TCM Remembers 2011

1. Farley Granger

Farley Earle Granger was born in 1925 in San Jose, California, to Eva (Hopkins) and Farley Earle Granger, who owned an automobile dealership. Right out of high school, he was brought to the attention of movie producer Samuel Goldwyn, who cast him in a small role in The North Star (1943). He followed...

2. Diane Cilento

Actress | The Wicker Man

Diane Cilento was an Australian actress from Queensland. She had partial Italian descent. She was once nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. For a theatrical role as Helen of Troy, Cilento was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play.

In 1932, Cilento ...

3. Miriam Seegar

Actress | Seven Keys to Baldpate

Miriam Seegar was born on September 1, 1907, to Frank and Carrie (née Wall) Seegar, both teachers. Raised in Greentown, Indiana, in the Seegar-Sewell home on 404 S. Main Street, she was the fourth of five daughters. Her sisters, known around town as the Seegar Sisters, were educator Helen ...

4. Anna Massey

Actress | Peeping Tom

Anna Massey was born on August 11, 1937 in Thakeham, West Sussex, England, UK. She was an actress, known for Peeping Tom (1960), Frenzy (1972) and The Machinist (2004). She was married to Dr. Uri Andres and Jeremy Brett. She died on July 2, 2011 in London, England, UK.

5. Sybil Jason

Actress | The Little Princess

Sybil Jacobson was born on November 23, 1929, in Cape Town, South Africa. By age 2 she had learned to play the piano, and she also demonstrated a remarkable talent for singing, dancing and mimicry. She moved to Great Britain as a small child, and by age 5 was singing, dancing, playing the piano or ...

6. Marie-France Pisier

Actress | Cousin cousine

Marie-France first came to the fore as an actress of the Nouvelle Vague movement in the 1960's. She had spent her early childhood in French Indochina, where her father was employed as colonial governor, but the family moved to Paris when she was twelve. Just five years later, she was spotted by a ...

7. Jimmy Sangster

Writer | Dracula

One of the driving, creative forces behind the legendary Hammer Studios, Jimmy Sangster was born on December 2, 1927, in Kinmel Bay, North Wales. He began in the film industry as a production assistant at age 16 during WWII. After this gig, he worked as a gofer and assistant projectionist for ...

8. James Arness

Actor | Gunsmoke

American leading man famed as the star of one of the longest-running shows in U.S. television history, Gunsmoke (1955). Born of Norwegian heritage (the family name, Aurness, had formerly been Aursness) in Minneapolis, Minnesota, to Rolf and Ruth Duesler Aurness. His father was a traveling salesman ...

9. Annie Girardot

Actress | La pianiste

Over the course of a five-decade career, she starred in nearly 150 films. She is a three-time César Award winner (1977, 1996, 2002), a two-time Molière Award winner, a BAFTA nominee, and a recipient of several international prizes including the Volpi Cup (Best actress) at the 1965 Venice Film ...

10. Susannah York

Actress | A Man for All Seasons

The lovely Susannah York, a gamine, blue-eyed, cropped-blonde British actress, displayed a certain crossover star quality when she dared upon the Hollywood scene in the early 1960s. A purposefully intriguing, enigmatic and noticeably uninhibited talent, she was born Susannah Yolande Fletcher on ...

11. William Campbell

Actor | Escape from Fort Bravo

William Campbell was born on October 30, 1923 in Newark, New Jersey, USA. He was an actor, known for Escape from Fort Bravo (1953), The High and the Mighty (1954) and Dementia 13 (1963). He was married to Tereza Pavlovic, Barbara Bricker and Judith Campbell Exner. He died on April 28, 2011 in ...

12. Linda Christian

Actress | 10.32

Linda Christian was born Blanca Rosa Welter, to a Dutch father, Gerardus Jacob Welter, and a Mexican-born mother, Blanca Rosa Vorhauer. Her Father was an executive with Royal Dutch Shell and Christian traveled extensively as a result living in South Africa, Romania, Germany, France, Switzerland, ...

13. Jane Russell

Actress | Gentlemen Prefer Blondes

Ernestine Jane Geraldine Russell was born on June 21, 1921, in Bemidji, Minnesota. Her father was a United States Army lieutenant and her mother had been a student of drama and an actress with a traveling troupe. Once Mr. Russell was mustered out of the service, the family took up residence in ...

14. Michael Sarrazin

Actor | They Shoot Horses, Don't They?

Owning a pair of the most incredibly soulful and searching eyes you'll ever find, Michael Sarrazin's poetic drifters crept into Hollywood unobtrusively on little cat's feet, but it didn't take long for him to make his mark. Quiet yet uninhibited, the lean, laconic, fleshy-lipped actor with the ...

15. Edith Fellows

Actress | And So They Were Married

Edith Fellows was born on May 20, 1923, in Boston, Massachusetts. When she was a year old, she and her father and grandmother moved to Charlotte, North Carolina. As a toddler, Edith was pigeon-toed and had trouble walking, and one doctor suggested that dance lessons might cure this condition. At ...

16. Peter Falk

Actor | Columbo

Peter Michael Falk was born on September 16, 1927, in New York City, New York. At the age of 3, his right eye was surgically removed due to cancer. He graduated from Ossining High School, where he was president of his class. His early career choices involved becoming a certified public accountant, ...

17. Pete Postlethwaite

Actor | The Usual Suspects

An oddly fascinating bloke with prominent bony cheeks and rawboned figure, Peter William (Pete) Postlethwaite was born on February 16, 1946 and was a distinguished character actor on stage, TV and film. Growing up the youngest of four siblings in a Catholic family in Warrington, Lancashire (near ...

18. Len Lesser

Actor | Kelly's Heroes

Len Lesser was an American character actor, from the Bronx, New York City. His most famous role was that of Uncle Leo, the maternal uncle of protagonist Jerry Seinfeld in the sitcom "Seinfield". Lesser played this role from 1991 to the series finale in 1998.

Lesser was the son of a Polish-Jewish ...

19. Kevin Jarre

Writer | Glory

Kevin Jarre was born on August 6, 1954 in Detroit, Michigan, to actress Laura Devon and her second husband, Cleland B. Clark, a photographic illustrator who had combined ranching and fashion photography, and was a lifetime member of the National Rifle Association. After his parents divorced, he ...

20. John Howard Davies

Actor | Oliver Twist

John Howard Davies was born on March 9, 1939 in Paddington, London, England, UK. He was a producer and director, known for Oliver Twist (1948), Fawlty Towers (1975) and Monty Python's Flying Circus (1969). He was married to Linda Patricia, Dale Mackenzie Tillotson and Leonie Taylor. He died on ...

21. Paul Picerni

Actor | Airport

As a child Paul Picerni had aspirations to become an attorney until he acted in an eighth-grade play and later learned that the school principal liked his performance and called him "a born actor". He next appeared in little theater productions, then (after World War II Air Force service) on the ...

22. Betty Garrett

Actress | On the Town

A sunny singer, dancer and comic actress, Betty Garrett starred in several Hollywood musicals and stage roles. She was at the top of her game when the Communist scare in the 1950s brought her career to a screeching, ugly halt. She and her husband Larry Parks, an Oscar-nominated actor, were summoned...

23. Gilbert Cates

Producer | I Never Sang for My Father

Gilbert Cates was born on June 6, 1934 in New York City, New York, USA. He was a producer and director, known for I Never Sang for My Father (1970), Absolute Strangers (1991) and Dragonfly (1976). He was married to Dr. Judith Reichman and Jane Betty Dubin. He died on October 31, 2011 in Los Angeles...

24. Marilyn Nash

Actress | Monsieur Verdoux

Marilyn Nash was planning on a career as a doctor when, while a student at the University of Arizona, she visited Los Angeles and met Charles Chaplin, who placed her under contract (starting at $50 a week) and cast her in his production Monsieur Verdoux (1947). She appeared in a second and last ...

25. Sue Mengers

Self | AFI Life Achievement Award

Sue Mengers was born on September 2, 1932 in Hamburg, Germany. She was married to Jean-Claude Tramont. She died on October 15, 2011 in Beverly Hills, California, USA.

26. Polly Platt

Producer | Say Anything...

Polly Platt was born on January 29, 1939 in Fort Sheridan, Illinois, USA. She was a producer and production designer, known for Say Anything (1989), Terms of Endearment (1983) and Broadcast News (1987). She was married to Tony Wade, Peter Bogdanovich and Phillip Klein. She died on July 27, 2011 in ...

27. Hideko Takamine

Actress | Ukigumo

Along with Hara Setsuko and Tanaka Kinuyo, Takamine Hideko remains one of Japan's most admired and prolific film actresses. Born as Hirayama Hideko in Hakodate, Hokkaido in northern Japan in 1924, she became a child actress for Shochiku Studio at age five appearing in the film Haha. She would go on...

28. Jeff Conaway

Actor | Grease

Jeff Conaway was born on October 5, 1950 in New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for Grease (1978), Taxi (1978) and Jawbreaker (1999). He was married to Kerri Young and Rona Newton-John. He died on May 27, 2011 in Encino, Los Angeles, California, USA.

29. Edward Hardwicke

Actor | Elizabeth

Edward Hardwicke was born on August 7, 1932 in London, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Elizabeth (1998), Oliver Twist (2005) and Oppenheimer (1980). He was married to Prim Cotton and Anne Iddon. He died on May 16, 2011 in Chichester, England, UK.

30. Tura Satana

Actress | Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!

Tura Satana started exotic dancing when she was only 13 years old. She integrated acrobatics, humor, and sensual beauty to her dancing art form. As a dancer, she started doing guest appearances in films such as Our Man Flint (1966) and Who's Been Sleeping in My Bed? (1963) and made several films ...

31. Neva Patterson

Actress | All the President's Men

Lean-framed, arch and edgy, somewhat hard-looking, dark-haired Neva Patterson, known by face perhaps as opposed to name, was a familiar presence in heavily-styled drama of the 1950s and 1960s radio, stage, film and TV. Christened Neva Louise Patterson in 1920 (some sources incorrectly state 1922) ...

32. Gunnar Fischer

Cinematographer | Smultronstället

Gunnar Fischer was born on November 18, 1910 in Ljungby, Sweden. He was a cinematographer and director, known for Wild Strawberries (1957), The Seventh Seal (1957) and Smiles of a Summer Night (1955). He was married to Gull Söderblom. He died on June 11, 2011 in Stockholm, Stockholms län, Sweden.

33. Mary Murphy

Actress | The Wild One

This actress' two-decade career produced only one single stand-out film role but that one role as the "good girl" who redeems "bad boy" Marlon Brando's tough biker in the cult flick The Wild One (1953) put Mary Murphy at the head of the acting class for one brief shining moment. In others, she ...

34. Dana Wynter

Actress | Invasion of the Body Snatchers

The daughter of a noted surgeon, Dana Wynter was born Dagmar Winter in Berlin, Germany, and grew up in England. When she was 16 her father went to Morocco, reportedly to operate on a woman who wouldn't allow anyone else to attend her; he visited friends in Southern Rhodesia, fell in love with it ...

35. Elaine Stewart

Actress | The Bad and the Beautiful

Ravishing redhead Elaine Stewart came onto the film scene in the early 1950s and decorated a number of eastern and western films as well as crimers as a second-tier MGM star. Her striking, shapely beauty and "come hither" sensuality was on full display throughout the decade, often as a temptress or...

36. Lena Nyman

Actress | Ronja Rövardotter

Lena Nyman was born on May 23, 1944 in Stockholm, Sweden. She was an actress and writer, known for Ronia: The Robber's Daughter (1984), I Am Curious (Yellow) (1967) and Autumn Sonata (1978). She was married to Jan Lundström. She died on February 4, 2011 in Stockholm, Sweden.

37. Roberts Blossom

Actor | Escape from Alcatraz

Roberts Blossom was a marvelously quirky, talented, and versatile character actor who was especially adept at portraying cantankerous old oddballs. Born in 1924 in New Haven, Connecticut, Blossom graduated from the prestigious Asheville School in 1941 and attended Harvard. Roberts initially planned...

38. Jackie Cooper

Actor | Superman

Jackie Cooper was born John Cooper in Los Angeles, California, to Mabel Leonard, an Italian-American stage pianist, and John Cooper. Through his mother, he was the nephew of actress Julie Leonard, screenwriter Jack Leonard, and (by marriage) director Norman Taurog. Jackie served with the Navy in ...

39. Harry Morgan

Actor | M*A*S*H

Harry Morgan was a prolific character actor who starred in over 100 films and was a stage performer. Known to a younger generation of fans as "Col. Sherman T. Potter" on M*A*S*H (1972). Also known for his commanding personality throughout his career, he tackled movies and television in a way no ...

40. Googie Withers

Actress | One of Our Aircraft Is Missing

Googie Withers began her acting career at the age of 12. She was dancing in the chorus in a West End revue when she was spotted by a Warner Brothers casting director. She went to do a screen test for them at the Riverside Studios and was invited to become an extra. On her first day at the filming of...

41. Barbara Kent

Actress | Lonesome

A pretty, diminutive (4'11") actress of the silent and early sound era, Barbara Cloutman (later Kent) was born in Gadsby, Alberta, Canada on December 16, 1907. Upon graduating from Hollywood High School in 1925, Kent won the Miss Hollywood Pageant, and set her sights on a career in the movies. She ...

42. Cliff Robertson

Actor | Spider-Man

Clifford Parker Robertson III became a fairly successful leading man through most of his career without ever becoming a major star. Following strong stage and television experience, he made an interesting film debut in a supporting role in Picnic (1955). He then played Joan Crawford's deranged ...

43. Margaret Field

Actress | The Man from Planet X

Born Margaret Morlan, for three decades she was featured in films and television under the name Margaret Field and was the mother of two-time Oscar winner actress Sally Field. During World War II, she moved to Pasadena, California, was discovered by a talent scout, took a screen test and was signed...

44. Anne Francis

Actress | Forbidden Planet

Anne Francis got into show business quite early in life. She was born on September 16, 1930 in Ossining, New York (which is near Sing Sing prison), the only child of Phillip Ward Francis, a businessman/salesman, and the former Edith Albertson. A natural little beauty, she became a John Robert Powers...

45. Yvette Vickers

Actress | Attack of the 50 Foot Woman

Born on August 26, 1928 in Kansas City, Missouri, Yvette Vickers majored in picture and theatre arts at UCLA for three years. On a trip to New York in the mid-1950s, she was cast as the White Rain Girl in commercials. She returned to the West Coast, working in various television series until she ...

46. Paulette Dubost

Actress | La règle du jeu

Paulette Dubost was born on October 8, 1910 in Paris, France. She was an actress, known for The Rules of the Game (1939), Les vingt-huit jours de Clairette (1933) and Les mystères de Paris (1962). She was married to André Ostertag. She died on September 21, 2011 in Longjumeau, Essonne, ...

47. Charles Napier

Actor | The Silence of the Lambs

Charles Napier was born in the tiny community of Mt. Union, near Scottsville, Allen County, Kentucky, to Linus Pitts Napier, a tobacco farmer and postman, and his wife, Sara, on April 12, 1936. He attended public school in Scottsville. After graduating high school, he enlisted in the Army in 1954. ...

48. Maria Schneider

Actress | Ultimo tango a Parigi

Maria Schneider was a French actress. At age 19 she became famous for Bernardo Bertolucci's film Last Tango in Paris (1972), and The Passenger (1975).

As a teenager, she adored films, going to the cinema up to four times a week. She left home at 15 after an argument with her mother and went to Paris...

49. Norma Eberhardt

Actress | The Return of Dracula

The beautiful Norma Eberhardt was born in Oakhurst, New Jersey. Norma developed a love for movies early. She was at a Easter Parade event with her mother when a well-known photographer stopped her and gave her his business card. When she turned seventeen, she got on a train and went straight to New...

50. John Wood

Actor | WarGames

Studied law at Jesus College, Oxford, but became president of OUDS by his final year, when he played the lead in "Richard III" to wide critical acclaim. Subsequently joined the Old Vic, where among other roles he played "the Dauphin" to Richard Burton's "Henry V". Left the Old Vic under less than ...

51. Sidney Lumet

Director | 12 Angry Men

Sidney Lumet was a master of cinema, best known for his technical knowledge and his skill at getting first-rate performances from his actors -- and for shooting most of his films in his beloved New York. He made over 40 movies, often complex and emotional, but seldom overly sentimental. Although ...

52. John Barry

Soundtrack | Out of Africa

John Barry was born in York, England in 1933, and was the youngest of three children. His father, Jack, owned several local cinemas and by the age of fourteen, Barry was capable of running the projection box on his own - in particular, The Rialto in York. As he was brought up in a cinematic ...

53. John Neville

Actor | The Adventures of Baron Munchausen

When John Neville was in his early sixties, Terry Gilliam cast him in the title role of The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1988). Although the film was a financial failure, Neville's starring role in this major production, as well as his fine performance, led to an explosion in his career. He ...

54. Bill McKinney

Actor | First Blood

Bill McKinney, the movie and television character actor who was one of the great on-screen villains, was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee on September 12, 1931. He had an unsettled life as a child, moving 12 times before joining the Navy at the age of 19 during the Korean War. Once, when his family ...

55. Kenneth Mars

Actor | What's Up, Doc?

Kenneth Mars was an American actor and comedian. He appeared in two Mel Brooks films: as the deranged Nazi playwright Franz Liebkind in The Producers (1967) and Police Inspector Hans Wilhelm Friedrich Kemp in Young Frankenstein (1974). He also appeared in Peter Bogdanovich's What's Up Doc? (1972), ...

56. Ken Russell

Director | The Devils

Ken Russell tried several professions before choosing to become a film director; he was a still photographer and a dancer and he even served in the Army, but film was his destiny. He began by making several short films which paved the way for his brilliant television films of the 1960s that are ...

57. Peter Yates

Director | Krull

Having seen Robbery (1967) and Bullitt (1968), it comes as no surprise that Peter Yates started out as a professional racing car driver and team manager - albeit briefly - before turning his attention to film. The son of a military man, he was educated at Charterhouse School and trained at RADA, ...

58. G.D. Spradlin

Actor | Ed Wood

G.D. Spradlin was born on August 31, 1920 in Pauls Valley, Oklahoma, USA. He was an actor and director, known for Ed Wood (1994), Apocalypse Now (1979) and The Godfather Part II (1974). He was married to Frances Hewitt Hendrickson and Nell Ethelyn Hulsizer. He died on July 24, 2011 in San Luis ...

59. Leslie Brooks

Actress | The Man Who Dared

Leslie Brooks was born on July 13, 1922 in Lincoln, Nebraska, USA. She was an actress, known for The Man Who Dared (1946), Cigarette Girl (1947) and It's Great to Be Young (1946). She was married to Russ Vincent and Donald Anthony Shay. She died on July 1, 2011 in Sherman Oaks, California, USA.

60. Paul Massie

Actor | Orders to Kill

He became interested in theatre by acting in children's plays in his fathers church. He worked in Ottawa Little Theatre, The Canadian Repertory Theatre then on graduating from McMasters University came to England in 1952 to study at the Central School of Speach and Drama. He worked at Scottish ...

61. David Nelson

Actor | The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet

David Nelson was born on October 24, 1936 in New York City to Ozzie Nelson and Harriet Nelson. He attended Hollywood High School. He later was a film producer (The Nelson Co.) and director, who directed several episodes of The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet (1952).

Nelson had two sons with his ...

62. Jill Haworth

Actress | Exodus

A slim, stunning, stylish-looking actress, British Jill Haworth (born Valerie Jill Haworth on August 15, 1945 in Sussex) was a free-spirited product of the 1960s. Her father was a textile magnate and sometime race car driver and mother an aspiring ballerina. Trained in dance herself, she attended ...

63. John Calley

Producer | The Remains of the Day

Calley was born the son of a car salesman in Jersey City, New Jersey, and attended Columbia University before briefly serving in the Army. At NBC, he started in the mail room and moved up through the ranks from from 1951-57 in a still-young TV industry, from sale and production before settling in ...

64. Arthur Laurents

Writer | Rope

Arthur Laurents was born on July 14, 1917 in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA. He was a writer and producer, known for Rope (1948), The Way We Were (1973) and The Turning Point (1977). He died on May 5, 2011 in Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA.

65. Michael Gough

Actor | Batman & Robin

Tony Award-winning English actor Michael Gough, best known for playing the butler Alfred Pennyworth in the first four Batman (1989, 1992, 1995 & 1997) movies and for playing the arch-criminal Dr. Clement Armstrong in The Avengers (1961) episode "The Cybernauts", was an accomplished performer on ...

66. Elizabeth Taylor

Actress | Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor was considered one of the last, if not the last, major star to have come out of the old Hollywood studio system. She was known internationally for her beauty, especially for her violet eyes, with which she captured audiences early in her youth and kept the world hooked ...