastic pursuits, there was little he could do about it, as Liu was determined to be an actress. The film industry was in the midst of relocating from the East Coast to the West, and Hollywood was booming. Liu Tsong would haunt movie shoots as she had earlier haunted the nickelodeons. Her favorite stars were Pearl White, of The Perils of Pauline (1914) serial fame, and White's leading man, Crane Wilbur. She was also fond of Ruth Roland.
Educated at a Chinese-language school in Chinatown, she would skip school to watch film shoots in her neighborhood. She made tip money from delivering laundry for her father, which she spent on going to the movies. Her father, if he discovered she had gone to the movies during school hours, would spank her with a bamboo stick. Around the time she was nine years old, she began begging filmmakers for parts, behavior that got her dubbed "C.C.C." for "curious Chinese child."
Liu Tsong's first film role was as an uncredited extra in Metro Pictures' The Red Lantern (1919), starring Alla Nazimova as a Eurasian woman who falls in love with an American missionary. The film included scenes shot in Chinatown. The part was obtained for her by a friend of her father's (without his knowledge) who worked in the movie industry. Retaining the family surname "Wong" and the English-language "Christian" name bestowed on her by her parents, Liu Tsong Americanized herself as "Anna May Wong" for the movie industry, though she would not receive an on-screen credit for another two years.
The rechristened Anna May Wong appeared in bit parts in movies starring Priscilla Dean, Colleen Moore and the Japanese-born Sessue Hayakawa, the first Asian star of American movies. Due to her father's demands, she had an adult guardian at the studio, and would be locked in her dressing room between scenes if she was the only Asian in the cast. Initially balancing school work and her budding film career, she eventually dropped out of Los Angeles High School to pursue acting full time. She was aided by the fact that, though still a teenager, she looked more mature than her real age.
Director Marshall Neilan cast the teenage Anna May in a bit part in his film Dinty (1920), then gave her her first credited role in the "Hop" sequence of Bits of Life (1921), the American movie industry's first anthology film. In "Hop" Wong played Toy Ling, the abused wife of Lon Chaney's character Chin Gow, which the Man of a Thousand Faces played in yellowface. She next appeared in support of John Gilbert in Fox's Shame (1921) before being cast in her first major role at the age of 17, the lead in The Toll of the Sea (1922). She played Lotus Flower in this adaptation of the opera "Madame Butterfly," which moved the action from Japan to China. "The Toll of the Sea" was the first feature film shot entirely in Technicolor's two-strip color process. By appearing top-billed in this romantic melodrama, Anna became the first native-born Asian performer to star in a major Hollywood movie. Most portrayals of Asian women were done by Caucasian actresses in "yellow-face," such as the 1915 Madame Butterfly (1915) starring "America's Sweetheart" Mary Pickford (who was born in Toronto, Canada) in the title role. In "The Toll of the Sea," Anna May's character perpetuates the stereotype of the Asian "lotus blossom," a self-sacrificial woman who surrenders her life for the love of a Caucasian man. The film was a hit, and it showcased Wong in a preternaturally mature and restrained performance. This breakthrough should have launched Anna May Wong as a star, but for one thing: She was Chinese in a country that excluded (by law) Chinese from emigrating to the US, that forbade (by law) Chinese from marrying Caucasians and that generally excluded (by law or otherwise) Chinese from the culture at large, except for bit roles as heavies in the national consciousness.
"The Toll of the Sea" made Anna May Wong a known, and thus a marketable, commodity in Hollywood. She became the #1 actress when a young Asian female part had to be cast, but unfortunately lead roles for Asians were few and far between. Instead of becoming a star, this beautiful woman with a complexion described as "a rose blushing through old ivory" continued to be stuck in supporting roles, as in Tod Browning's melodrama Drifting (1923) and the western Thundering Dawn (1923). She even played an Eskimo in The Alaskan (1924). She appeared as Tiger Lily, "Chieftainess of the Indians," in Paramount's prestigious production of J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan (1924), but the role was very small (the film was shot on Santa Catalina Island, where the cast stayed during the production.
The 170-cm-tall (5'7", although other sources cite her height as 5'4½") beauty was known as the world's best-dressed woman and widely considered to have the loveliest hands in the cinema. Her big breakthrough after her auspicious start with "The Toll of the Sea" finally came when Douglas Fairbanks cast her in a supporting role as a treacherous Mongol slave in his Middle Eastern/Arabian Nights extravaganza The Thief of Bagdad (1924). The $2-million blockbuster production made her known to critics and the movie-going public. For better or worse, a star, albeit of the stereotypical "Dragon Lady" type, was born.
Despite her waxing fame, she was limited to supporting roles, as Caucasian actresses, including most improbably Myrna Loy, continued to be cast as Asian women in lead roles from the 1920s through the 1940s, despite the ready availability of Anna May Wong. She was unable to attract lead parts despite her beauty and proven acting talent, even in films featuring Asian women, but she did carve out a career as a supporting player in everything from A-list movies to two-reel comedies and serials. The characters she played typically were duplicitous or murderous vamps who often reaped the wages of their sin by being raped. It was a demeaning apprenticeship that most Caucasian actresses did not have to go through. Anna wanted was to play modern American women all through her career but was thwarted because of racism. Later, when she journeyed to Europe to escape the typecasting of Hollywood, she told journalist Doris Mackie, "I was so tired of the parts I had to play. Why is it that the screen Chinese is always the villain? And so crude a villain--murderous, treacherous, a snake in the grass."
Wong embodied the Caucasian ideal of a foreign exotic beauty, an alien presence despite her American citizenship. The movie magazine "Pictures" published a memoir of hers in 1926 in which she complained, "A lot of people, when they first meet me, are surprised that I speak and write English without difficulty. But why shouldn't I? I was born right here in Los Angeles and went to the public schools here. I speak English without any accent at all. But my parents complain that the same cannot be said of my Chinese. Although I have gone to Chinese schools, and always talk to my father and mother in our native tongue, it is said that I speak Chinese with an English accent!". Many Chinese-Americans considered themselves "Chinese in America," an attitude bolstered by the anti-Chinese, anti-Asian attitude of the US government and the American culture. In her memoir, Wong referred to herself as "Chinese" or "Americanized Chinese," but not as an "American" or "Chinese-American."
Anna May Wong appeared as a dancer in a play within a movie shot in Technicolor for the Ronald Colman vehicle His Supreme Moment (1925), but her Hollywood output generally was undistinguished. In 1926 she seems to have appeared in a "race" film made by Chinese-Americans for a Chinese-American audience, The Silk Bouquet (1926) (aka "The Dragon Horse"). Moving between Poverty Row and the majors, she appeared again with Lon Chaney in Mr. Wu (1927) at MGM and with Warner Oland and Dolores Costello in Old San Francisco (1927) at Warner Brothers. Warners also cast her in support of Oriental yellowface queen Myrna Loy in The Crimson City (1928). Despite her WASP looks and red hair, Loy in Chinese yellowface had become a major "Oriental" star in American films desiring an exotic element. This indignity may have been what pushed Wong to seek her future somewhere other than Hollywood.
She moved to Europe in 1928, where she made movies in the UK and Germany. She made her debut on the London stage with the young up-and-coming Laurence Olivier in the play "The Circle of Chalk." After receiving a drubbing for her voice and singing from the London critics, she paid a Cambridge University tutor to improve her speech, with the result that she acquired an upper-crust English accent. Later she appeared in Vienna, Austria, in the play "Springtime."
European directors appreciated Wong's unique talents and beauty, and they used her in ways that stereotype-minded Hollywood, hemmed in by American prejudice, would not or could not. Moving to Germany to appear in German films, she became acquainted with German film personalities, including Marlene Dietrich and actress-filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl. She learned German and French and began to develop a continental European attitude and outlook. In Europe she was welcomed as a star. According to her biographer Graham Russell Gao Hodges, Wong hobnobbed with "an intellectual elite that included princes, playwrights, artists and photographers who clamored to work with her." Anna May Wong was featured in magazines all over the world, far more than actresses of a similar level of accomplishment. She became a media superstar, and her coiffure and complexion were copied, while "coolie coats" became the rage. According to Hodges, "[S]he was the one American star who spoke to the French people, more than Greta Garbo, Joan Crawford or Mary Pickford, the top American actresses of the time." But, ironically, "[S]he's the one who's now forgotten." Wong was cast in Ewald André Dupont's silent film Piccadilly (1929) as a maid who is fired from her job at a London nightclub after dancing on top of a table, then rehired as a dancer to infuse the club with exotic glamour. Her first talkie was The Flame of Love (1930) (aka "The Road to Dishonour", although some sources claim it was "Song" aka "Wasted Love" in that same year), which was released by British International Pictures. In a time before dubbing, when different versions of a single film were filmed in different languages, Wong played in the English, French and German versions of the movie.
Paramount Pictures offered her a contract with the promise of lead roles in major productions. Returning to the US in 1930, Wong appeared on Broadway in the play "On the Spot." It was a hit, running for 167 performances, and she moved on to Hollywood and Paramount, where she starred in an adaptation of Sax Rohmer's novel "Daughter of Fu Manchu" called Daughter of the Dragon (1931). She was back in stereotype-land, this time as the ultimate "Dragon Lady," who with her father Fu Manchu (played by ethnic Swede Warner Oland, the future Charlie Chan) embodied the evil "Yellow Peril." While "Daughter of the Dragon" may have been B-movie pulp, it enabled Wong to show off her talent by delivering a powerful performance.
Her best role in Hollywood in the early 1930s was in support of Marlene Dietrich in Josef von Sternberg's Oscar-winning classic Shanghai Express (1932). However, Hollywood in the 1930s was as racist as it had been in the Roaring Twenties, and MGM refused to cast her in its 1932 production of The Son-Daughter (1932), for which she did a screen-test, as she was "too Chinese to play a Chinese." Helen Hayes played the role in yellow-face. Similarly, she was later kept out of both a lead and supporting role in MGM's prestige production of The Good Earth (1937), its filming of Pearl S. Buck's popular novel, after flunking another screen test for failing to live up to a white man's idea of what "looked" Chinese. MGM screen-tested her for the lead role of O-Lan, the sympathetic wife of Chinese farmer Wang Lung (to be played by Paul Muni, personally cast in the part by Irving Thalberg). She also was considered for the supporting role of Lotus, Wang Lung's concubine. Anna, an ethnic Chinese, lost out on both roles to two Austrian women, Luise Rainer and Tilly Losch, as Albert Lewin, the Thalberg assistant who was casting the film, vetoed Wong and other ethnic Chinese because their looks didn't fit his conception of what Chinese people should look like. Ironically, the year "The Good Earth" came out, Wong appeared on the cover of Look Magazine's second issue, which labeled her "The World's Most Beautiful Chinese Girl." Stereotyped in America as a dragon lady, the cover photo had her holding a dagger. Luise Rainer would win the Best Actress Oscar for her performance of O-Lan in Chinese yellowface.
There were practical considerations for MGM's refusal to cast Wong opposite Muni. It was illegal in many states, including California, for Asians to marry Caucasians, and featuring an interracial couple, even if they were playing the same race, likely would mean the movie would be rejected by many theater chains in regions in which anti-Asian prejudice was particularly severe, such as the South. The new Motion Picture Production Code of 1934 forbid black/white miscegenation and MGM did cast Walter Connelly (a white actor) opposite Soo Yong (a Chines-American actress) as a married couple. Anna May returned to England, reportedly distraught at the injustice perpetrated by MGM and her home country. In England she alternated between films and the stage, but she was obliged to return to the US to fulfill her Paramount contract. She appeared in two Robert Florey-directed pictures, Daughter of Shanghai (1937) as a non-stereotypical Asian-American female lead, and Dangerous to Know (1938). She also appeared in major roles in King of Chinatown (1939) and Island of Lost Men (1939).
Anna May Wong did not appear in films from 1939-41, when she was cast as a supporting player in Ellery Queen's Penthouse Mystery (1941), an entry in the B-movie series. Her last two starring roles in films were in a pair of anti-Japanese propaganda films, Bombs Over Burma (1942) and Lady from Chungking (1942), both of which were made by Producers Releasing Corp., the lowest of the Poverty Row studios. The major studios, when shooting propaganda films requiring a sympathetic Asian lead, reverted to the old practice of casting Caucasians in yellow-face, no matter how absurd the result.
As her movie career went into eclipse in the 1940s (she would not appear in another motion picture until 1949), she found work on the stage and in radio and then in the new medium of television. Wong wrote a preface to the book "New Chinese Recipes" in 1942, which was one of the first Chinese cookbooks printed in the US. The proceeds from the cookbook were dedicated to United China Relief.
Though Wong was vocal in her opposition to stereotypes and typecasting, and was one of Hollywood's more memorable victims of racism in being denied leading roles in A-list pictures because the racist mores of the times prevented an Asian woman from kissing a Caucasian actor, she was considered socially suspect by her own people. The roles she was forced to accept in order to have an acting career, as well as her status as a single woman, disgusted many Chinese in America and in her ancestral homeland, where actresses were equated with prostitutes and where women were still played by men in classical opera. On a trip to China in 1936, Anna May was welcomed by the country's cultural elite in cosmopolitan Beijing and Shanghai, but she had to abandon a trip to her parents' ancestral village when her progress was blocked by a crowd of protesters. Someone in the crowed denounced her with "Down with Huang Liu Tsong, the stooge that disgraces China. Don't let her go ashore." Upon her return from China, Wong was determined to play Chinese characters more authentically, but her only options were to reject roles she deemed racist or to try to soften them from within the belly of the beast. Ultimately for this proud woman, it was a losing battle.
Chinese nationalism had been on the upswing since Yat-sen Sun ended the Manchu Empire in 1911 and was rife in reaction to the war of aggression launched against China by the Empire of Japan. Chinese nationalists, concerned about the portrayal of Chinese people as evil incarnate in American popular culture, were offended by Wong's portrayals of Asians and exotics. Though she would spend the World War II years working for Chinese charities and relief agencies, she was snubbed by Madame Chiang, the sister-in-law of Yat-sen Sun and wife of Kai-Shek Chiang, the army general who led the Nationalist Chinese, during Madame Chiang's 1942-43 propaganda tour of the US. Her biographer Hodges claims this was the beginning of a consensus among Chinese and Chinese-Americans that Wong was an embarrassment. Chinese and Chinese-Americans chose to blame her rather than Hollywood for the demeaning stereotypes she had to play in order to work. The result of this new consensus, according to Hodges, was that "her memory has been washed away."
Anna May's career in motion pictures was virtually finished after the war. She got her own TV series, The Gallery of Madame Liu-Tsong (1951), on the Dumont Network, playing a Chinese detective in a role written expressly for her, a character who was even given her real Chinese name. The half-hour program, which ran weekly from August 27 to November 21, 1951, was the first TV show to star an Asian-American.
Wong's personal relationships typically were with older Caucasian men, but California law forbade marriage between Asians and Caucasians until 1948. One of her white lovers offered to marry her in Mexico, but the couple's intentions became known and he backed off when his Hollywood career was jeopardized. Wong mused about marrying a Chinese man at times, but the Chinese culture held actresses to be on a par with prostitutes, which made her suspect marriage material. She was afraid that the mores of her culture likely meant that marrying a Chinese would force her to quit her career and be an obedient wife.
Anna May Wong appeared in over 50 American, English and German films in her career, making her the first global Chinese-American movie star. She was forced to fight against racism and stereotyping all her professional life, while simultaneously being criticized by Chinese at home and abroad for perpetuating stereotypes in the media. Despite this tremendous burden, the beautiful woman assayed an elegance and sophistication on-screen that made her the paradigm of Asian women for a generation of movie audiences.
Anna May Wong loved reading, and her favorite subjects spanned a wide range, everything from Asian history and Tzu Lao to William Shakespeare. She never married but occupied her time with golf, horses, and skiing. Wong smoked, drank too much, and suffered from depression. She was poised to make a comeback as a character actress on the big screen toward the end of her life, having appeared as Lana Turner's maid in Ross Hunter's sudsy potboiler Portrait in Black (1960). She was cast in the role of Madame Liang in Flower Drum Song (1961), the movie version of Richard Rodgers's and Oscar Hammerstein II's Broadway musical "Flower Drum Song," but before shooting could begin she passed away.
Anna May Wong died of a massive heart attack on February 3, 1961, in Santa Monica, CA, after a long struggle against Laennec's cirrhosis, a disease of the liver. She was 56 years old. Her fame lives on, four decades after her death. She is a part of American popular consciousness, chosen as one of the first movie stars to be featured on a postage stamp. And the interest in her continues: a play about Anna entitled "China Doll--The Imagined Life of an American Actress," written by Elizabeth Wong, had its premiere at Maine's Bowdoin College in 1997. A lecture and film series, "Rediscovering Anna May Wong," was held at the UCLA Film and Television Archive in 2004, sponsored by "Playboy" publisher Hugh Hefner. That same year New York City's Museum of Modern Art held its own tribute to Wong, "Retrospective of a Chinese-American Screen Actress." Finally she was getting the respect in her own country that was denied her during her career.
A biography by Colgate University history professor Graham Russell Gao Hodges, "Anna May Wong: From Laundryman's Daughter to Hollywood Legend," was published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2004. Hodges considers Anna May's life and career to be amazing, particularly in light of the fact that her star has yet to be eclipsed by any other Asian-American female star, despite the change in attitudes. Finally, in 2004, the British Film Institute restored E.A. Dupont's 1929 silent film "Piccadilly".Plot: Name is in Chinese on stone.- Honorable Wu was born on 10 August 1896 in San Francisco, California, USA. He was an actor, known for Stowaway (1936), Mr. Moto Takes a Vacation (1939) and North of Shanghai (1939). He died on 27 February 1945 in Hollywood, California, USA.Plot: Mausoleum Niche (Far left, Isle on right side)
- Marjorie Zier was born on 3 February 1909 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA. She was an actress, known for A Racing Romeo (1927), Cactus Trails (1927) and Phantom of the Range (1928). She was married to Michael Cudahy, Richard Conover, Pickering and Page. She died on 9 March 1952 in Los Angeles, California, USA.Plot: Section D, Lot 180A, Space 6E 2F
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Gertrude Amelia Krieger was born on July 15, 1893, in Chicago, Illinois. In 1903, her father, German-born Julius Otto Krieger, relocated the family to Los Angeles, California. Because her parents worked long hours and her father died when she was 15, Gertrude spent much of her childhood caring for her younger brother, Ralph. When Gertrude was 16, she met 21-year-old George Francis Temple; they married in 1910. Their first child, John Stanley Temple (Jack), was born in 1915. Another son, George Francis Temple Jr. (Sonny), followed in 1919. The couple's only daughter, Shirley Jane Temple, was born on April 23, 1928. Gertrude soon noticed that her daughter was born with a remarkable sense of rhythm; at 8 months, she was standing up in her crib and dancing to the popular music that her parents played on the phonograph. Gertrude convinced George that they should enroll Shirley in a local dance school. When Charles Lamont visited her dance class looking for young talent, he noticed 3-year-old Shirley and cast her in two of his short film series, Baby Burlesks and Frolics of Youth. Gertrude read Shirley her lines, sewed her early costumes, and was always with her at the studio. Her perseverance and dedication to her daughter's career got Shirley her first major role in a full-length movie, Stand Up and Cheer! (1934), after which her career took off. As Shirley's success made an international star, Gertrude remained the guiding force and constant presence in her daughter's life.- Actor
George Francis Temple was born in Fairview, Pennsylvania, in May 1888, to Francis Temple, a doctor, and Cynthia Yaeger Temple. Dr. Temple was devoted to his patients, but long hours and house calls in inclement weather soon took their toll, and he died of pneumonia in June 1896, when he was only 39. After his death, Cynthia moved the family to Mercer, Pennsylvania; they relocated again, to Eerie, Pennsylvania, in 1900. But the Temples did not stay long in Eerie, either. Grace, George's older sister, contracted tuberculosis there, and in 1903, the family moved to sunny Los Angeles. After graduating high school, George's friendly, affable personality helped to get him a job as a bank clerk. When he was 21, he met 16-year-old Gertrude Amelia Krieger and was instantly captivated. They married in 1910, and their first child, John Stanley Temple (Jack) was born in January 1915. Another son, George Francis Temple Jr. (Sonny) was born in January 1919. George did not serve in World War I, but many men in his company did, which allowed him to advance to an accountant. Then in 1925, he became a bookkeeper for California Bank, and the family moved from Los Angeles to Santa Monica. The Temples' only daughter, Shirley Jane, was born on April 23, 1928. Family and friends soon agreed that Shirley resembled her father in appearance and personality; both were friendly, fun-loving, and somewhat bossy. When Gertrude tried to convince him to send Shirley to dancing lessons, George, a hardworking man who was both politically and financially conservative, initially believed that it was a wasteful extravagance. But he changed his mind when he realized that his daughter possessed a remarkable sense of rhythm (Shirley was dancing before she was a year old). Charles Lamont noticed Shirley in her dancing class and cast her in two of his short film series, Baby Burlesks and Frolics of Youth, and her career slowly began to take off. Unlike many stage parents who live off their children, George kept his job at the bank even as Shirley became the highest-grossing movie star in the country. He and Gertrude also saved the bulk of Shirley's earnings, even before laws were passed requiring parents of child stars to do so. George was determined to give his daughter the most normal upbringing possible given the extraordinary circumstances. Shirley and George were very close, which helped her to act opposite many of her film fathers. They remained close as Shirley grew up, and she cooked for and spoon-fed her father in his old age. George died on September 30, 1980.- Actor
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Character actor in films, often portraying strident types, he is best remembered cast as "The Thin Man" (actually, "Wynant") of the hit 1934 MGM film. He Ellis was active on Broadway as an actor, producer and playwright from 1905-32 (see "Other Works"). He died in Beverly Hills, CA at age 81 in 1952.- Actor
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- Rita Carewe was born Violette Fox on September 9, 1909 in New York City. Her father was Native American director Edwin Carewe. The family moved to Hollywood in 1914 after he was hired by United Artists. When Rita was a teenager her father helped her get contract at First National. She made her film debut in the 1925 silent comedy Joanna. Then she appeared in High Steppers and Resurrection which were both directed by her father. Rita became known for polishing her legs to give the impression she was wearing silk stockings. In 1927 she was chosen to be a WAMPAS Baby Star along with Sally Rand and Adamae Vaughn. The beautiful blonde auditioned for the role of Lorelei Lee in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes but Ruth Taylor got the part.
Rita was briefly engaged to Tom McDonald, a real estate dealer. The couple never made it down the aisle. She married actor LeRoy Mason in 1928. Unfortunately her career never took off. Her final film was the 1930 comedy Radio Kisses with Marjorie Beebe. She divorced LeRoy in 1936 claiming he drank too much and had threatened her with a gun. They never had children, With her acting days behind her she started working as a saleswoman in a dress shop. Sadly in 1954 she was diagnosed with mouth cancer. On October 22, 1955 she died from the disease. Rita was only forty-six years old. She was cremated and buried in an unmarked grave at Angelus Rosedale Cemetery in Los Angeles, California.Cremated remains lie in an unmarked grave at Los Angeles' Angelus Rosedale Cemetery - Rito Punay was born on 17 September 1907 in Cebu City, Philippines. He was an actor, known for Dangerous Money (1946). He died on 12 January 1977 in Los Angeles County, California, USA.Cremated, Ashes scattered, Scattered in the rose garden at Rosedale Cemetery, Los Angeles, CA
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Handsome, dapper Argentine-born actor who came to Hollywood as a romantic lead in several colourful MGM extravaganzas and then succeeded in living up to his Latin Lover image in real life. Lamas studied drama at school in his native country and later enrolled in a law course at college. His strong leaning towards athletic pursuits prevailed and he abandoned his studies to take up horse riding, winning trophies fencing and boxing (middleweight amateur title) and becoming the South American Freestyle Swimming Champion of 1937. While still in his teens he appeared on stage, then on radio, and by the age of 24 in his first motion picture.
All this sporting publicity aroused interest in Hollywood and, in 1951, Lamas was signed by MGM to charm the likes of Lana Turner and Esther Williams in A-grade productions like The Merry Widow (1952) and Dangerous When Wet (1953). He also spent time 'on loan' to Paramount who featured him in several Pine-Thomas B-movies, such as the 3-D Technicolour Sangaree (1953) and Jivaro (1954). His sole appearance on Broadway was in the 1957 play 'Happy Hunting'. There was considerable friction between him and co-star Ethel Merman, both on and off-stage. Lamas was nonetheless nominated for a Tony Award as Best Actor, but had the misfortune of coming up against Rex Harrison's Professor Higgins in 'My Fair Lady'.
In real life, Lamas proudly lived up to his reputation as a ladies man. With two ex-wives back in Argentina, he conducted well-publicised affairs with most of his female co-stars, including one with Lana Turner which began while filming 'The Merry Widow'. Actress Arlene Dahl, who appeared with him in 'Sangaree' and The Diamond Queen (1953), became his third wife, and fellow swimming champion Esther Williams his fourth.
In 1963, Lamas directed the Spanish film Magic Fountain (1963), with himself and wife Esther Williams playing the lead roles. From then on, he began to concentrate on television, alternating between acting (notable in a recurring role as playboy Ramon de Vega in Run for Your Life (1965) and directing episodes of shows like Mannix (1967), Alias Smith and Jones (1971), The Rookies (1972) and House Calls (1979).Cremation location- Actress
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An intelligent, slender leading lady of the 1960s and 70s, Yvette Carmen Mimieux was born in Hollywood, California, to Maria (Montemayor) and René Mimieux, an occasional movie extra. Her father was born in England, of French and German descent, and her mother was Mexican. While she was first persuaded to go into acting by a Hollywood publicist, her discovery for the screen can be attributed to the director Vincente Minnelli who saw her perform in a play and decided to cast her in his melodrama Home from the Hill (1960). Though Yvette's small role ended up on the cutting room floor, MGM producers were sufficiently impressed with her looks to sign her under a long term contract. Her first role of note, Platinum High School (1960), won her a Golden Globe nomination as Most Promising Newcomer. She was then properly 'launched' with the part of Weena, the naive Eloi cave girl, in George Pal's version of The Time Machine (1960). This turned out to be one of the studio's biggest box office winners of 1960. That same year, Mimieux also played a carefree collegian in Where the Boys Are (1960), a teen comedy (with serious undertones) dealing with adolescent sexuality. Both of her performances were well received by critics, but also set the trend for the actress to become typed either as fragile or insecure characters, or as sex kittens.
After a two year hiatus, Mimieux gave a genuinely compelling performance as Clara Johnson, a retarded girl who captures the affections of a young Italian in Light in the Piazza (1962). Though disliking the film, New York Times critic Bosley Crowther described Clara as "played with sunshine radiance and rapturous grace." Having essayed more conventional heroines in Diamond Head (1962) (sister of blustering land baron), The Reward (1965) (a fugitive's girlfriend) and Dark of the Sun (1968) (girl caught up with mercenaries in the Congo), Mimieux began to concentrate on TV movies which gave her the opportunity to further expand her dramatic range. Her contract killer in Hit Lady (1974) and the unhinged stalker in Obsessive Love (1984) were based, respectively, on her own screenplay and story. Probably her last role of note was as the victim of a harrowing chain of events in Jackson County Jail (1976), a downbeat exploitation drama produced by Roger Corman's New World Pictures. In 1985, Mimieux had a recurring role in Berrenger's (1985), a glossy soap opera set in a luxurious department store. The series lasted just one season before being canceled. Though ultimately nominated for three Golden Globes, Mimieux came to bemoan the fact that scriptwriters of the period tended to depict women as 'one-dimensional'.
In 1992, Mimieux left the acting profession to form a partnership with Sara Shane (another ex-MGM contract player) in a Los Angeles-based enterprise called "Partners in Paradise", selling embroidered tapestries, bedspreads and pillows based on Haitian designs. She subsequently went on to find even more lucrative opportunities in real estate. In her spare time, Mimieux traveled extensively, painted and studied archaeology. At the time of her death at the age of 80, she was married to Howard F. Ruby, founder and chairman of Oakwood Worldwide, a large global corporation providing furnished apartments.Family is interred there- Calvert Carter was born on 23 October 1858 in Virginia, USA. He was an actor, known for Less Than Kin (1918), Broadway Fever (1929) and The Fighting Shepherdess (1920). He died on 29 August 1932 in Long Beach, California, USA.