Screen Actors Guild Awards 2005 In Memoriam

1. Sandra Dee

Actress | Gidget

Sandra Dee was born Alexandria Zuck on April 23, 1942 in Bayonne, New Jersey, to Mary (Cymboliak) and John Zuck. She was of Carpatho-Rusyn descent. Her mother envisioned a show business career for her daughter and would often lie about her age in order to get Sandy where she wanted to go. For ...

2. Eddie Albert

Actor | Roman Holiday

A graduate of the University of Minnesota, Eddie Albert was a circus trapeze flier before becoming a stage and radio actor. He made his film debut in 1938 and has worked steadily since, often cast as the friendly, good-natured buddy of the hero but occasionally being cast as a villain; one of his ...

3. Barbara Bel Geddes

Actress | Vertigo

Arguably best remembered for her role as Miss Ellie, the Ewing family matriarch on the long-running TV series Dallas (1978), Barbara Bel Geddes had earlier scored success on stage and screen long before gaining more lasting fame on television. She was born in New York City on Halloween Day 1922, ...

4. Bob Denver

Actor | Gilligan's Island

Bob Denver was attending college at Loyola-Marymount University, in Los Angeles, when he got into acting. At first, Denver wasn't sure he wanted to be an actor, but gradually gave in, deciding that's what he was going to do for a career. Before he became established, he worked as a mailman and ...

5. James Doohan

Actor | Star Trek

Best known as Scotty in Star Trek he was educated at High School in Sarnia, Ontario, where he acted in school productions.

When WWII began he joined the Royal Regiment of Canadian Artillery eventually obtaining the rank of Captain. He was wounded on D-Day, suffering severe damage to his right middle...

6. Dana Elcar

Actor | The Sting

Dana Elcar was born on October 10, 1927 in Ferndale, Michigan, USA. He was an actor and director, known for The Sting (1973), MacGyver (1985) and 2010 (1984). He was married to Marianne Torrance, Mary Margaret "Peggy" Romano and Kathryn Frances Mead. He died on June 6, 2005 in Ventura, California, ...

7. Wendie Jo Sperber

Actress | Back to the Future

Though she was known best for drawing laughs as whiny, excitable characters throughout her raucous film and TV career, actress/comedienne Wendie Jo Sperber showed a brave, compassionate and humane side in the last years of her life.

The California girl was born on September 15, 1958, in Los Angeles ...

8. J.D. Cannon

Actor | Cool Hand Luke

John Donovan Cannon graduated from high school in his hometown of Salmon, Idaho, in 1940. His subsequent studies at the Academy of Dramatic Arts were interrupted as a result of wartime military service from 1942 to 1945. After the war, Cannon returned to New York to complete his training and acting...

9. Harold J. Stone

Actor | The Wrong Man

Never a big name but always a reliable staple on TV crime shows during the 1960s and 1970s, Harold J. Stone usually was seen in a strong, unsympathetic vein -- an unyielding father or husband, corrupt businessman, menacing crime figure, etc. A sober-looking gent with a block jaw, Romanesque-styled ...

10. Sheree North

Actress | Breakout

Sheree North was born on January 17, 1932 in Los Angeles, California, USA. She was an actress, known for Breakout (1975), Lawman (1971) and The Shootist (1976). She was married to Phillip Alan Norman, Dr. Gerhardt Ralph Sommer, John M. "Bud" Freeman and Frederick Arnold Bessire Jr.. She died on ...

11. Don Adams

Actor | Get Smart

Don Adams was born in New York, to a father of Hungarian Jewish descent, and a mother of German and Irish ancestry. He had a sister, Gloria, and a brother, Dick Yarmy. He served in the U.S. Marines in World War II and contracted malaria during the fighting on Guadalcanal island. After the war he ...

12. Teresa Wright

Actress | Shadow of a Doubt

A natural and lovely talent who was discovered for films by Samuel Goldwyn, the always likable Teresa Wright distinguished herself early on in high-caliber, Oscar-worthy form -- the only performer ever to be nominated for Oscars for her first three films. Always true to herself, she was able to ...

13. Lloyd Bochner

Actor | The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear

Lloyd Bochner had that wonderfully sonorous type of voice that was always tailor-made for radio or for the stage. Unsurprisingly then, by the time he was eleven, Lloyd was already employed as part-time voiceover artist and reader of drama serials by radio stations in Vancouver.

Lloyd Wolfe Bochner ...

14. Mason Adams

Actor | Son in Law

Mason Adams was well known for playing Pepper Young on the popular radio soap opera series Pepper Young's Family throughout the 1940 and 1950s. He was also heard on most of the successful radio programs during radio's "Golden Age." In the 1970s, Adams was frequently heard on Himan Brown's CBS ...

15. Lane Smith

Actor | My Cousin Vinny

Lane Smith was born on April 29, 1936 in Memphis, Tennessee, USA. He was an actor, known for My Cousin Vinny (1992), Red Dawn (1984) and The Mighty Ducks (1992). He was married to Deborah Lynn Price and Sydnee Roberta Balaber. He died on June 13, 2005 in Northridge, California, USA.

16. Thurl Ravenscroft

Actor | The Brave Little Toaster

Born in 1914, raised in Norfolk, Nebraska, Thurl Ravenscroft served as a navigator in the US Army Air Transport Command in World War II before settling in Hollywood. An accomplished singer, he performed with The Sportsmen Quartet, The Mellowmen Quartet, The Johnny Mann Singers, The Norman Luboff ...

17. John Raitt

Actor | The Pajama Game

One of the prime Broadway musical stars of the post WWII period, handsome John Raitt was once described by composer Richard Rodgers as "a big, brawny fellow with a magnificent baritone." John would go on to maintain an incredibly resilient career spanning over 60 years, showing remarkable power, ...

18. Lou Rawls

Soundtrack | Payback

Rawls was born on 1st December 1933 in Chicago, Illinois. His father abandoned his family and Lou was raised by his grandmother. His first meeting with music was when he was seven years old, in a Baptist church choir. He was mostly influenced by the Chicago Regal theatre where he had the ...

19. John Vernon

Actor | National Lampoon's Animal House

John Vernon was a prolific stage-trained Canadian character player who made a career out of convincingly playing crafty villains, morally-bankrupt officials and heartless authority figures in American films and television since the 1960s. Vernon was directed by some stellar filmmakers, including ...

20. Len Dressler

Soundtrack | Jeopardy!

21. John Fiedler

Actor | 12 Angry Men

Typical of busy character actors, Fiedler made his face (and voice) recognizable to millions. Many know the bald-pated Fiedler as therapy patient "Mr. Peterson" on The Bob Newhart Show (1972); others might first recognize him for the 1968 movie, The Odd Couple (1968), and spin-off TV show, The Odd ...

22. Barney Martin

Actor | Arthur

Barney Martin was born on March 3, 1923 in Queens, New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for Arthur (1981), The Producers (1967) and Seinfeld (1989). He was married to Catherine Martin. He died on March 21, 2005 in Studio City, California, USA.

23. Ruth Hussey

Actress | The Philadelphia Story

A graduate of the University of Michigan School of Drama, Ruth Hussey's first show-business job was as a fashion commentator on a local radio station. She journeyed to New York City, where she was signed as a model by the world-famous Powers agency. She obtained some stage roles with touring ...

24. Ford Rainey

Actor | Halloween II

American character actor of stage, films, and television. A native of Idaho, Rainey was the son of a colorful character who was, among many other things, a champion of local dance contests. As a boy, Rainey was painfully shy, but found an outlet in school plays. He pursued stage work in regional ...

25. Brock Peters

Actor | Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country

Born of African and West Indian ancestry on July 2, 1927 in New York City, Brock Peters set his sights on a show business career early on, at age ten. A product of NYC's famed Music and Arts High School, Peters initially fielded more odd jobs than acting jobs as he worked his way up from Harlem ...

26. John Mills

Actor | Great Expectations

Sir John Mills, one of the most popular and beloved English actors, was born Lewis Ernest Watts Mills on February 22, 1908, at the Watts Naval Training College in North Elmham, Norfolk, England. The young Mills grew up in Felixstowe, Suffolk, where his father was a mathematics teacher and his ...

27. Frances Langford

Soundtrack | The Hit Parade

Frances Langford won fame on radio (primarily as Bob Hope's vocalist, later sparring comically with Don Ameche as "The Bickersons"), via recordings and in the movies. In spite of the fact that she played mostly in minor musicals (plus appearing occasionally in "A" productions, including Yankee ...

28. June Haver

Actress | The Daughter of Rosie O'Grady

June Haver was born on June 10, 1926, in Rock Island, Illinois, with the birth name of Beverly June Stovenour. Her parents divorced at an early age and she was adopted by Bert Haver, her stepfather. Her mother and new father moved to Cincinnati, where she appeared on the stage for the first time at...

29. Dan O'Herlihy

Actor | RoboCop

Daniel Peter "Dan" O'Herlihy was born on 1 May 1919 at Odessa Cottage, Wexford Town, County Wexford (Ireland) to John Robert O'Herlihy, a civil servant from Cork who later worked in the Department of Industry and Commerce, and Ellen (née Hanton). Dan had at least two siblings, a sister and a ...

30. Geraldine Fitzgerald

Actress | Dark Victory

Geraldine Fitzgerald was the only actress to appear as both Laurence Olivier's wife and Rodney Dangerfield's mother-in-law, which surely qualifies her as running the gamut (if not the gauntlet, in the latter case) of A to Z for co-starring with cinema immortals. The Irish lass appeared in many ...

31. Anthony Franciosa

Actor | Tenebre

Franciosa was born Anthony Papaleo on October 25, 1928, in New York City. The son of a construction worker and seamstress who divorced when he was a year old, he seldom saw his father after this and never man really got to know the other. After graduating high school, during a visit to a YMCA to ...

32. Stephen Elliott

Actor | Beverly Hills Cop

A Drama Desk Award-winning actor ("A Whistle in the Dark" [1969] ) and a Tony Award nominee (as "Monsieur Colmier", "Marat/Sade" [1967] ), he began his career as a member of New York's Neighborhood Playhouse from 1940 to 1942, where he studied with noted acting instructor, Sanford Meisner, before ...

33. Paul Winchell

Actor | The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh

Born Paul Wilchinsky on December 21, 1922, the son of Sol and Clara Wilchinsky, Paul Winchell grew up to be the most beloved ventriloquist of American children. Ironically, as famous as Paul was, his dummy, Jerry Mahoney, was probably more famous. Not since Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy in the ...

34. Frank Gorshin

Actor | 12 Monkeys

Frank John Gorshin, Jr. was born on April 5, 1933 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His father was a railroad worker and his mother, Frances (Preseren), was a seamstress. His family was originally from Novo Mesto, Slovenia. While in high school, young Frank worked as an usher at the Sheridan Square ...

35. Shelley Winters

Actress | The Poseidon Adventure

Shelley Winters was born Shirley Schrift of very humble beginnings on August 18, 1920 (some sources list 1922) in East St. Louis, Illinois. Her mother, Rose Winter, was born in Missouri, to Austrian Jewish parents, and her father, Jonas Schrift, was an Austrian Jewish immigrant. She had one sibling...

36. Anne Bancroft

Actress | The Graduate

Anne Bancroft was born on September 17, 1931 in The Bronx, NY, the middle daughter of Michael Italiano (1905-2001), a dress pattern maker, and Mildred DiNapoli (1907-2010), a telephone operator. She made her cinema debut in Don't Bother to Knock (1952) in 1952, and over the next five years appeared...

37. Louis Nye

Actor | Curb Your Enthusiasm

Louis Nye was one of those delightfully pretentious comic actors you loved to hate, his flip manner and faux rich boy arrogance possessing his characters no matter what social stature they were. Nye (first name pronounced Louie) was a master at sketch comedy, foreign accents and the quicksilver ad ...

38. Vincent Schiavelli

Actor | Tomorrow Never Dies

Vincent Schiavelli, selected in 1997 by Vanity Fair as one of the best character actors in America, had made over 120 film and television appearances. He studied acting at NYU's Theatre Program. Aside from his acting career, Vincent was the author of three cookbooks, and has written numerous ...

39. John Spencer

Actor | The West Wing

John Spencer was born John Speshock III in Paterson, New Jersey, the only son of Mildred (Benzeroski), a homemaker and occasional waitress, and John Speshock, a truck driver. He grew up near Paterson, New Jersey, and left at age 16 to attend the Professional Children's School. In 1963, he landed a ...

40. Pat Morita

Actor | The Karate Kid

Abundantly busy and much-loved Asian-American actor who became an on-screen hero to millions of adults and kids alike as the wise and wonderful Mr. Miyagi in The Karate Kid (1984), the sparkling Noriyuki Morita was back again dishing out Eastern philosophy and martial arts lessons for The Karate ...

41. Richard Pryor

Actor | Superman III

Highly influential, and always controversial, African-American actor/comedian who was equally well known for his colorful language during his live comedy shows, as for his fast paced life, multiple marriages and battles with drug addiction. He has been acknowledged by many modern comic artist's as ...