Deaths: October 19
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- Actor
- Writer
- Producer
Rudy Ray Moore was born on 17 March 1927 in Fort Smith, Arkansas, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for Dolemite (1975), The Human Tornado (1976) and Disco Godfather (1979). He died on 19 October 2008 in Akron, Ohio, USA.- Alberto Irizar was born in 1924 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He was an actor, known for Yo soy porteño (1982), Olmedo 79 (1979) and Domingos de teatro cómico (1969). He died on 19 October 1985 in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
- Writer
- Composer
- Soundtrack
Alberto Testa was born on 11 April 1927 in Santos, São Paulo, Brazil. He was a writer and composer, known for Game Night (2018), Superman Returns (2006) and After Hours (1985). He died on 19 October 2009 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.- Alejandro Escudero was born on 4 May 1956 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He was an actor, known for Trampa para un soñador (1980), Eversmile New Jersey (1989) and Me caso con vos (1981). He died on 19 October 2014 in Lima, Peru.
- Ann Coyle was born on 29 April 1919 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. She was an actress, known for Weird Science (1985), The Naked Face (1984) and American Playhouse (1980). She died on 19 October 1990 in Cook, Illinois, USA.
- Betty Bronson's discovery reads like a Hollywood dream. As a New Jersey teenage bit-player, she was rocketed from obscurity when she was chosen to play the part of Peter Pan in 1924's Peter Pan (1924). She was hand-selected by author J.M. Barrie and beat several Hollywood superstars to the part, most notably Gloria Swanson and Mary Pickford. Pickford, though nearly 30, had built a career out of playing such parts, and faced the first serious threat to her status as "America's Sweetheart". Betty's beautifully expressive performance and unsophisticated looks earned her instant success. For the year following "Peter Pan"'s release, Bronson-mania easily equaled the sort of hysteria previously reserved only for Pickford.
Unfortunately, Bronson's studio seemed unsure of how to exploit this talent, which was wasted in small or unchallenging roles. "Peter Pan"'s 1925 follow-up, A Kiss for Cinderella (1925), seemed destined for the same success--but instead was a major flop. In only one year the public taste had changed so much as to render the sentimental entertainment of yesteryear obsolete. Had Bronson emerged ten years earlier she would have been a worthy competitor to Pickford; in 1925, audiences were suddenly more interested in the more adult charms of flappers such as Clara Bow and Colleen Moore. Betty, too, was re-launched as a flapper, sophisticate and occasional period dame. Her career was moderately successful but her superstardom had subsided. She sparkled and demonstrated an excellent voice in her first sound appearance (The Singing Fool (1928) with Al Jolson) but it became clear that her formidable skills as a pantomimist was wasted in the new form. She retired in 1933 to marry, and only appeared on-screen intermittently thereafter. - Carlos Juárez was born in 1951 in Mar del Plata, Buenos Aires, Argentina. He was an actor, known for Betibú (2014) and La condena de Gabriel Doyle (1998). He died on 19 October 2016 in Mar del Plata, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
- Cinematographer
- Writer
- Director
Carlos Suárez was born in 1946 in Oviedo, Asturias, Spain. He was a cinematographer and writer, known for Makinavaja, el último choriso (1992), Rowing with the Wind (1988) and Oviedo Express (2007). He died on 19 October 2019 in Gijón, Asturias, Spain.- Director
- Writer
- Producer
Catrano Catrani was born on 31 October 1910 in Città di Castello, Umbria, Italy. He was a director and writer, known for Alto Paraná (1958), Tacuara y Chamorro, pichones de hombres (1967) and Codicia (1955). He was married to Vlasta Lah. He died on 19 October 1974 in Buenos Aires, Argentina.- Composer
- Writer
- Music Department
Catulo Castillo was born on 6 August 1906 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He was a composer and writer, known for Amalio Reyes, un hombre (1970), Help Me to Live (1936) and La calesita (1963). He died on 19 October 1975 in Buenos Aires, Argentina.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Claudia Drake was born on 30 January 1918 in Los Angeles, California, USA. She was an actress, known for Detour (1945), Enemy of Women (1944) and The Face of Marble (1946). She died on 19 October 1997 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Deborah Orr was born on 23 September 1962 in Motherwell, North Lanarkshire, Scotland, UK. She was married to Will Self. She died on 19 October 2019 in the UK.
- Diana Sowle was born on 19 June 1930 in Chico, California, USA. She was an actress, known for Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971), Clear and Present Danger (1994) and Guarding Tess (1994). She was married to Robert K Gibson and William David Sowle. She died on 19 October 2018 in the USA.
- Dorothy Jo Gideon was born on 25 February 1924 in Springfield, Missouri, USA. She was married to Bob Barker. She died on 19 October 1981 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Actor
- Additional Crew
Gerard Parkes was born on 16 October 1924 in Dublin, Ireland. He was an actor, known for The Boondock Saints (1999), The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day (2009) and A Muppet Family Christmas (1987). He was married to Sheelagh Norman. He died on 19 October 2014 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.- Gig Young was born Byron Barr to parents John and Emma Barr in Minnesota, and raised in Washington, DC, where he developed a passion for theatre while appearing in high school plays. After gaining some amateur experience, he applied for and received a scholarship to the acclaimed Southern California's Pasadena Community Playhouse. While acting in "Pancho", a south-of-the-border play by Lowell Barrington, he was spotted by a Warner Brothers talent scout, leading to his signing contracts with the studio. Still acting under his given name, Byron Barr, he played bits and extra roles. He experimented with varying screen names because there was already another actor with the same name (see Byron Barr). In 1942, in the picture The Gay Sisters (1942), he was given the role of a character whose name was Gig Young, which he liked well enough to finally adopt it as his permanent stage name. His intermittent roles and, therefore, income, required Young to supplement his income working at a gas station, but success in The Gay Sisters (1942) eventually allowed him the freedom to become a full-time actor. Although service in the U.S. Coast Guard during World War II interrupted his ascension, after discharge he quickly established himself as a reliable light leading man, usually the second male lead to stars who were established box office draws. A dramatic part in Come Fill the Cup (1951) resulted in his being nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar; a second Supporting Actor nomination followed seven years later for his comedic performance in Teacher's Pet (1958). A prolific television career later complemented his film work. In 1969, his surprisingly seedy portrayal of a dance-marathon emcee in They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (1969) finally brought him that Supporting Actor Oscar. A succession of marriages, including one to actress Elizabeth Montgomery, failed. In 1978, only three weeks after marrying German actress Kim Schmidt, Young apparently shot her to death in their New York City apartment and then turned the gun on himself. The precise motivation for the sad and grisly murder-suicide remains unclear. Young was not quite 65, his bride, 31.
- Actor
- Soundtrack
The imposing Scottish character actor Graham Crowden was one of the most recognizable and reliable British screen actors who worked for over half a century. He was the third of four children of a Scottish Presbyterian classics teacher. His first job was in a tannery in Edinburgh. He joined the Royal Scots Youth Battalion in 1940, but was invalided out after being accidentally shot by his own platoon sergeant. After studies at Edinburgh Academy, he worked for the stage in 1944 as student assistant stage manager at the Memorial Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon. This was followed by repertory experience in Dundee, Glasgow, Nottingham and with the Bristol Old Vic. A prolific actor at the Royal Court from the mid-1950's, and later with the Royal Shakespeare Company and Laurence Olivier's National Theatre. Tall and possessed of an incisive manner, resonant voice and larger-than-life personality, Crowden was at his best in eccentric portrayals as mad scientists or flawed men-of-the-cloth.
One of his most memorable film appearances was as the maniacal chief surgeon in Lindsay Anderson's Britannia Hospital (1982). In television, he turned down the role of Doctor Who (1963) in 1974 but later appeared in it opposite Tom Baker, who had been cast as the Doctor instead, to give the series one of its most memorably over-the-top villains. He also achieved success in later life in television comedies such as A Very Peculiar Practice (1986) and opposite Stephanie Cole in Waiting for God (1990). He continued to act until shortly before his death.- Gaunt and saturnine British character actor of stage and screen, Guy Rolfe made his stage debut in 1936, the same year he had a small uncredited bit part in Knight Without Armor (1937). Rolfe had spent his early twenties as a professional race car driver and boxer before making the move into films. In 1952, he starred in Ivanhoe (1952) with Robert Taylor and Elizabeth Taylor. Rolfe's characters ranged from wealthy businessmen, to romantic leads, to sinister villains and heroes, starring in over thirty motion pictures. His important film roles include playing "Caiaphas" in King of Kings (1961), Taras Bulba (1962) and Mr. Sardonicus (1961). Although he was always recognized in such classic pictures, Rolfe became a familiar presence when he took over the role of toy maker "Andre Toulon" in the slasher film franchise "Puppetmaster". First appearing in the third installment, he made brief appearances in most "Puppet Master" movies since then. Guy Rolfe passed away of "natural causes" at the British Film Hospital in London, England at the age of 91.
- Herman Hack was born on 15 June 1899 in Panola, Illinois, USA. He was an actor, known for Arizona Trails (1935), The Tia Juana Kid (1935) and Range Riders (1934). He was married to Signe Hack. He died on 19 October 1967 in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Cinematographer
- Camera and Electrical Department
- Producer
American cinematographer and something of a Renaissance man. The son of famed cinematographer Bert Glennon, James Glennon and his brothers learned photography at their father's feet. (Their mother was script supervisor Mary Coleman.) James Glennon began work in the Warner Bros. mail room, where he often was assigned to make deliveries to studio head Jack L. Warner because the other mail clerks were afraid of Warner. Warner advised Glennon to buy a motion picture camera and rent it out, offering his own services for free. Glennon did so, and thus initiated his career as a cinematographer with Jaws of Death (1977). He continued to work as a camera operator on other cinematographers' films, including The Conversation (1974), Ordinary People (1980), and Altered States (1980), before coming to notice as cinematographer on the groundbreaking El Norte (1983). He worked steadily thereafter. He filmed My Wicked, Wicked Ways: The Legend of Errol Flynn (1985), the story of the actor his own father had photographed in four films. He partnered with director Alexander Payne on three films: Citizen Ruth (1996), Election (1999), and About Schmidt (2002). He won an Emmy Award in 2005 for an episode of Deadwood (2004), the Western series for which he was principal cinematographer for its entire run. He had widely varied interests. He served repeatedly as a judge in the Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences. He operated Malibu Water Resources, a water aeration program, and he farmed clams in the Pacific Northwest. He was extraordinarily beloved of his crews and casts for his eternal optimism and unstinting praise and encouragement. He died unexpectedly on October 19, 2006, from a blood clot resulting from surgery for prostate cancer.- James Vickery was born on 7 October 1918 in West Hoboken, New Jersey, USA. He was an actor, known for The Secret Storm (1954), Studio One (1948) and Judd for the Defense (1967). He was married to Diana Muldaur and Colleen Dewhurst. He died on 19 October 1979 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Actor
- Soundtrack
Pittsburgh-born John Hodiak was one of several up-and-coming male talents who managed to take advantage of the dearth of WWII-era superstars (MGM's Clark Gable, Van Johnson, Robert Taylor and James Stewart, among others) who were off serving their country. John's early death at age 41, however, robbed Hollywood of a strong player and promising character star.
Born on April 16, 1914, the eldest of four (one daughter was adopted), John was eight years old when his middle-class family moved to a thriving Polish community in a suburb of Detroit, Michigan. His father, Walter, was born in the Ukraine and his mother, Anna, was Polish. Expressing interest in music and drama at an early age, he was encouraged by his father who had appeared in amateur shows. He found roles in school plays (done in Hungarian or Polish), sang in the Ukrainian church choir, played the clarinet, and even took diction lessons. Not to be outdone, his athletic skills were also put on display. At one point, he was considered by the St. Louis Cardinals for their farm league but he declined the offer in favor of pursuing an acting career.
Following high school, John found work as a golf caddy and stockroom clerk (at a Chevrolet company) before breaking into radio (WXYZ) in Detroit and (later) Chicago. His more notable roles was as the title figure in "L'il Abner" (a role created on radio) and in the serials "Ma Perkins" and "Wings of Destiny". While in Chicago he was noticed by MGM talent agent Marvin Schenck and signed. Proud of his heritage, he refused to change his name to a more marquee-friendly moniker despite mogul Louis B. Mayer's concerns. Hodiak made his debut as a walk-on in A Stranger in Town (1943), and had a bit part in one of Ann Sothern's "Maisie" series Swing Shift Maisie (1943) before becoming her leading man in a subsequent entry (Maisie Goes to Reno (1944)) the following year.
His inability to sign up for military duty due to his high blood pressure ended up giving him a starring career. Attention started being paid after he played Lana Turner's soldier husband in Marriage Is a Private Affair (1944). An interested Alfred Hitchcock then borrowed John for the role of Kovac, the torpedoed ship's crew member, in one of his classic war dramas Lifeboat (1944) starring the irrepressible Tallulah Bankhead at 20th Century-Fox. The studio was so impressed with John's work in this that it cast him in two other quality films: Sunday Dinner for a Soldier (1944) and A Bell for Adano (1945), both of which showed off his quiet but rugged charm.
In the former he played the patriotic title role and co-starred with Anne Baxter. No sparks as of yet between these two, but a year or so later they reconnected at a party and started dating. They married on July 6, 1946. The second film, the exquisitely sensitive and moving war picture A Bell for Adano (1945) made him a star by Hollywood standards. Co-starring a rather miscast Gene Tierney (as a blonde Italian village girl) and William Bendix, John was more than up to the challenge of playing the role of U.S. Major Joppolo, originally created on Broadway by Fredric March. The irony of it all is that the actor never found better roles (at MGM) than the ones he filmed while lent out to Fox.
Back at MGM, John went through the usual paces. He was overlooked in the rousing Judy Garland vehicle The Harvey Girls (1946), but seemed much more at home in the film noir Somewhere in the Night (1946) and in the WWII drama Homecoming (1948) that starred Clark Gable and Lana Turner, with John and wife Anne Baxter serving as second leads.
With MGM's male roster of talent back home now from the war, John was unceremoniously relegated to second leads that supported the top-tier actors, including Gable, Spencer Tracy, Robert Walker, James Stewart and Robert Taylor. While several of his subsequent post-war films drew desultory reviews, notably the Greer Garson "Miniver" sequel The Miniver Story (1950), Hedy Lamarr's so-called tale of intrigue A Lady Without Passport (1950), and the Clark Gable western Across the Wide Missouri (1951), John did manage to co-star in two of MGM's more stirring war pictures -- Command Decision (1948) and Battleground (1949). Occasionally deemed "glum" and "wooden" by his harsher critics, John's MGM contract expired in 1951 and he began to freelance. Most of the work that followed were starring roles in low-budget entries. Battle Zone (1952) had John and Stephen McNally as two Korean war photographers distracted by the lovely Linda Christian, and Conquest of Cochise (1953) featured a miscast John as the famed Indian warrior.
John reaped better rewards on the stage during this time. Receiving excellent reviews following his 1952 Broadway debut as the sheriff in "The Chase" (he received the Donaldson Award), the actor returned to Broadway as Lieutenant Maryk in "The Caine Mutiny Court Martial (1954) co-starring Henry Fonda. He was extremely disappointed when former fellow MGM player Van Johnson was cast as the lieutenant in the acclaimed film version starring Humphrey Bogart as Captain Queeg.
The father of daughter Katrina Baxter Hodiak, who was born in 1951, John and Anne's varied backgrounds (he was middle class and she more high society -- her grandfather being the renowned Frank Lloyd Wright) and their busy film careers created significant problems. They divorced on January 27, 1953. John later built a home for his parents and younger brother in Tarzana, California and eventually lived there with them. His later years grew difficult and were plagued by self-doubt, a diminishing career and an equally diminishing social life.
John's key Broadway success in "Mutiny" led to a fine comeback role on screen as a prosecuting attorney in Trial (1955), finding "guest artist" work on dramatic TV as well. What might have led to a strong resurgence, however, was sadly cut short. On the morning of October 19, 1955, 41-year-old John suffered a coronary thrombosis and died instantly while shaving in the bathroom of his home. He was on his way to the 20th Century-Fox lot to complete final work on his last film, On the Threshold of Space (1956), when he was stricken.
The movie was released posthumously with John's role left intact. While no previous record of a heart ailment, per se, was ever uncovered, the hypertension that kept him out of the service, at a relatively young age, no doubt contributed to his death. It was an extreme shock to lose someone so relatively young, and even sadder for those he loved and left behind, including his 4-year-old daughter. Katrina Hodiak later became a composer, an actress and a theater director). John was interred at the Calvary Cemetery in Los Angeles.- Jon Locke graduated from Florida State University. He went on world tour for 11 months with the US Air Force for the play, "Flame Out", written and directed by Alan Mowbray. He was honorably discharged in time to recreate the co-starring role of Tex, an F-86 fighter pilot in the Broadway production directed by Mowbray and produced by John Wayne. He was invited by director John Sturges to appear in the film The Scarlet Coat (1955). He also had a recurring role in the Broderick Crawford series Highway Patrol (1955) as Officer Garvey.
Jon went on to star and appear in more than 250 western television shows and movies, including Gunsmoke (1955), Tales of Wells Fargo (1957), The Virginian (1962), Bonanza (1959), Cimarron City (1958), The Texan (1958), 26 Men (1957), Daniel Boone (1964), Laramie (1959), Alias Smith and Jones (1971) and many more. - Actor
- Soundtrack
Joseph Wiseman was born on May 15, 1918 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. He came to Broadway in the 1930s, where he was critically hailed for performances in Shakespeare's "King Lear", Clifford Odets' "Golden Boy" and Anton Chekhov's "Uncle Vanya". Motion pictures in which Wiseman has been seen include Detective Story (1951), starring Kirk Douglas, Viva Zapata! (1952) with Marlon Brando, The Garment Jungle (1957), The Night They Raided Minsky's (1968), The Valachi Papers (1972) and The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz (1974) which brought him back to his native Canada for a co-starring role with Richard Dreyfuss.- Actress
- Producer
Lynda Bellingham played many roles during her five-decade professional career, but became synonymous with one. "Being a mum making gravy was not quite how I had seen my career advancing," she said once. But between 1983 and 1999 that's what she did in 42 "episodes" of an award-winning TV ad. Since the early 1980s, her name was rarely mentioned in print without it being prefaced with "Oxo mum".
During her career, though, she starred on TV as the vet's wife Helen Herriot in All Creatures Great and Small in the 80s and as one of two divorcees trying to forge a relationship in the 90s sitcom Second Thoughts, opposite James Bolam. On stage she was best known for playing the lead in a touring production of Calendar Girls between 2008 and 2012. She was also, for four years between 2007 and 2011, a regular member of the team on Loose Women, the daytime TV chat show. She had few regrets about how her career turned out, summarizing its trajectory thus on her website: "Arrived in London at the Central School [for Speech and Drama] in 1966 and never looked back. I had a ball!"
Bellingham, though, knew that gravy, like Lady Macbeth's damned spot, left an indelible mark. "In many ways I was very proud of what we did, but there is no doubt that my credibility as an actress was knocked," she reflected. "Certain people in the industry would never employ me as a serious actress after it. On the other hand, it gave me the financial security to go off and work in the theatre for very little money." Her performances as Mrs Oxo were reportedly responsible for a 10% increase in stock cube sales.
But being typecast in the role of, as she put it in her autobiography, "the nation's favorite mum", wasn't the only reason she missed out on roles that could have sent her career in a different direction. Her friend the writer Lynda La Plante once rang to ask her if she was interested in playing a detective for television. Too busy with sitcom and advertising jobs, she turned down the chance to play DI Jane Tennison, later taken by Helen Mirren. Bellingham used her autobiography, Lost and Found (2010), to complain about the fact that she was never allowed to reprise her 1986 role as a time lord on Doctor Who during its revival under Russell T Davies.
She was born Meredith Lee Hughes in Montreal, Quebec. Her Canadian birth mother, Marjorie Hughes, gave her daughter up for adoption to an English couple. Her biological father, Carl Hutton, was a crewman whom Marjorie met on board ship as she sailed from Canada to New Zealand to meet the parents of her husband, a pilot who was missing in action during the second world war.
Her adoptive parents, Don and Ruth Bellingham, had been staying in Canada, where Don was training pilots for the British Overseas Airways Corporation. The couple returned to the UK and raised the girl they called Lynda on their farm near Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, with their two biological daughters, Barbara and Jean. Lynda found out she was adopted only when she was in her teens. She recalled the revelation in her autobiography: "One day, when I skipped school to go to the pictures, my mother blurted out: 'The trouble is, Lynda, we just don't know who you are any more. God knows where you come from. We'll never know. We've dreaded this moment.'" In 1990, she met her birth mother in Canada and they stayed in touch until Marjorie's death.
She developed an enthusiasm for acting at school and in local theatre clubs, but gave her best early performance at the Central School, where, after receiving a rejection letter, she turned up in person and demanded of George Hall, head of stage, that he reconsider. Hall told her he would not but, when she returned home dejectedly, her parents told her that they had just got off the phone - he had changed his mind and given her a place. Why? Bellingham reported it was because Hall believed that "even if I was the worst actress in the world, I would always work because I was so pushy".
Bellingham proved just as dogged as Hall hoped. After graduating she worked in Frinton and Crewe, amassing the 40 weeks of theatre necessary to get an Equity card. Then, she believed, TV and cinema stardom would follow. She was rejected for a role on ITV's early 70s afternoon soap General Hospital because, as she put it, they were casting a pretty nurse and a fat nurse and "I fell into neither category". Undaunted, she put her hair in a bun, rouged her cheeks, sported flat shoes, and wore a dress that cut her legs across the calves, making them look twice their normal size. Thus attired, she demanded a second audition as the fat nurse - and got the part, as Nurse Hilda Price.
Her romantic life, which she detailed unflinchingly in her autobiography, included two disastrous marriages. She married the film producer Greg Smith in 1975. Shortly after the wedding, he cast her in the film Confessions of a Driving Instructor. "I had only been married a few weeks and my husband, the Big Producer, was screwing his way through all the female artists," she recalled. "Just not me." They divorced soon afterwards.
Her second marriage, in 1981, was to a Neapolitan restaurant owner, Nunzio Peluso, with whom she had two children, Michael and Robbie. This turned out worse. He submitted her to 15 years of physical and mental abuse and after their divorce in 1996 was subject to a restraining order. She wrote, with understatement: "Playing the nation's favorite mum on screen and going home to an unhappy and abusive relationship was extremely stressful."
On her 60th birthday, in 2008, she was married for a third time, to a mortgage broker Michael Pattemore, with whom she later ran a property business based in London.
Among the roles she was particularly proud of were playing opposite Janet Suzman and Maureen Lipman in the Old Vic's production of The Sisters Rosensweig at the Old Vic (1994-95) and in the Royal Court production of a drama about sex tourism, Sugar Mummies (2006). She also played the Empress Alexandra in Gleb Panfilov's Russian film The Romanovs: A Crowned Family (2000), about the last year and a half of the lives of Tsar Nicholas II and his family until their execution in July 1918. Her voice was dubbed into Russian. In 2009, she appeared on Strictly Come Dancing, and was eliminated in the fourth week. In 2012, she presented a daytime cookery series, My Tasty Travels, and in 2013 Country House Sunday.
In 2013, she disclosed on Twitter that she had been diagnosed with cancer.
She was made OBE in the 2014 New Year's honors list.
In 2014 she announced that the cancer had spread to her liver and lungs and that she had opted to stop having chemotherapy.
On 3 November 2014, her funeral took place at St Bartholomew's Church in Crewkerne, attended by family and friends. Afterwards, Bellingham was buried in Crewkerne Townsend Cemetery.
Bellingham was survived by her third husband and her two sons Michael and Robert.- Magnus Pyke was born on 29 December 1908 in London, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Watch This Space (1980), That's Television Entertainment (1986) and Thomas Dolby: She Blinded Me with Science (1982). He was married to Dorothea Vaughan. He died on 19 October 1992 in London, England, UK.
- Actress
- Writer
- Soundtrack
Known as "The Big Mouth" and considered the female equivalent to Bob Hope, Martha Raye was an American icon in her own right.
She was born Margy Reed in Butte, Montana, to Maybelle Hazel (Hooper) and Peter Reed, Jr., vaudeville performers. She had Irish, German, and English ancestry. Raye made her acting debut before the age of 10 as she toured the nation with her parents variety show "Reed and Hopper". In her late teens she was hired by band-leader Paul Ash as his lead vocalist and was spotted by a Hollywood talent scout during a New York City concert in 1934. She soon relocated to Hollywood were she began making a name for herself appearing in a string of successful screwball comedies alongside the likes of Bing Crosby, Jimmy Durante, W.C. Fields, and Joe E. Brown.
With the outbreak of World War II she took a break from film making to focus on entertaining servicemen and women traveling with the USO on many tour stops. She soon became even more famous for her dedication to America, its values, and its soldiers which helped earn her the beloved nickname "Colonel Maggie".
She continued acting into the late 1980s dividing her time between movies, TV guest spots, and occasional stage appearances. She passed away on October 19, 1994 after a long battle from pneumonia and was buried with full military honors at the Fort Bragg Main Post Cemetery, Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Martha "Colonel Maggie" Raye was 78 years old.- Actor
- Additional Crew
- Soundtrack
Noel Harrison was born on 29 January 1934 in London, England, UK. He was an actor, known for The Girl from U.N.C.L.E. (1966), The Thomas Crown Affair (1968) and The Citadel (1960). He was married to Margaret Benson, Sara Lee Eberts Tufnell and Lori Chapman. He died on 19 October 2013 in Devon, England, UK.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Of Danish descent and born in Syracuse, New York, Phyllis Kirk worked as a waitress and a perfume counter clerk before she began a modeling career. Stage roles ensued before Hollywood beckoned. She was a contract player at MGM and then Warner Brothers, where in her most famous role she was stalked by maniacal sculptor Vincent Price in House of Wax (1953). Kirk's talents were better showcased on the small screen, where she had dramatic roles on many prestigious series and consequently made the covers of TV Guide and Life magazines. Probably her best-known TV role was Nora Charles, the daffy, fast-talking wife of Peter Lawford on The Thin Man (1957). During her acting career, she also worked as an interviewer and writer for the ACLU. After her final roles in the 1970s, she went to work in public relations before retiring.- Actor
- Costume and Wardrobe Department
- Costume Designer
Richard Selzer was born on 29 August 1922 in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, New York, USA. He was an actor and costume designer, known for Juvenile Court (1938), Promises..... Promises! (1963) and Truck Turner (1974). He died on 19 October 2008 in Los Angeles, California, USA.Richard Blackwell- Salvador Giner was born on 10 February 1934 in Barcelona, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. He died on 19 October 2019 in Barcelona, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain.
- Actor
- Writer
Takanobu Hozumi was born on 20 July 1931 in Shizuoka, Japan. He was an actor and writer, known for Koi no gashû (1961), Onimusha 2: Samurai's Destiny (2002) and Tsumiki kuzushi (1983). He was married to Reiko and Michiko. He died on 19 October 2018 in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan.- Theodor Michael was born on 15 January 1925 in Berlin, Germany. He was an actor, known for Von Mäusen und Menschen (1968), Die kleinen Füchse (1962) and Der versteinerte Wald (1957). He died on 19 October 2019.
- Actor
- Soundtrack
Tom Bosley was born on 1 October 1927 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. He was an actor, known for Happy Days (1974), The Back-up Plan (2010) and Yours, Mine and Ours (1968). He was married to Patricia Carr and Jean Eliot. He died on 19 October 2010 in Rancho Mirage, California, USA.- Writer
- Director
- Actor
Born in Massa Marittima, Italy on August 6, 1931, Umberto Lenzi was a movie enthusiast since his early grade school years. During those years, he founded various film fan clubs while studying law. Lenzi started out as a journalist for various local newspapers and magazines. Lenzi put off his law studies to pursue the technical arts of filmmaking at the Centro Sperimentale de Cinematografia.
After graduation from the school, Lenzi continued working as a writer and film critic. He found employment as an assistant director before making his directorial debut with Queen of the Seas (1961). Other pirate/sword flicks followed, starting with I pirati della Malesia (1964) (Pirates of Malaysia), which was part of the height of the career of fictitious tales of historic legendary characters including Robin Hood, Catherine the Great, Zorro, Sandokan and Maciste. For the movie Kriminal (1966), Lenzi turned to the new wave of adult-oriented comic books (known as fumetti) for fresh inspiration and initiated a popular trend.
After directing a war film and two "spaghetti westerns," Lenzi turned to the giallo gene with Paranoia (1969) (originally called "Orgasmo"), starring Carroll Baker and Lou Castel, which was the first of his thrillers and one of his personal favorites. Retitled Paranoia for its USA release, Orgasmo caused some confusion since Lenzi directed a movie with the same name, Paranoia, in 1970 also with Carroll Baker. During the 1970s, Lenzi directed a number of giallo thrillers among them So Sweet... So Perverse (1969), Seven Blood-Stained Orchids (1972) and Eyeball (1975). None of them were particularly successful since Lenzi blamed his tight budgets and poor scripts, which he believed no director could do well with.
In the late 1970s, Lenzi turned to the police thrillers (polizieschi), which rejuvenated his confidence and his popularity. Titles like Almost Human (1974), Tough Cop (1976) (Free Hand For a Tough Cop), and Brothers Till We Die (1978) (Brothers Till We Die) were the most popular and brutal of the thrillers. Prior to the polizieschi, Lenzi directed Sacrifice! (1972) (Man from Deep River), which was the start of the Italian cannibal sub-genre. A re-telling of the western A Man Called Horse (1970), with a south Asia setting, set the stage for a later group of extremely gory cannibal sub-genre movies most noteworthy being Ruggero Deodato's Last Cannibal World (1977) which featured a potent combination of extreme violence in a documentary realism. Lenzi responded with two very gory jungle cannibal features, Eaten Alive! (1980) and Cannibal Ferox (1981) (Make Them Die Slowly), which attempted to outdo Deodato's thrillers. The excess of Cannibal Ferox, which was banned in 31 countries, made Lenzi distance himself from the cannibal genre.
In between Eaten Alive and Cannibal Ferox, Lenzi directed Nightmare City (1980), a zombie flick, with Lenzi rejected the slow-moving zombies of the Romero and Fulci movies for a more type of fast-moving, weapons toting, super zombies with action and an anti-nuclear message.
During the 1980s and early 1990s, Lenzi turned his attention to other genres: action-adventure, war films and even made-for-TV dramas, although he directed the occasional thriller most notable in that time was Ghosthouse (1988). His movie Le porte dell'inferno (1989) is a seldom-seen horror film, which makes the most of its low budget. Lenzi claimed to have shot it in three weeks at a cost of 300 million lire, whereas low-budget Italian horror films shot in Italy or abroad cost an average of a billion lire or more. It represented a personal challenge for Lenzi since the entire movie takes place in a cave and the suspense is maintained for the entire 90 minutes.
As his budgets and financing for his films dwindled, so did his output. The 1990s saw Lenzi directing a number of TV productions that were never broadcast, causing him lament upon the change in Italian film industry. After 40 years and directing over 60 films, Lenzi more or less retired from film directing and left his mark as one of the most creative and inexhaustible cult film directors of Italy.
Umberto Lenzi died on October 19, 2017 at a hospital in the Ostia district of Rome, Italy at age 86.- Victor Marchetti was born on 23 December 1929 in Hazleton, Pennsylvania, USA. He was married to Bernice Baran. He died on 19 October 2018 in Ashburn, Virginia, USA.
- Vitillo Abalos was born on 30 April 1922 in Santiago del Estero, Argentina. He died on 19 October 2019 in Buenos Aires, Argentina.