Noir: Ladies leading noir films 2.
List 7 of 7 noir films lists.
Leading Lady in noir, #1 credit.
International, multi-nation films, multi-nation actresses.
UK leading noir ladies also.
Leading Lady in noir, #1 credit.
International, multi-nation films, multi-nation actresses.
UK leading noir ladies also.
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- Actress
- Writer
- Composer
Highly alluring Czech-born actress Florence Marly, born on June 2, 1919, initially expressed intentions of being an opera singer. At the age of 18, however, she was discovered by the 33-year-old renowned French director Pierre Chenal while a student of art and literature at the Sorbonne. Chenal put her immediately into his film The Alibi (1937) and an acting career was ignited instead.
Chenal and his protégé married the following year and Florence continued to figure into many of his films including The Lafarge Case (1938), Sirocco (1938), and The Last Turning (1939). Managing to flee Paris prior to the Nazi occupation, the couple arrived in Argentina in 1944 and stayed there for several years where she appeared in a few films -- La piel de Zapa (1943), El fin de la noche (1944) and, for her husband, Viaje sin regreso (1946). Returning to France in the post-war years, she was nominated for a Cannes Film Festival award for her performance in The Damned (1947) [The Damned] directed by René Clément and also starring Marcel Dalio and Henri Vidal.
Exotic foreign imports were popular in Hollywood in post-war years and in 1949, sultry-eyed Florence took a chance on Hollywood when she was signed by Paramount. When not appearing in the typical intrigue and espionage movies expected of her opposite such stars as Ray Milland in Sealed Verdict (1948) and Humphrey Bogart in Tokyo Joe (1949), she entertained American troops in Korea and took time to appear in a homeland movie Krakatit (1948). During this period she also received top billing in the US/Japan co-production Tokyo File 212 (1951) and was featured in the minor comedy Gobs and Gals (1952) which showcased pantomime American comedians George Bernard and Bert Bernard [aka The Bernard Brothers].
Florence's American career was cut short when she was branded a Communist and blacklisted. Leaving America for a time, she was eventually cleared after it was discovered that her name had been confused with the Russian club singer Anna Marly who was on the "subversive" list. The damage had already been done, however, and her film career never recovered.
Appearing in her husband's films El ídolo (1952) [The Idol] and Confesiones al amanecer (1954) [Confessions at Dawn], their marriage, which was marked by long separations, crumbled and she and Chenal divorced in 1955. Florence married an Austrian count the following year, but that marriage too would not survive. With her film career practically finished (one of her last during this period of upheaval was the "C" grade movie Undersea Girl (1957) with Mara Corday), she turned to TV and worked occasionally for the next decade or so on such popular shows as "The Millionaire", "Dragnet", "77 Sunset Strip", "The Man from U.N.C.L.E" and "Love, American Style". She also returned to a small spate of low grade films including Queen of Blood (1966), Doctor Death: Seeker of Souls (1973), The Astrologer (1976) and the movie short Space Boy (1973), in which she also served as writer and composer.
Florence died suddenly in the Los Angeles area at age 59 of a heart attack.Japan
Born in Obrnice, Czechoslovakia.
Tokyo File 212 (1951). '51. USA/Japan.
Filmed in Japan.
Chile-
2...El ídolo (1952). '52. Argentina /Chile. Filmed in Chile.- Actress
- Producer
- Music Department
Zhou Xun is an internationally acclaimed Chinese actress and singer.
She caught international attention through her roles in Lou Ye's Suzhou River in 2000 and Dai Sijie's film adaption of the book of same name Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress in 2002. In 2003, she starred in the television remake of Jinyong's novel The Legend of the Condor Heroes as "Huang Rong" with actor Li Yapeng. Zhou then successfully entered the Hong Kong film market in Peter Chan's Perhaps Love in 2005. This role gained her the Best Actress award in the Hong Kong Film Awards. Aside from acting, she has also released solo albums in 2003 titled "Summer" and in 2005 "Come Across", and sang for "Baober In Love," "Xin Bian Guo Le Xi San Meng You Xian Jing," and "Perhaps Love" motion picture soundtracks.- Actress
- Director
- Writer
Enigmatic, dark-haired foreign import Alida Valli was dubbed "The Next Garbo" but didn't live up to postwar expectations despite her cool, patrician beauty, remote allure and significant talent. Born in Pola, Italy (now Croatia), on May 3, 1921, the daughter of a Tridentine journalist and professor and an Istrian homemaker, she studied dramatics as a teen at the Motion Picture Academy of Rome and Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia before snaring bit roles in such films as Il cappello a tre punte (1935) ["The Three-Cornered Hat"] and I due sergenti (1936) ["The Two Sergeants"]. She made a name for herself in Italy during WWII playing the title role in Manon Lescaut (1940), won a Venice Film Festival award for Piccolo mondo antico (1941) ["Little Old World"] and was a critical sensation in We the Living (1942) ["We the Living"]. She briefly abandoned her career, however, in 1943, refusing to appear in what she considered fascist propaganda, and was forced into hiding. The next year she married surrealist painter/pianist/composer Oscar De Mejo. They had two children, and one of them, Carlo De Mejo, became an actor. She divorced in 1955, then she came back to Italy,
Following her potent, award-winning work in the title role of Eugenie Grandet (1946), she was discovered and contracted by David O. Selznick to play the murder suspect Maddalena Paradine in Alfred Hitchcock's The Paradine Case (1947). She was billed during her Hollywood years simply as "Valli," and Selznick also gave her top femme female billing in Carol Reed's classic film noir The Third Man (1949), but for every successful film--such as the ones previously mentioned--she experienced such failures as The Miracle of the Bells (1948), and audiences stayed away. In 1951 she bid farewell to Hollywood and returned to her beloved Italy. In Europe again, she was sought after by the best directors. Her countess in Luchino Visconti's Senso (1954) was widely heralded, and she moved easily from ingénue to vivid character roles. Later standout films encompassed costume dramas as well as shockers and had her playing everything from baronesses to grandmothers in such films as Eyes Without a Face (1960) ["Eyes Without a Face"], Le gigolo (1960), Oedipus Rex (1967) ["Oedipus Rex"], The Big Scare (1974), 1900 (1976), Suspiria (1977), Luna (1979), Inferno (1980), Aspern (1982), A Month by the Lake (1995) and, her most recent, Angel of Death (2001).- After more than ten years playing bits and co-starring roles in movies, she attained stardom in Mario Soffici's Rosaura a las 10 (1958). Next she went to Spain, where she played leading roles in many films. Back in Argentina in the mid-sixties, since then she gave able performances in movies, theatre and television. Married and divorced to actors Alberto Berco and Rudy Carrié. Her daughter is actress Roxana Berco.
- Actress
- Writer
- Soundtrack
Libertad Lamarque was born November 24, 1908 in Rosario, Argentina, the youngest of ten children of Gaudencio Lamarque, an Uruguayan tinsmith who was worked as a contortionist in her youth, and Josefa Bouza, a Spanish immigrant. Since her childhood, Libertad Lamarque demonstrated a great talent for the performance and also for the song. Her debut as actress was at 7 years old and at 12 she was pro. In 1922 the family Lamarque emigrated to Buenos Aires and she began to work in the theater. At 18, she recorded her first LP of tangos (popular music of Argentina), obtaining an immediate success and she married with Emilio Romero (the father of Mirtha, her only daughter), then she played the silent movie "Adios, Argentina" (1930) and "Tango" (1933), which was, by the way, the first sound movie filmed in Argentina, and during the next 65 years all her works were starring with her name. In 1945 Libertad Lamarque was already known as an excellent dramatic actress and singer of tangos, boleros and folkloric songs of Latin America and she was received the nickname of "La Novia de América" (The Bride of the Americas) and also she even stood out as writer (she wrote the script of "Ayúdame a vivir"). However, not everything was happiness: her first husband died after their divorce and she lived an unpleasant incident with the (in this time) actress Eva Duarte (known after as Eva Perón, the famous Argentinean First Lady know nowadays simply as Evita) while they filmed "La cabalgata del circo." So, Libertad Lamarque (like other Argentinean artists of the time), suffered a non-official veto to her movies and while she was in tour for Latin America, she and her second (and last) husband, Alfredo Malerba settled in Mexico and there continued her very successful career, although in 1960 she returned to Argentina to make a movie. During her very extensive career, Libertad Lamarque filmed 65 movies (21 in Argentina, 43 in Mexico and 1 in Spain) and 6 soap operas, recorded more than 800 songs and many musicals and made many theatrical pieces; however, she says: "I am very lazy". When she is not acting or in shows, Lamarque lives between Miami, Florida (where she resides since 1996 with her personal assistant, Irene López) and Buenos Aires, Argentina where she visits her family (daughter, son-in-law, 5 grandsons and 10 great-grandchildren). Libertad Lamarque assures that doesn't have intentions of retiring of the show business: "I will continue working while I have a good pulse to makeup myself" she said.- Actress
- Costume and Wardrobe Department
- Costume Designer
Austrian leading lady Nadja Tiller reached the height of her popularity during the 1950s and 60s. She was the daughter of stage actor and director Anton Tiller and his wife, the opera singer Erika Körner (1902-1979). It seemed that Nadja's career had been marked out for her early on: she was to take over a hairdressing establishment run by her grandparents in Danzig (now Gdansk). However, the war put paid to this. In 1945, having found a new calling, she enrolled at the Max-Reinhardt Seminar to take dance, ballet and drama classes while working part time as a mannequin in a hat salon. She completed her studies four years later at the University of Music and Performing Arts. That same year, Tiller was voted Miss Austria (she won again in 1951) which helped to secure her first theatrical engagement in the Theater in der Josefstadt. Her screen debut, a small part in the Beethoven biopic Eroica (1949) was cut, but she soon after made her first appearance in Märchen vom Glück (1949), a romantic musical comedy starring matinee idol O.W. Fischer. Tiller then played a rival to Hildegard Knef for the affections of Hardy Krüger in the melodrama Illusion in Moll (1952) and proceeded with leading roles in several undemanding lightweight farces like Einmal keine Sorgen haben (1953), Die Kaiserin von China (1953) and Mädchen mit Zukunft (1954). At his point in her career, Tiller's stock-in-trade heroines were most often worldly flirts or fashionable sophisticates.
Her fortunes took an upswing under the director Rolf Thiele who provided her with more challenging material in dramas like Friederike von Barring (1956), Lulu (1962) (both title roles) and, as an Egyptian dancer, in El Hakim (1957). In the repressed and conservative 50s, her breakout role as the titular prostitute in Thiele's socially conscious masterpiece Rosemary (1958) was viewed by some as scandalous and others as sensational, as it exposed the hypocrisy of people and institutions. Rosemary won not only the German Film Critics Award but also a Golden Globe in the U.S. for Best Foreign Language Film. Nadja Tiller emerged from this venture as an international star.
By the late 50s, Tiller featured prominently in many French, Italian, English and American productions, opposite stars like Jean Marais (King on Horseback (1958) and Killer Spy (1965)), Jean Gabin (The Night Affair (1958)), Jean-Paul Belmondo (Tender Scoundrel (1966)), Rod Steiger (The World in My Pocket (1961)) and Yul Brynner (The Poppy Is Also a Flower (1966)). From the mid-70s, having transitioned to character roles, she alternated appearances on television with theatrical engagements in Lübeck, Berlin, Hamburg and Vienna, often in boulevard dramas.
From 1956 until his death in 2011, Tiller was married to the actor Walter Giller. Dubbed the 'Traumpaar' (dream couple), they appeared in several films together, their last as two feisty pensioners in the comedy Dinosaurier (2009). Tiller passed away in a Hamburg retirement home on February 21 2023 at the age of 93.Austria
Austrian Actress. 125 acting credits, 1949-2009.
Stolen Identity (1953). '53. Austria.
Costume designer.
Riff Raff Girls (1959). '59.
Riff Raff Girls. France /Italy. Filmed in France.
Portrait of a Sinner (1959). 59. UK.
The Nina B. Affair (1961). '61. France/West Germany.
The Nina B. Affair. Filmed in Germany.
The World in My Pocket (1961). '61. West Germany/France/Italy.
The World in My Pocket. Filmed in Berlin, Germany and Marseille, France.
Lulu (1962) '62. Austria. Filmed in Vienna.
The Burning Court (1962). '62. France/Italy/West Germany
The Burning Court.
4... The Upper Hand (1966). '66.
The Upper Hand. France /West Germany /Italy. Filmed in: London, England. Munich, Bavaria, Germany. Paris, France. Tokyo, Japan.
3... The Night Affair (1958). '58. France.
The Night Affair.
10... Illusion in Moll (1952). '52. West Germany.
3... Banktresor 713 (1957). '57. West Germany.- Actress
- Writer
- Producer
Fernanda Torres was born on 15 September 1965 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. She is an actress and writer, known for Terra Estrangeira (1995), Gêmeas (1999) and Normal People (2001). She has been married to Andrucha Waddington since 1997. They have two children. She was previously married to Gerald Thomas.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Born in Königsberg in 1935, Renate Ewert and her family had to leave their home and relocate to Hamburg during WWII. As she was determined to become an actress, she applied for the "Hamburger Kammerspiele" but was rejected. By doing synchronising jobs for foreign movies she finally got her first role in the third part of 08/15 - In der Heimat (1955). After that one, she appeared in a number of movies as the seductive, mysterious girl but never got the dramatic parts she was eager to play.
She had affairs with some famous actors of the time but these didn't help her career. At the middle of the 60s she didn't get many offers anymore and turned to tablets and alcohol. At the 10th of December of 1966, she was found dead by a friend, actress Susanne Cramer, who wanted to visit her in her apartment: she had died three weeks previously, probably by starvation.
Her parents couldn't deal with Renate Ewert's untimely death: They poisoned themselves not long after their daughter died.- Marie-Louise Fock was born on 20 May 1920 in Turku, Finland. She was an actress, known for Tåg norrut (1952), Sellaisena kuin sinä minut halusit (1944) and Sådan du ville ha mig (1944). She died on 26 February 2016.
- Actress
- Soundtrack
Wilhelmenia Fernandez was born on 5 January 1949 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. She was an actress, known for Diva (1981), Someone to Watch Over Me (1987) and La Bohème (1980). She was married to Ormon Fernandez and Andrew William Smith . She died on 2 February 2024 in Lexington, Kentucky, USA.- Actress
- Director
- Writer
Sophie Marceau was born Sophie Danièle Sylvie Maupu in Paris, France, to Simone (Morisset), a shop assistant, and Benoît Maupu, a truck driver. She grew up far from the studio spotlights. When she was 14 she was living in the Paris suburb of Gentilly with her father. She learned from friends that director Claude Pinoteau was looking for new faces for a movie about teenagers called The Party (1980). She auditioned for the role, got it, and the film was a success. She played in The Party 2 (1982), then bought back her contract with Gaumont when she was 16 years old for one million French francs. She is a critically acclaimed actress, having received the Cesar for Best Feminine Hope for "La Boum 2" in 1983. She was elected Romantic actress for Chouans! (1988) at the Festival International du Film Romantique (International Festival of Romantic Movie) of Cabourg in 1988, and was awarded the Moliere of the Best Theatrical Revelation for "Eurydice et Pygmalion" in 1994.- A classic beauty, blonde French actress Michèle Morgan was one of her country's most popular leading ladies for over five decades. Born Simone Renee Roussel on Leap Year Day (February 29) in 1920, she ran away from home as a teenager and studied acting under René Simon, beginning her film career at 16 working as a film extra to pay for drama classes.
The young actress soon caught the eye of director Marc Allégret, who cast her in Heart of Paris (1937), which clinched her stardom. Her remote, enigmatic features and gloomy allure had audiences comparing her to a young Greta Garbo. She went on to appear elegantly opposite Charles Boyer in the drama Orage (1938) directed by Allegret; opposite Jean Gabin in Moth and the Flame (1938) directed by Marcel Carné, as well as both Coral Reefs (1939) and Remorques (1941). She had her first top-billed roles in L'entraîneuse (1939) and La loi du nord (1939).
Michèle's eventual fled war-torn France for Hollywood and earned roles based purely on her European prestige. She did not stand out among the other female foreign imports of that time, however, such as Ingrid Bergman. Cast in rather routine sultry roles amid WWII surroundings, she received only a modest reception for such US-based films as Joan of Paris (1942) with Paul Henreid; Two Tickets to London (1943) with Alan Curtis; Passage to Marseille (1944) opposite Humphrey Bogart; and the noirish The Chase (1946) starring Robert Cummings.
Michèle succeeded much better at home continuing prolifically in such films as The Proud and the Beautiful (1953), The Moment of Truth (1952), Oasis (1955), The Grand Maneuver (1955), Shadow of the Guillotine (1956) (as Marie Antoinette), Grand Hotel (1959), Bluebeard (1963), Web of Fear (1964), The Diary of an Innocent Boy (1968) and Cat and Mouse (1975). Back in the late 1940's, she received the very first Cannes Film Festival award for "best actress" for her touching performance as the blind heroine in Pastoral Symphony (1946). She also received an honorary Cesar Award in 1992.
Married during the war and early post-war years (1942-1949) to American actor/singer William Marshall, Michèle's second husband was handsome Gallic star Henri Vidal and they appeared together in a couple of films, including both the historical drama Fabiola (1949) and romantic drama La belle que voilà (1950), plus The Seven Deadly Sins (1952) (albeit different "sin" segments) and Napoleon (1955). Following Vidal's sudden death of a heart at age 40 in 1959, the actress married a third time one year later to well-known French actor/writer/director Gérard Oury. They had unbilled cameos in A Man and a Woman: 20 Years Later (1986). She was left a widow in 2006.
Semi-retired by the 1970's, Michèle's last feature film was a small bit in the Marcello Mastroianni film Everybody's Fine (1990). She retired in 1999 after a few sporadic 90's TV parts. She died in her home town of Hauts-de-Seine, France on December 20, 2016, at age 96.France
Obsession (1954). '54. France/Italy
Retour de manivelle (1957). '57. There's Always a Price Tag. France/Italy.
Filmed in Alpes -Maritimes, France.
Bluebeard (1963). '63. Bluebeard. France/Italy.
Filmed in France.
Les yeux cernés (1964). '64. Marked Eyes. France/Italy.
Filmed in Austria.
Web of Fear (1964). '64. Web of Fear.
France/Spain.
2... The Chase (1946). '46. - Madeleine Robinson grew up in a struggling working class background but found her métier as an actress after attending the theater school run by Charles Dullin, six years that she considered the happiest of her life. The stage would stay her main love even though she would lend her striking presence to over 100 roles in film and on Tv over six decades.She was particularly acclaimed in the theater for her Blanche in A Streetcar Named Desire (a role Arletty also played) and her ferocious Martha in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf. Sensitive to what she saw as unfair treatment by the French press and media she left her native country after 50 years and retired to Switzerland. She was still able to catch touring productions of plays there, but this way, she said in an interview, she was able to see only the worthwhile ones and not the mediocre ones she might have gone to were she still in Paris. She wrote a memoir on her career, Belle Et Rebelle. She regretted never having become a "star" in the sense that she was the woman the main male character would embrace in the fadeout, but she was grateful for the fellow actors she got to know and for getting to work with major directors like Jean Gremillon.France
Such a Pretty Little Beach (1949). '49. France/Netherlands.
Such a Pretty Little Beach.
Filmed in France.
Savage Triangle (1951). '51. France.
Savage Triangle.
Minuit... Quai de Bercy (1953). '53. France.
Midnight...Quai de Bercy.
Web of Passion (1959). '59. France/Italy
Leda.
Filmed in France. - Actress
- Soundtrack
Dawn Addams was born in Felixstowe, East Suffolk, England, the daughter of Captain James Ramage Addams, an R.A.F. officer. Much of her childhood was spent in Calcutta, India, where her father was stationed, and she later attended schools in England and California. Though Dawn took her first screen test at the age of thirteen, she did not start acting until after her graduation from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London. Her career commenced on the repertory stage, with tours of both Britain and continental Europe. Signed to a contract by MGM in 1950, Dawn appeared in her first feature film, Night Into Morning (1951). She acted in several other well-received A-grade productions, including Plymouth Adventure (1952), Young Bess (1953) and The Robe (1953). For Otto Preminger's vaguely controversial The Moon Is Blue (1953), Dawn's services were rented out by MGM to United Artists. In January 1953, she joined other MGM contract stars on a USO tour of Korea. In Charles Chaplin's A King in New York (1957) she had another starring opportunity as an advertising woman who gets involved with royalty. That seemed to mirror her personal life, since Dawn became an actress-princess (prior to Grace Kelly getting that gig) by marrying the Italian nobleman Don Vittorio Massimo in 1954. The marriage ended after just four years in separation and was finally dissolved in 1971.
By the early 1960s, offers of glamorous roles had diminished, and Dawn was down to playing hapless heroines in European co-productions, second string horrors like The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll (1960) (as Jekyll's wife Kitty who ends up being raped and driven to suicide by his evil alter-ego, Mr. Hyde) and potboilers like Fritz Lang's final directorial effort The 1,000 Eyes of Dr. Mabuse (1960). She spent the remainder of her career alternating between stage and television work in England, eventually remarrying and settling down in Malta. In April 1985, Dawn was treated for cancer in Florida but died soon after at a London hospital at the age of 54.Germany
UK actress
The 1,000 Eyes of Dr. Mabuse (1960). '60. France/Italy/West Germany.
The 1000 Eyes of Dr. Mabuse.
Filmed in Berlin.- Gina Falckenberg was born on 14 September 1907 in Emmering, Fürstenfeldbruck, Bavaria, Germany. She was an actress and writer, known for Ein Unsichtbarer geht durch die Stadt (1933), Ab Mitternacht (1938) and Vento di primavera (1958). She was married to Giulio Del Torre. She died on 12 February 1996 in Lucca, Tuscany, Italy.
- Actress
- Additional Crew
This lovely, docile, sensitive-appearing blonde French leading lady started impressively in films at age 6, making a most notable debut in René Clément's Forbidden Games (1952). She abandoned acting a few years later for schooling and a normal upbringing. After a brief career as an interpreter and translator, she returned to the cinema as a young adult and met with great award-worthy success in mostly European movies, including François Truffaut's The Man Who Loved Women (1977), Chanel Solitaire (1981), etc.- Actress
- Producer
- Director
Olga Chekhova (also Olga Tschechova in German), one of the most popular stars of the silent film era, remained a mysterious person throughout her life and was accused of being a Russian agent in Nazi Germany.
She was born Olga Konstantinovna von Knipper on April 26, 1897, in Aleksandropol, Transcaucasia, Russian Empire (now Gyumri, Armenia). She was the second of 3 children in a bilingual Russian-German family. Her father, Konstantin Leonardovich Knipper, a Lutheran of German descent. He made a military career in Russia as a railroad engineer. Young Olga studied art and literature at an art school in St. Petersburg. Later as an immigrant in Germany she claimed friendship with the family of Tsar Nicholas II--who also was of German origin--and that she had encountered the notorious Russian mystic and monk, Grigory Rasputin. In reality, she was sent from St. Petersburg to Moscow to her aunt, actress Olga Knipper-Chekhova, to study acting at Moscow Art Theatre. In 1914, at age 17, she eloped with Russian-Jewish actor Michael Chekhov, nephew of Anton Chekhov.
Olga adored her husband, Michael Chekhov, a rising star of stage and film. But he met another beauty, Xenia Zimmer, and became involved in extramarital affair while Olga was pregnant with their child. Their daughter, Ada Tschechowa, was born in 1916. Olga separated from Michael Chekhov during the tragic time of the Russian Revolution in 1917. That same year she made her film debut in a Russian silent film, Anya Kraeva (1918).
Olga claimed that she fled Russia disguised as a peasant woman and posed as a mute while carrying a diamond ring in her mouth. In reality she married an officer in the Austro-Hungarian army, Friedrich Jaroshi, and took a train from the Moscow Belorussky station to Vienna, Austria, having travel documents from the Russian Commissar of Culture (and she was also helped by the Russian intelligence agency in exchange for her cooperation). She was later invited to the Soviet Embassy in Berlin for meetings with Soviet officials. In Germany she was introduced to film producer Erich Pommer and renowned director F.W. Murnau, who gave her a leading role in his film, The Haunted Castle (1921). She quickly became a huge star in Europe and played in more than 40 silent films during the decade. Olga was joined by ex-husband Michael Chekhov in several films, including Der Narr seiner Liebe (1929) (aka "The Fool of Love"), which she also directed.
Future Nazi leader Adolf Hitler reportedly fell for Olga upon seeing her cold and beautiful face in several films in the 1920s. She was famous for her movie image as a baroness and was courted in the 1930s by Luftwaffe boss Hermann Göring and by Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels. Some wives of high-ranking Nazi officials were jealous of and hated the beautiful Olga. Goebbels was known to have visited her home on several occasions when he wanted to be away from his Nazi "activities". He invited Olga to several Nazi receptions and introduced her to Adolf Hitler in April 1933. Olga became a personal friend of Hitler and was photographed sitting next to "Der Fuhrer" at official events of the Nazi Party. She also received valuable Christmas gifts from Hitler, and regular birthday presents and other tokens of his attention.
In 1936 Olga was honored with the title of "State Actress" of the Third Reich and was made a German citizen. She married a wealthy Belgian businessman, Marcel Robyns. One day prior to the wedding she had a private reception with Hitler, who gave her permission to retain her German citizenship. Two years later she divorced Robyns and returned to her high-society life in Berlin. Her famous 1939 photo-op with Hitler was thoroughly analyzed in Moscow.
She was invited by Soviet officials to join Hermann Göring and Joachim von Ribbentrop at the meeting with Vyacheslav Molotov and Gen. V. N. Merkulov at the Soviet Embassy in Berlin in 1940. At that time Olga was associated with her agent-brother Lev Knipper, who was sent from Moscow to Germany on a secret mission to assassinate Adolf Hitler. The plan was to use one of Olga's visits with Hitler for a suicide attack on the Fuhrer. Olga was kept oblivious of the plan, which was aborted by an order from Joseph Stalin, who became paranoid about the possibility of Germany's alliance with Britain if Hitler was killed. Interestingly, Stalin and Hitler were both amateur film directors in the 1920s, but as dictators they now directed the course of history.
Olga was invited by Josef Goebbels to the official reception in Berlin in July of 1941, only a month after the Nazis invaded Russia and Luftwaffe bombings caused massive devastation to Russian cities. Goebbels announced the planned occupation of Moscow.
She was being investigated by the SS on orders from SS leader Heinrich Himmler. She was constantly under surveillance by both Nazi and Soviet agents in her Berlin home. As the war progressed and conditions got progressively worse for the Nazi regime, party bosses became increasingly paranoid. Himmler was planning to arrest her in January of 1945. One early morning she was informed of Himmler's move. She immediately called him directly with a request for a favor--to let her finish her morning cup of coffee comfortably. When SS commandos surrounded her home Himmler opened her door and was met by an angry Adolf Hitler, who in no uncertain terms informed Himmler that he had made a mistake.
Olga was a beautiful pawn in a dangerous game between the two most destructive powers in the Second World War. She survived through acting, cheating, lying and disguise. She protected her daughter Ada from Nazi anti-Semitism by hiding the fact that her ex-husband, Michael Chekhov, was Jewish. Her brother Lev Knipper was held in a Nazi concentration camp and managed to survive because of his perfect German (and probably with her help). During the savage battle for Berlin just before the war's end, Olga hid in a bomb shelter and was eventually taken prisoner by the Red Army. She was flown to Moscow in April of 1945, for debriefing at the offices of Soviet secret police officials Viktor Abakumov and Lavrenti Beria. She discreetly attended the Moscow Art Theatre performance of "The Cherry Orchard" starring her aunt Olga Knipper-Chekhova in May of 1945. They were not allowed to talk and her aunt Olga fainted backstage.
After two months of interrogations in Moscow, on June 26, 1945, Olga was flown back to Berlin, where she was assisted by the Soviet Army. She was given money and moved in to a Soviet-supervised house on Spree Strasse in the Soviet sector of East Berlin. Several articles in the French and British presses stated that she was a clandestine agent and secretly decorated by the Soviet government. She praised the Russian victory over the Nazis in a private letter to her aunt Olga Knipper-Chekhova. Meanwhile, the film she made in Hollywood turned out to be a flop in the US market, mainly because of her heavy Russian accent.
She continued a film career in Europe and ran her own film production company, Venus-Film Olga Tschechowa. In 1950 she moved to Munich and starred in several films. In 1955 she used her star power to launch a successful cosmetics company, "Olga Tscheschowa Kosmetik Geselschaft." Her remarkable acting career, spanning almost 60 years, ended in 1978, with a small film role as a grandmother.
Her personal file was temporarily available for viewing at the KGB archives in Moscow. One report on her was prepared and signed by the notoriously brutal KGB chief Viktor S. Abakumov. On that report a handwritten question was left by a reader in Kremlin: "What do you suggest to be done with Ms. Chekhova?", the handwriting was by Joseph Stalin. Stalin was quoted as having said, "The actress Olga Chekhova will be very useful in the post-war years", and she probably was. One of her films was titled Der Mann, der zweimal leben wollte (1950), or "The Man Who Wanted to Live Two Lives"--and that was exactly what she did.
In 1955, Olga was saddened by the death of Michael Chekhov. In 1966, Olga suffered from another tragedy: her only daughter Ada died in an airplane crash. Devastated by the painful loss, Olga suffered from bouts of depression and turned to alcohol, but she survived thanks to her strong will and lust for life. She lived for another fifteen years, played a few more roles in the movies, and saw her great-grandchildren grow. Moments before she died, sensing the end was near, she ordered a glass of champagne from her granddaughter Vera Tschechowa. That was March 9, 1980, in Munich, Germany.
Her last words were, "Life is beautiful!"- Ildikó Bánsági was born on 19 October 1947 in Budapest, Hungary. She is an actress, known for Passion (1998), Fekete gyémántok (1977) and Confidence (1980).Hungary
98 acting credits, 1966-2012.
Passion (1998). '98
Szenvedely. Passion. The Postman Always Rings Twice. - Actress
- Director
- Soundtrack
Sadhana was born on September 2, 1941 and was named after her father's favorite actress Sadhona Bose. Her father and actor Hari Shivdasani were brothers, and Hari's daughter is actress Babita Kapoor. Sadhana was an only child and her parents made her the center of their lives; in fact, her mother home-schooled her until she was 8 years old. The family fled from Karachi in Pakistan during Post Partition riots. Although they encountered difficult times, their daughter was allowed to see as many as two films a week. When she was 15 years old, she was discovered by some producers who had seen her act in a college play. They cast her in India's first Sindhi film titled Abana (1960), where she played the heroine's younger sister for which she was paid a token of Rps. 1 and the film became a major hit. A photograph of her publicizing the film appeared in a movie magazine. Subodh Mukherji, one of India's leading producers at that time, saw the magazine and gave her the lead role in her first Hindi film Love in Simla (1959), opposite his newcomer son, Joy Mukherjee. The film was directed by another newcomer, R.K. Nayyar, who created her trademark look called 'the Sadhana fringe.' It was modeled after Audrey Hepburn's hairstyle to cover up Sadhana's flaw, her broad forehead. The film became a great success and Sadhana became a overnight star. She also fell in love with the film's director, but she was only 16 years old, and her parents threatened the 22-year-old Nayyar with legal action if he didn't end the relationship. He became scared and backed away.
Sadhana continued making films and became the one of the biggest stars of the 1960s with hits like Mere Mehboob, Hum Dono, and Asli-Naqli. In addition to the 'Sadhana fringe,' she started the trend of the churidar pyjama and kameez with saleem shai in the film Waqt (1965). Her acting in that film was appreciated too, as she was nominated for a Film Fare Award as Best Actress.
Sadhana had stated that she subconsciously modeled her acting style after her idol, Nutan. Most of her films were major hits, and many of them still remembered as all time classics. Her films such as Ek Musafir Ek Hasina, Raaj Kumar, Budtameez and Arzoo were known for their romantic plots and beautiful music, but Raj Khosla, her director in Ek Musafir Ek Hasina, saw an enigmatic, mysterious side to Sadhana and cast her in Woh Kaun Thi (1964). The film became a huge hit with its themes of the Alfred Hitchcock film Vertigo (1958) and gave Sadhana her signature role of the "mystery girl," where her performance kept everyone guessing till the very end. She was nominated for a Film Fare Award as Best Actress, and Khosla later directed her in two more box-office hit suspense thrillers, Mera Saaya (1965)and Anita (1968).
Sadhana also worked well with her leading men, Shammi Kapoor, Sunil Dutt, Rajendra Kumar, and Raj Kapoor. In fact, it was Raj Kapoor who reintroduced her to her first film director, R.K. Nayyar. They fell in love again and wanted to get married. Her mother was against it, since Nayyar wasn't a Sindhi and wanted someone who looked like actor Rajendra Kumar Tuli, but Sadhana was adamant and with her father backing her up, her mother eventually came around. Sadhana and Nayyar married in 1966 and it seemed like she retired from films. At first, she was content to be a housewife and took cooking lessons and became well-known in the film industry for her culinary skills. But she had serious health problems with her thyroid, and she went to Boston for treatment and she recovered, but there was a physical change. The thyroid condition affected the appearance of her eyes. Her husband's financial problems propelled her return to films after a two-year absence and delivered the hit film Inteqam (1969) directed by her husband followed by by another hit film Ek Phool Do Mali (1969). She and Nayyar went through a difficult time when she suffered a miscarriage. Later they had no children. She directed and starred in her last film playing dual roles in Geeta Mera Naam (1974), which was a box office hit. She wanted to end her acting career in Hindi films just as she started, in a starring role as a young heroine. She didn't want to play supporting character roles as a old mother or a bhabhi (sister-in-law), so she retired as an actress and formed a production company with her husband. Their marriage lasted until his death in the 1990s. She closed down the production company and retired, quietly living the life of a widow. The real-life "mystery girl" rarely gave interviews and didn't like to be photographed saying that she wants her fans to remember her as a young, beautiful, heroine. She faced turbulent times in her later years. Sadhana lived as an tenant in an apartment building for many years, when the builder wanted to evict her in 2012. Suddenly, she was thrust into the public eye when she went to the police station to file a complaint against the builder. Several court cases came out of this incident, and the stress took a toll on her fragile health. She also was estranged from her cousin Babita Kapoor because of a family problem. She did keep in touch with her friends Waheeda Rehman, Asha Parekh, Helen, and Nanda Karnataki. She once said that she and Nanda were alike, since they don't step out at public events. However, when Nanda died in 2014, she lost her comrade, and thus she suddenly changed her stance on public events. Just a few weeks later, she invited her relative, actor Ranbir Kapoor, to escort her on the ramp of a fashion show for charity. She wore a beautiful pink sari and took center-stage on the arm of the handsome young Kapoor. She looked cheerful and glamorous being in the limelight with the audience applauding her. That turned out to be her last public event, and the star that she was, she wanted that to be her lasting impression on her fans. It also left a lasting impression on her, since she kept a framed picture of her and Ranbir from that fashion show on her nightstand. A year-and-a-half later, on December 25, 2015, she died from a high fever. Her friends, fans, and the film industry veterans all attended her funeral.- Actress
Shyama was born on 7 June 1935 in Lahore, Punjab, British India. She was an actress, known for Sharada (1957), Khazanchi (1958) and Aar-Paar (1954). She was married to Fali Mistry. She died on 14 November 2017 in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India.- Annabella Incontrera was born on 11 June 1943 in Milan, Lombardy, Italy. She was an actress, known for Eneide (1971), The Assassination Bureau (1969) and The Ambushers (1967). She was married to Guglielmo Biraghi. She died on 19 September 2004 in Rome, Italy.
- Green-eyed blonde bombshell Belinda Lee was born in Devon, England to florist Stella Mary Graham and hotel owner Robert Esmond Lee on June 15, 1935. Nicknamed "Billie," she was an incredible beauty while still a teen attending the Rookesbury Park Prep School in Hampshire and St. Margaret's boarding school in Devon. Expressing an avid interest in acting, she focused on dramatics at the Tudor Arts Academy at Surrey (1947), then gained entry via a scholarship to London's RADA, at which she made her stage debut in "Point of Departure."
Sharp-faced Belinda was noticed by Rank Studio director Val Guest while performing at the Nottingham Playhouse. She was artificially groomed in starlet parts, the first being The Runaway Bus (1954), until Guest helped her obtain a movie contract with Rank and introduced her to one of Rank's prime still photographers, Cornel Lucas. That year she married the much-older Lucas, who helped promote her as a sex goddess with thousands of glamorous photographs.
Belinda was promoted as a docile young beauty, but her parts grew sexier. She worked intently in films but became frustrated with being stereotyped as a buxom peroxide blonde. Boxed in as a second-string Diana Dors, she played a sensuous foil to Benny Hill in Who Done It? (1956) and was served up as sexy window-dressing opposite both John Gregson in Miracle in Soho (1957) and Louis Jourdan in Dangerous Exile (1957).
Now estranged from Lucas, Belinda headed off to Italy for a change of pace and atmosphere but only found more of the temptress roles she tried to avoid--Aphrodite, Messalina, and Lucrezia Borgia--in low-budget spectacles. She also became preoccupied with married men, one being Prince Filippo Orsini, whose position with the Vatican led to a major scandal. This particular turbulent romance and a dissipating relationship with the Rank Studio (her last picture for the studio was Elephant Gun (1958) with Michael Craig) triggered a near-fatal suicide attempt with pills in January 1958. She later divorced Lucas and continued her torrid affair with Prince Orsini, then others.
It all ended much too soon for the 25-year-old when she decided to join her current love, the much-older Italian playboy/journalist/film producer Gualtiero Jacopetti, on a trip to Las Vegas, where he was working on a documentary (Women of the World (1963). While she, Jacopetti, and co-producer Paolo Cavara were auto passengers on their way to Los Angeles from Vegas, their driver lost control of their speeding car and flipped. The 25-year-old actress was thrown from the car and died of a fractured skull and broken neck. The other three escaped with fairly minor injuries. She was cremated in the States and her ashes were eventually returned to Rome and placed in the Campo Cestio Cemetery. - Actress
- Director
- Writer
She was born in Viareggio (Tuscany, Italy) on June 5th, 1946. She won a beauty contest when she was just 15 years old, which led to her first role in "Il federale" together with the great Italian actor Ugo Tognazzi. She was then cast by Germi for the Italian comedy "Divorzio all'Italiana", working with Marcello Mastroianni, but she became well known a few years later performing in the movie "Sedotta e abbandonata". At 16 she had a relationship with the Italian musician Gino Paoli and in 1964 she gave birth to her first daughter Amanda. In the 70s she worked with directors Bernardo Bertolucci, Ettore Scola, Comencini and acted with Vittorio Gassman, Dustin Hoffman (Alfredo, Alfredo), Robert De Niro and Gerard Depardieu (Novecento). In the 80s she performed her sexiest role in "La chiave" by Tinto Brass, which made her an erotic icon for a whole generation of men, and participated in important Italian movies (for example Speriamo che sia femmina, with Catherine Deneuve and Liv Ullman). In the 90s she especially worked for tv series and became very popular as Gigi Proietti's fiancée in "Il Maresciallo Rocca". She worked a little less for the cinema industry, nevertheless she participated in Bertolucci's "Io ballo da sola" and in Muccino's "L'ultimo bacio", where she portrayed a woman in the deep of a midlife crises. On September 10th 2005 she received the Golden Lion at the 62th Venice Film Festival for her life achievements.
Stefania Sandrelli represents one of the few actresses who are able to age gracefully and still get interesting roles. She is still regarded as one of the most beautiful women in Italy and she is still able to charm the audience with her sweet smile and sparkling eyes.Italy
127 acting credits, 1961-present.
Devil in the Brain (1972). '72. Italy/France.
Filmed in Italy.- Actress
- Soundtrack
From an early age her dream was to become an actress. Her first application for acting studies at The Royal Dramatic Theater in 1944 was unsuccessful. After additional dramatic coaching she was finally accepted in 1947. But screenwriter Edwin Blum arranged a screen test for RKO which eventually led to her being offered a contract with Universal Studios. It was a hard choice but she accepted and left her studies after one semester. In Hollywood she quickly made 10 movies, including Sirocco (1951) with Humphrey Bogart. From 1952 she accepted movie offers from Italy with more demanding roles. She married director Leonardo Bercovici on June 13, 1952, and gave birth to a daughter. In early 1957, she went back to Sweden for her stage debut in a play by J.B. Priestley. She died one month later, at the age of 30, of a brain hemorrhage.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Hizuru Takachiho was born on 10 October 1932 in Kobe, Japan. She is an actress, known for Haitoku no mesu (1961), Zero Focus (1961) and Mitsu-kubi-tou (1956).- Actress
- Music Department
Atsuko Tanaka was born on 14 November 1962 in Gunma, Japan. She is an actress, known for Ghost in the Shell (1995), Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence (2004) and Ghost in the Shell 2.0 (2008).- Actress
- Soundtrack
Sofía Álvarez was born on 23 May 1913 in Bogota, Colombia. She was an actress, known for The Golden Barge (1947), You're Missing the Point (1940) and La reina de la opereta (1946). She died on 30 April 1985 in Mexico City, Mexico.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Rosa Carmina was born on 19 November 1929 in Havana, Cuba. She is an actress, known for La diosa de Tahití (1953), Gángsters contra charros (1948) and Sandra, la mujer de fuego (1954). She was previously married to Juan Orol.- Actress
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Sara Montiel was born in the village of Campo de Criptana, province of Ciudad Real, in the region of Castille-La Mancha, Spain. Her parents were Isidoro Abad, a peasant, and Maria Vicenta Fernández, a door-to-door beautician. The future star was christened Maria Antonia Alejandra Abad Fernández. Barely in her teens, she won a beauty and talent contest held by Cifesa, the most influential Spanish film studio of that era. She was promptly signed to a movie contract and in 1944 made her debut playing a teenager in Te quiero para mí (1944), credited in the cast as "Maria Alejandra". By the end of 1944 she was given the starring role in Empezó en boda (1944), which introduced her with a more adult image and a new name: Sara Montiel.
In the next four years she appeared in 14 films, including her first international success Locura de amor (1948), which led to a long term-contract in Mexico. She quickly established herself as one of the most popular film actors of the decade. starring in over a dozen films between 1950 and 1954. Hollywood came calling and she was formally introduced to American moviegoers in Vera Cruz (1954), playing Gary Cooper's love interest. Later she worked at Warner Bros. in Serenade (1956) with Mario Lanza, directed by Anthony Mann, who became her first husband. After starring in Samuel Fuller's Run of the Arrow (1957) with Rod Steiger, Sarita shot El último cuplé (1957) ("The Last Song") in Spain, a musical production that turned out to be the biggest box-office success in Spain's film history. It played for over a year in the same theaters in which it opened. A similar reaction followed in Western Europe and Latin America. Sarita Montiel had become the most popular actress-singer of 1957 and a national treasure for Spain.
The unprecedented success of "El Último Cuplé" threw a wrench into her Hollywood career, as she was offered a multimillion-dollar contract to star in four films in Europe. Her next vehicle, La violetera (1958) ("The Violet Peddler"), confirmed Sara's popularity and broke the box-office records set by the previous movie. The theme song from "La Violetera" became Montiel's signature song. The soundtrack albums from both films reportedly outsold Elvis Presley and Frank Sinatra in the world market. From then on, Sarita would combine the making of films with the recording of highly successful albums and live concerts in four continents. By 1962 she had become a legend to millions of fans worldwide, reaching markets that had previously been uncharted territory for Spanish cinema. Among her many blockbusters of the 1960s were Mi último tango (1960), Pecado de amor (1961), La bella Lola (1962), La reina del Chantecler (1962) and Esa mujer (1969).
However, by the 1970s her interest in films diminished, due largely to the almost pornographic turn of Spanish films in the late-Francisco Franco era when censorship was abolished and she retired from films in 1974. Her activities turned mainly to recording and stage work, and she achieved uncontested successes with her stage shows "Sara en Persona" (1970-73), "Saritísima" (1974-75), "Increible Sara" (1977-78), "Super Sara Show"(1979-80), "Doña Sara de La Mancha" (1981-82), "Taxi Vamos Al Victoria" (1983-84), "Nostalgia" (1985-86), "Sara, Siempre Sara" (1987-88) and others.
In the 1990s Sara surprised everyone by branching out into television: Sara y punto (1990), a mini-series of seven one-hour episodes, included a serialized biography of the star, many popular guests (including Luciano Pavarotti and Charles Aznavour, among others) and Miss Montiel singing her greatest hits in addition to new songs written especially for her. Next came Ven al Paralelo (1992), taped in a Barcelona theater where Montiel hosted,sang and acted in comedy sketches in front of a live audience.
It is quite impossible to cover here all the awards Sara Montiel has won in her long successful career but we must mention the "Premio del Sindicato" (at that time Spain's equivalent of the Oscar) for best actress, won two years in a row for her performances in "El Último Cuplé" and "La Violetera". In 1972 she was proclaimed an honorary citizen of Los Angeles by Mayor Sam Yorty and was given the gold key to the city. Similarly she has been awarded the gold keys of New York, Miami and Chicago. In 1981 she received Israel's most prestigious honor, the Ben Guiron Award and in 1983 she was awarded France's Legion of Honor medal, after a retrospective of her career ran at the Autumn Film Festival in Paris. In 1986 "Nosotros", a Hollywood-based Hispanic actors advocacy organization founded by Ricardo Montalban, gave her its Golden Eagle Award for life achievement. The trophy was presented to Sarita by her "Vera Cruz" costar-producer Burt Lancaster in an emotional reunion that triggered a standing ovation from all their Hollywood peers witnessing the event. In 1997 she was awarded the "Gold Medal", also a life achievement recognition, given--rarely0--by Spain's Academy of Arts and Sciences. The two-hour ceremony was beamed live by national television. In 2008 Sara returned to her hometown to unveil a sculpture with her image at the new Sara Montiel Park. A nearby avenue was also named after her and there was at the same time a dedication ceremony of her newly renovated museum, located inside a 16th-century windmill. In addition, the government placed a commemorative plaque on the house where she was born.
Sara Montiel's private life has also been a large part of her legend. After divorcing Anthony Mann in 1963, she married three more times (Vicente Ramirez Olalla 1964-1978; Jose Tous 1979-1992; Antonio Hernandez 2002-2004). Before, during and after these marriages she had countless affairs, among them Nobel prize-winning scientist Severo Ochoa and Italian actor Giancarlo Del Duca. Unable to have children, she adopted two during her marriage to Jose Tous: Thais (born in 1979) and Zeus (born 1983). In 2000 she published her autobiography, which became a best seller. Undaunted by the passage of time and ignoring critics who accused her of mishandling her legendary image, Sara Montiel continued living and working at a hectic pace. She kept touring with her one woman show and making guests appearances on television. In 2009 she won a new generation of fans when she recorded "Absolutamente," an outrageous duet with Fangoria's vocalist Alaska. Both the record and the promotional video reached the top of the popularity charts and remained there for weeks.
Next Sara recorded some love duets with baritone José Antonio Román Marcos and traveled to the United States for a short tour sponsored by New York's Cervantes Institute and the universities of Chicago and Cincinnati. In every city she charmed the audiences with her charismatic presence and sense of humor. Back in Spain she continued her activities which now included supporting the singing career of her son Zeus. She appeared in his 2011 "Sex Dance" video and caused quite a stir.
In February 2013 Sara Montiel became the subject of a made-for-TV documentary titled "Sara's Dream" which aired in Spain to high ratings and great reviews. It was a fitting celebration of her fantastic life and career which came at the right time. A couple of months later, the star who had seemed eternal, passed away suddenly and quietly in her Madrid penthouse. By her family's request, funeral services were private but the funeral procession, organized by the city of Madrid, was a very moving event attended by thousands who showed up at Plaza Callao to bid farewell to their beloved Sara. She was buried in the San Justo cemetery family plot.Mexico
Born in Campo de Criptana, Ciudad Real, Castille-La Mancha, Spain.
Donde el círculo termina (1956). '56
Circle of Death. Mexico.- Consuelo Moreno was born in 1906 in Toluca, Estado de México, Mexico. She was an actress, known for Soulless Women (1934), Eterna mártir (1937) and Right and Duty (1938). She was married to Juan Orol. She died on 21 November 1947 in Mexico, Distrito Federal, Mexico.
- Actress
- Soundtrack
María Antonieta Pons was born on 11 June 1922 in Havana, Cuba. She was an actress, known for Teatro del crimen (1957), La vida íntima de Marco Antonio y Cleopatra (1947) and Embrujo antillano (1946). She was married to Ramón Pereda and Juan Orol. She died on 20 August 2004 in Mexico City, Mexico.- Maria Mathiesen was born in 1978 in Tromsø, Norway. She is an actress, known for Insomnia (1997).
- Nadezhda Markina was born on 29 January 1959 in Dmitrievka, Nikiforovskiy rayon, Tambovskaya oblast, RSFSR, USSR [now Russia]. She is an actress, known for Elena (2011), Sophia (2016) and Vstretimsya vchera (2024).
- Jeon Do-yeon spent five years starring in television dramas before achieving instant star status with her film debut opposite Han Seok-gyu in The Contact. She has since gone on to take a wide variety of roles, from her performance as a schoolgirl in Harmonium in My Memory to that of a wife having an adulterous affair in Happy End. Her popularity has steadily increased, as audiences fall for her warm and direct personality. In late 1999 she received a Best Actress award from the domestic Chungryong Awards ceremony for her role in Harmonium in My Memory.
After starring as the tough-talking "Sunglasses" in Ryu Seung-wan's No Blood No Tears, Jeon spent time acting in a TV drama titled "Shoot for the Stars." She also found box-office success in E J-yong's Untold Scandal, based on the famous French novel Dangerous Liaisons. Her next project sees her taking dual roles in a time-bending melodrama set on Jeju Island called My Mother, Mermaid (working title). - Actress
Kim Hye Ja is a South Korean actress. Best known for playing the archetypal Korean mother, Kim Hye Ja has established herself as an iconic actor in the Korean entertainment industry. Kim made her acting debut at age 29 while studying at Ewha Woman's University. In the 1981 movie 'Late Autumn', she won the best actress award at the Manila International Film Festival. She then starred in dramas like 'What is Love?' and 'Princess Hours'. Kim starred in the 2009 film 'Mother', which is about a woman searching for the real killer after her son is accused of murder, wherein she was granted the best actress award in various film awards worldwide.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Born in Santa Cruz, California, Beverly Garland studied dramatics under Anita Arliss, the sister of renowned stage and screen star George Arliss. She acted in a little theater in Glendale then in Phoenix after her family relocated to Arizona. Garland also worked in radio and appeared scantily-clad in a few risqué shorts before making her feature film debut in a supporting part in D.O.A. (1949). Her husbands include actor Richard Garland, and land developer Fillmore Crank, who built 2 hotels which bear her name. Ms. Garland's longest runs were on Scarecrow and Mrs. King (1983) and My Three Sons (1960). Later on she guest-starred on a number of TV shows, including The Guardian (2001), on CBS, and Weakest Link (2001), on NBC, and maintained her continuing roles on 7th Heaven (1996), on the WB (now the CW), and Port Charles (1997), on ABC, which began in the 1990s.
In 1983, Ms. Garland received her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 2001, in recognition of her 50 years in show business, the Pacific Pioneer Broadcasters inducted her into its Hall of Fame. Ms. Garland has two very significant historical television "firsts": she was television's first policewoman as the star of Decoy (1957), and, more importantly, the series gave her the honor of becoming the first actress to star in a television dramatic series. After her husband of 39 years died in 1999, Beverly continued to operate the 255-room Beverly Garland Holiday Inn in North Hollywood (with the assistance of three of her four children). Beverly Garland died at age 82 in her home in the Hollywood Hills, Los Angeles, California on 5 December, 2008.USA
193 acting credits, 1950-2004.
Decoy (1957). '57.
4...D.O.A. (1949). '50.
10+...The Glass Web (1953). '53.
2... New Orleans Uncensored (1955). '55.
3... Sudden Danger (1955). '55.
10+... The Desperate Hours (1955). '55.
2... The Steel Jungle (1956). '56.
2... Chicago Confidential (1957). '57.- Jane Barrett was born on 7 May 1922 in Highgate, London, England, UK. She was an actress, known for The Avengers (1961), BBC Sunday-Night Theatre (1950) and Eureka Stockade (1949). She was married to Hans Heinrich Helweg and Derek Glynne. She died on 20 July 1969 in Torbay, Devon, England, UK.
- Actress
- Writer
Judy Campbell was born on 31 May 1916 in Grantham, Lincolnshire, England, UK. She was an actress and writer, known for Emma (1948), The Strangler (1941) and Saloon Bar (1940). She was married to David Birkin. She died on 6 June 2004 in London, England, UK.- Actress
- Soundtrack
The daughter of show business parents, John Shufflebottom and Lily Peat, Carson was born as Jean Shufflebottom in Pudsey, Yorkshire. In her early British films, she performed under the name Jean Carson, but later changed her given name to "Jeannie" to avoid confusion with the similarly named American actress Jean Carson.
Carson acted in Love from Judy (1953) in London. After producer Max Liebman saw her in that production, he signed her to a contract to appear on television in the United States. In January 1953, aged 24, she released her first recording on the newly formed Philips label "Barrels And Barrels of Roses".
In 1956, she starred in her own series, Hey, Jeannie! (1956), which aired on CBS. The series lasted one season before being cancelled in 1957, although six new episodes with a revamped format were broadcast in syndication in 1958 with the title "The Jeannie Carson Show", and reruns of Hey, Jeannie! (1956) were aired in prime-time during the summer of 1960, also under the title "The Jeannie Carson Show".
Carson also appeared in television soap operas and in musical theatre opposite her husband Biff McGuire, as well as on Broadway.. She has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.- Patricia Driscoll was born on 17 December 1927 in London, England, UK. She was an actress, known for The Adventures of Robin Hood (1955), Danger Man (1960) and The Other Man (1956). She was married to Duncan Lamont. She died on 2 January 2020.
- Ruth Dunning was born on 17 May 1909 in Prestatyn, Flintshire, Wales, UK. She was an actress, known for The Grove Family (1954), Young and Willing (1954) and It's a Great Day! (1955). She was married to Jack Allen. She died on 27 February 1983 in London, England, UK.
- Actress
- Producer
- Production Manager
Adrienne Scott was born on 23 June 1933 in Lambeth, London, England, UK. She was an actress and producer, known for It Could Be You (1957), The Missing Scientists (1955) and Rock You Sinners (1958). She was married to Gordon Benson. She died on 6 September 2013 in Esher, Surrey, England, UK.- Blonde Janine Gray was born Janine Catherine Glass in Bombay, India, the daughter of an oil company engineer. Her family moved back to England when she was five. By the age of 13, Janine took drama classes and did her first screen acting gigs in TV commercials three years later. She spent several more years honing her skills in repertory theatre in Worthing and Nottingham. In 1959, she had a small guest spot in the crime drama Dial 999 (1958). Subsequently signed by the ITV franchise holder Associated British Rediffusion, Janine enjoyed better supporting roles in some of the popular TV series of the day, especially spy and crime shows like Danger Man (1960), The Saint (1962), The Avengers (1961) and The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (1964). Her sole starring turn on the big screen was in the John Gilling-directed B-grade crime melodrama Panic (1963), which had Janine playing a Swiss miss unwittingly involved in a London diamond heist. Her other featured role of note was as James Mason 's wife in Harold Pinter 's marital soap opera The Pumpkin Eater (1964).
Janine's first marriage in 1962 was to automobile executive and former Olympic long-distance runner Herman Goffberg. Though this union ended in divorce, she remained based in California from 1964 until 1969. During this tenure, Janine made a number of guest appearances in episodes of popular TV shows like Get Smart (1965) (as a nefarious KAOS agent), Bewitched (1964) (as Abigail, personal secretary to Samantha's warlock father Maurice), The Wild Wild West (1965) (Crystal, a murder victim) and Hogan's Heroes (1965) (as Greta, a member of the 'underground').
After her departure from the world of screen acting, Janine established a new permanent home in Cape Town, South Africa, with her second husband, the eye surgeon Dr. Brian Peter Greaves. - Beverly Michaels was born on 28 December 1928 in New York City, New York, USA. She was an actress, known for Wicked Woman (1953), East Side, West Side (1949) and Blonde Bait (1956). She was married to Russell Rouse and Voldemar Vetluguin. She died on 9 June 2007 in Phoenix, Arizona, USA.
- Actress
- Soundtrack
As Disney's lively lass Katie O'Gill, she was the freshness of spring. She could inspire you to dance a jig through a field of flowers. Her entrancing green eyes and catchy spirit had that kind of life-affirming effect. Cute, spunky, almond-eyed British actress Janet Munro was deemed to be an actress from day one as the daughter of Scottish stage and variety-hall comedian Alex Munro (1911-1986) (born Alexander Horsburgh). Janet Neilson Horsburgh was born in Blackpool (near Liverpool), Lancashire, England on September 28, 1934. Her entertainer father adopted the name Munro a few years after she was born. His wife, Janet's mother Phyllis, died when Janet was 8 and she was raised by his second wife, Lilias.
Janet first trained as a teenager in repertory theatre in the Lancashire area, and in the late 1950s she found popularity on British TV, even earning the title of "Miss Television of 1958" from a fan magazine. She also dabbled in films and had prominent roles in the breezy comedy Small Hotel (1957), the drama The Young and the Guilty (1959), and the creepy sci-fi/horror The Crawling Eye (1958) [aka The Trollenberg Terror].
Adaptable to both comedy and drama, the little charmer caught the eye of Walt Disney who saw big things for her, and she was signed to a five-picture deal in 1959. She made four. Appealing to a brand new generation of Britishers and Americans as the scrappy, brunette-banged ingénue of several box-office family films, she brightened up the screen with her performances in Darby O'Gill and the Little People (1959), Third Man on the Mountain (1959), and Swiss Family Robinson (1960).
The Golden Globe winner for "most promising newcomer" eventually outgrew Disney and tried to move ahead by altering her wholesome image with some mature, spicier roles, but audiences didn't respond well to this sudden departure. The idea of an adult Janet Munro playing overly-sexy ladies and seriously downtrodden women did not take and her career quickly faltered. Despite a BAFTA nomination for her role in Walk in the Shadow (1962), she began to see life unraveling both personally and professionally right before her eyes.
Janet's marriages to actors Tony Wright and Ian Hendry fell by the wayside and two miscarriages, plus chronic medical ills, only deepened her suffering. Worse yet, she developed an acute alcohol problem. Semi-retired from acting between 1964 and 1968 while married to Hendry in order to raise her children, she found the going difficult when she tried to return full-time.
Ironically, one of Janet's last screen roles showed her at her dramatic best, a boozing pop star in the British film Sebastian (1968). Four years later Janet died under somewhat mysterious circumstances. Reports circulated that she choked to death at a London hotel while drinking tea. The immediate cause of her death was acute myocarditis; the underlying cause was chronic ischemic heart disease. The sun set all too soon on this lovely actress when she was only 38. She was survived by her daughters, Sally and Corrie Hendry.- Actress
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Nancy Price was born on 3 February 1880 in Kinver, Worcestershire, England, UK. She was an actress and director, known for The Speckled Band (1931), The Stars Look Down (1940) and Down Our Street (1932). She was married to Charles Maude. She died on 31 March 1970 in Worthing, Sussex, England, UK.UK
1.... The Three Weird Sisters (1948). '48.
6... Dead Man's Shoes (1940). '40
12... Madonna of the Seven Moons (1945). '45
7.... Carnival (1946). '46- Actress
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Janette Scott was born on 14 December 1938 in Morecambe, Lancashire, England, UK. She is an actress and writer, known for No Highway in the Sky (1951), The Day of the Triffids (1963) and Crack in the World (1965). She has been married to William John Rademaekers since 7 April 1981. She was previously married to Mel Tormé and Jackie Rae.- The sexy Barbara Shelley was born Barbara Kowin on February 13, 1932 in London, England. With her beautiful looks and stature, she worked as a model during her salad days. Her film career began in Italy in the mid-1950s in such tempting fare as Luna nova (1955) and Nero's Mistress (1956), but when this seemed like she was going to remain in the minor ranks, she returned to England to attempt to better her career. After appearing in the minor sex farce The Little Hut (1957) with Stewart Granger, David Niven and Ava Gardner, Barbara caught notoriety in the title role of Cat Girl (1957), a low budget production in which she played a woman possessed by a family curse who develops psychic links with a leopard.
This paid off and she quickly evolved into a popular Gothic glamour woman at Hammer Studios. Starting things off with The Camp on Blood Island (1958) and Blood of the Vampire (1958), the lovely actress proceeded to stake out her own lucrative territory in the horror genres. Through the 1960s, she co-starred in the classic Village of the Damned (1960), along with The Shadow of the Cat (1961), The Gorgon (1964), The Secret of Blood Island (1965), Dracula: Prince of Darkness (1966), Rasputin: The Mad Monk (1966) and Quatermass and the Pit (1967). However, Barbara's film career had fallen aside by the late 1960s and she turned to television.
In her retirement, she pursued interior decorating. Whether playing female monsters or their intended victims, Barbara played them straight and handled them all with requisite style and grace. For this, she was occasionally seen by motion picture fans at conventions as an integral figure of camp horror history. - Actress
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Talented flaxen-blonde British star combined her deep loves for acting and for wildlife throughout most her adult life. Born in London, England on June 7, 1931, her family possessed a sturdy theatrical background. Mother Anne was a jazz pianist, composer and cabaret performer while father Terry, an auctioneer, had relatives in the arts including actress Fay Compton and author Compton MacKenzie.
Virginia's boarding house education was interrupted by the London Blitz. She and her mother (her parents were divorced by this time) evacuated from England to Cape Town, South Africa, a move that lasted six years. Upon her return to England, she acted in a few school plays. Her interest stuck and she auditioned and was accepted into the London School of Central Speech and Drama. Two years later she became a six-month member of Scotland's renowned Dundee Repertory. Spotted by a talent scout playing Estella in a production of "Great Expectations," Virginia was invited in 1951 to return to London to portray Dorcas in "A Penny for a Song" with a stellar cast that included Ronald Squire, Alan Webb, Marie Lohr and leading man Ronald Howard, the son of "Gone With the Wind" star Leslie Howard. This quickly led to TV and film offers.
Virginia made her cinematic debut with a prominent role in The Second Mrs. Tanqueray (1952) starring Hugh Sinclair and Pamela Brown, then played Richard Attenborough's sister-in-law in Father's Doing Fine (1952). Two more films arrived the following year with The Horse's Mouth (1953) starring Robert Beatty and the Oscar-nominated WWII drama The Cruel Sea (1953) with Jack Hawkins, Donald Sinden, Stanley Baker and Denholm Elliott, the last mentioned to whom she later married in 1954. Following classical stage parts in "Richard II," "Love's Labour's Lost," "Henry IV" and "As You Like It" at the Old Vic during its 1954-1955 season and her acclaimed BAFTA-winning role as Juliet opposite Tony Britton's Romeo in a BBC-TV version of "Romeo and Juliet," Virginia returned to filming with Simba (1955) starring Dirk Bogarde and PT Raiders (1955), another WWII drama that reunited her with Richard Attenborough. Film stardom came with her crop-haired role as WWII Japanese captive Jean Paget in A Town Like Alice (1956) opposite Peter Finch. Both actors won BAFTA film awards for their roles. As such Virginia grew in box-office status.
Virginia met second husband, Bill Travers when they appeared together in the play "I Capture the Castle" in London in 1954. Both were married at the time. They met again, however, after her two-year breakup with Denholm Elliott and this time they connected and married in 1957. Virginia and Bill appeared together on film for the first time in one of her highly rare comedy films Big Time Operators (1957). They went on to do six other movies together. In the second film, Bill and Jennifer Jones starred as Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning in The Barretts of Wimpole Street (1957) with Virginia and John Gielgud in strong support. The couple then appeared in Storm Over Jamaica (1958).
Acclaim (and a BAFTA nomination) for Virginia came again with her movie role alongside Paul Scofield in Carve Her Name with Pride (1958) portraying Special Operations Executive agent Violette Szabo who, after her husband was killed during WWII, undertook dangerous missions as an undercover agent for British intelligence until caught and executed by the Nazis in 1944. The role had a strong impact on Virginia. In 2000 she performed the opening ceremony of the Violette Szabo Museum in Herefordshire. The actress then appeared opposite American actors Gary Cooper and Charlton Heston in the adventure yarn The Wreck of the Mary Deare (1959). Back on stage for a few years in potent roles as Sister Jeanne in "The Devils" and Lucy in "The Beggar's Opera," she and Bill were invited to appear together in the film Two Living, One Dead (1961), a Post Office robbery crime drama.
The couple's next film together would alter the course of both their personal and professional destinies when they signed up to play Joy and George Adamson, noted wildlife welfare preservationists, in a landmark film version of the best-selling novel Born Free (1966). The movie was a massive, international box office smash. The shooting, with the real George Adamson serving as tech advisor, deeply affected the couple so much that for the rest of their lives/careers they dedicated themselves to wildlife causes with many of their subsequent pictures having related themes. The couple went on to form a documentary film company and served as writers/producers to create wildlife films. One of the best known of their many documentaries is The Lion Who Thought He Was People (1971).
A few years later Virginia and Bill filmed two animal-related movie adventures, Ring of Bright Water (1969) and An Elephant Called Slowly (1970). The former, filmed in London and the Scottish coast, was based on a best-selling book and told of the romance of an office worker/artist (Bill), his otter pal Mij, and his love interest (Virginia), the town's doctor. Virginia later helped create a museum to honor the film's author, naturalist Gavin Maxwell. The latter, which was filmed in Kenya, had the couple "adopting" three young elephants.
Throughout the 1970s, Virginia continued to be seen to good advantage in a sprinkling of film, theatre and TV roles. Cinematically she joined Rod Steiger as Napoleon, Christopher Plummer as the Duke of Wellington and Orson Welles as Louis XVIII in Waterloo (1970) last as the Duchess of Richmond; was top-billed in the family adventure Swallows and Amazons (1974); appeared in the English/Canadian thriller The Disappearance (1977); and showed up in the Italian/English end-of-the-world drama The Chosen (1977). On the London musical stage Virginia succeeded Jean Simmons as Desiree Armfeldt in the Stephen Sondheim hit "A Little Night Music" and in a 1979 revival of "The King of I" opposite perennial king Yul Brynner that ran 16 months. On TV the actress gravitated towards period pieces in roles that ranged from Daisy in The Edwardians (1972); to Clemmie Churchill in The Gathering Storm (1974) (the TV version rather than the feature film of the same name) to Mrs. Darling in Peter Pan (1976) to Portia in Julius Caesar (1979).
Despite appearing in roles from the 1980s on, which included playing Gertrude alongside Roger Rees in 1984's "Hamlet," a role in the plush mini-series The Camomile Lawn (1992) and a recent support role in the film Love/Loss (2010), Virginia was more committed to her wild animals activism. Very much involved with the global influence of the Born Free Foundation and its Zoo Check project, Virginia earned an OBE for her services to wildlife conservation and animal welfare.
Bill died in 1994 but their son Bill Travers Jr. has embodied their enthusiasm towards wildlife, becoming the CEO of the Born Free Foundation. Virginia is the author of several wildlife books and her autobiography "The Life in My Years" was published in 2009. One of her more recent outings was a 2011 appearance in the long-running, award-winning BBC documentary series Natural World (1983).- Actress
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Maria Schell studied in a religious institution in Colmar (Haut-Rhin, France). She received a dramatic training in Zurich, Switzerland. To pay her studies, she was a secretary there. Besides being a film star; Maria appeared in plays in Zurich, Basel, in Vienna (Josefstad Theater), Berlin, Munich (Kammerspiel Theater), at the Salzburg Festival and went on provincial tours from 1963. Among the plays she performed there were such classics as William Shakespeare's "Hamlet", Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's "Faust" and such modern classics as "Pygmalion" by George Bernard Shaw.