Deaths: February 11
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- Actor
- Cinematographer
- Editor
Austin Majors was a scholar as well as an actor, skipping a grade, and getting high marks in all subjects. Majors graduated second in his high school class in 2013. He later studied at the University of Southern California in the School of Cinematic Arts, majoring in Film and Television Production, minoring in Music Industry. Majors was a brother of the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity. An avid outdoorsman, hes was a junior assistant Scoutmaster in Boy Scouts. He has earned scouting's highest rank, obtaining the honor of Eagle Scout at the age of fourteen. Majors liked helping others and lent his support to a variety of charitable causes including Kids with a Cause, the Ronald McDonald House, and the Jonathan Jaques Childrens Cancer Center. When not in front of the camera, he enjoyed making films of his own, backpacking, riding horses, attending concerts, traveling and playing sports. Majors received the Young Artists Award for Best Performance in a Television Series for his compelling work on NYPD Blue. His work on Treasure Planet earned him another nomination for Best Performance in a Voice Over Role.- Music Department
- Actor
- Soundtrack
Prolific Academy Award-winning songwriter Al Dubin ("Lullaby of Broadway" [1935]) came to the US in 1893 and was educated at the Perkiomen Seminary in Pennsylvania. He joined the staff of several New York music publishing companies. He enlisted in the US Army in World War I and served in the 77th Infantry Division. After the war he returned to the music business, composing the scores for the Broadway hits "The Streets of Paris" and "Keep Off the Grass". Coming to Hollywood under contract to Warner Brothers, his chief musical collaborator was Harry Warren, but he also worked with Joseph A. Burke, J. Fred Coots, Jimmy McHugh, Sammy Fain, Victor Herbert, James V. Monaco, Mabel Wayne, Joseph Meyer, J. Russel Robinson and Burton Lane. His other popular song compositions include "Tiptoe Through the Tulips", "Twas Only an Irishman's Dream", "Just a Girl that Men Forget", "A Cup of Coffee, a Sandwich and You", "My Dream of the Big Parade", "Painting the Clouds With Sunshine", "The Kiss Waltz", "Dancing With Tears in My Eyes", "For You", "42nd Street", "Shuffle Off to Buffalo", "You're Getting to Be a Habit With Me", "Young and Healthy", "Shadow Waltz", "We're In the Money", "Pettin' in the Park", "Remember My Forgotten Man", "I've Got to Sing a Torch Song", "Keep Young and Beautiful", "Honeymoon Hotel", "Shanghai Lil", "Boulevard of Broken Dreams", "Fair and Warmer", "I'll String Along With You", "Why Do I Dream Those Dreams?", "I Only Have Eyes for You", "Sweet Music", "The Words Are in My Heart", "I'm Going Shopping With You", "About a Quarter to Nine", "She's a Latin from Manhattan", "Go Into Your Dance", "The Little Things You Used to Do", "Lulu's Back in Town", "The Rose in Her Hair", "Where Am I? (Am I in Heaven?)", "Don't Give Up the Ship", "I'd Love to Take Orders from You", "Page Miss Glory", "I'll Sing You a Thousand Love Songs", "With Plenty of Money and You", "All's Fair in Love and War", "Summer Night", "September in the Rain", "Remember Me", "Am I in Love?", "'Cause My Baby Says It's So", "I Know Now", "You Can't Run Away from Love Tonight", "Song of the Marines", "The Latin Quarter", "Day Dreaming", "Garden of the Moon", "Love Is Where You Find It", "The Girl Friend of the Whirling Dervish", "Feudin' and Fightin'", "Indian Summer", "My Dream of the Big Parade", and "Anniversary Waltz".- Director
- Costume and Wardrobe Department
- Writer
Alexander McQueen was born on 16 March 1969 in Lewisham, London, England, UK. He was a director and writer, known for Björk: Alarm Call (1998), Björk: Volumen (1999) and Björk: Volumen Plus (2002). He died on 11 February 2010 in Mayfair, London, England, UK.- Actress
- Composer
- Additional Crew
Her parents sang and played in amateur theatre. Growing up, she sang with her mother. Her father took her to Stockholm when she was 13 and got an offer to sing at a nightclub but had to reject the offer. But on the train back home she met a voice coach who promised to give her singing lessons. The lessons couldn't destroy her natural talent and she She got more and more attention and in 1939 she sang at nightclubs like Berns or China and got a record contract. She has performed with all the big names in Swedish music, people like Charlie Norman, Putte Wickman and Arne Domnérus. Together with Svend Asmussen and Ulrik Neumann she formed the group SweDanes who even went on tour to the U.S. In the 1960s she performed together with Duke Ellington. After having been retired for 18 years she released a new album in 1998.- Anna Quirentia Nilsson, popularly known as "Anna Q", who was born on March 30th, 1888, in Ystad, Sweden, emigrated to the United States in 1905. The 5'7" Nilsson used her blonde beauty to become a famous model for well-known fashion photographers and fine artists. In 1907 she was chosen the most beautiful girl in the US and in 1911 made her film debut in Molly Pitcher (1911). She was an overnight sensation, becoming a silent film superstar in the first decade of the 20th century. In 1914 she was chosen the most beautiful actress "in the world" and Photoplay magazine named her "the ideal American girl" in 1919.
She appeared in films by the top studios in Hollywood, including Goldwyn, Famous Players (Paramount), Metro and First National. Her movie career continued to flourish in the 1920s, the decade of the flapper and bathtub gin, the so-called Jazz Age. In 1926 she was chosen the most popular actress. However, she suffered a major setback in 1928, when she was thrown off a horse and fractured her thigh. To her relatives in Sweden she wrote " . . . no tragedy is greater than mine. I am still a young star and suddenly everything is lost". Her fans supported her with some 30,000 letters a month and Nilsson tried to rush her convalescence. It made a bad situation worse and doctors needed to shorten her leg.
In 1931 Nilsson was back before the camera, but her stardom was unfortunately in the past. She appeared in approximately 40 more films until she retired in 1954. She was one of the bridge players (a.k.a. the "wax works") in Norma Desmond's mansion in Sunset Blvd. (1950), appearing with her former co-star, silent film superstar and prominent victim of sound, H.B. Warner. Four years later, she appeared in a small part in her motion-picture swan-song, the classic musical Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954).
Anna Q. Nillson died on February 11, 1974, six weeks shy of her 85th birthday. - Actress
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Armida Ponce-Enrile Siguion-Reyna was born on November 4, 1930, the singer actress, producer and former MTRCB chairperson studied at the PWU. She has sang lead roles in the operas, "Lucia de Lammermoor," "Rigoletto," "La Traviata," "I Pagliacci," and "The Merry Widow" and in the zarzuela entitled "Ang Mestiza."
In the latter part of her colorful career, she hosted a celebrity TV show called "Cooking Atbp," and recorded the following albums: "Aawitan Kita" Vols 1 and 2 for Villar Records, "Armida" for Dyna Records and "Sa Lungkot at Saya...Aawitan Kita" for Viva records.
She is well-known for her musical TV show "Aawitan Kita" which won many awards. Her performance in the first film "Sa Pagitan ng Dalawang Langit" merited a Best supporting actress award in the 1975 Bacolod Film Festival.
Armida produced and starred in the 16mm musicals "Dung-aw," "Lakambini," "Supremo," "Pagpatak ng Ulan," and "Sisa."
Her first film outfit, Pera Films, produced two movies: "Laruang Apoy" and "Bilanggong Birhen." Her current film outfit is Reyna Films and has produced a couple of awards with his son Carlitos Siguion-Reyna at the helm.- Barry Evans was born on 18 June 1943 in Guildford, Surrey, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Mind Your Language (1977), Journey to Murder (1971) and Journey to the Unknown (1968). He died on 11 February 1997 in Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire, England, UK.
- John Barry Foster's acting career began and ended on the stage. At the age of 20 he won a scholarship to the Central School of Speech and Drama where he befriended future playwright Harold Pinter. After two years training, Barry went on tour with Andrew McMaster and fellow actors Patrick Magee and Kenneth Haigh through the Republic of Ireland. Their repertoire included thirteen plays (mostly Shakespearean but also included J.B. Priestley's 'An Inspector Calls'). Barry's first role was as Lorenzo in 'The Merchant of Venice'.
In 1955, he hit the lights of London with 'The Night of the Ball' at the New Theatre and six years later had his first starring role as Cornelius Christian in 'Fairy Tales of New York'. During the remainder of the decade, Barry played through an immensely varied array of characters ranging from Adhemar in the French comedy 'Let's Get a Divorce' to King John and Macbeth at the Nottingham Playhouse. He appeared with Dame Wendy Hiller in 'Driving Miss Daisy' and with Lotte Lenya in 'Brecht on Brecht' at The Royal Court. His portfolio also included two Pinter plays, 'The Basement' and 'The Tea Party'. In 1963, he also acted on Broadway, San Francisco and Los Angeles in a double bill: 'The Private Ear' and 'The Public Eye' by Peter Shaffer. Time Magazine (October 18,1963) described his performance as Cristoforou as "a remarkable and indefinable creation" and "the most antic and mythic embodiment of Life Force since Zorba the Greek danced off the pages of Nikos Kazantzakis novel".
While he had appeared in film roles since the mid-1950's, it was on the small screen where Barry Foster had his greatest success, specifically as the trench-coated Dutch detective Van der Valk (1972). Introduced by the catchy theme song 'Eye Level' (a British chart topper in 1973), this 1970s TV series was filmed on location in Amsterdam and featured a rather off-beat type of detective: introspective, often rash and moody, at times anti-establishmentarian, yet with great compassion, wit and intelligence. Barry Foster himself remarked about the popular Van der Valk: "He is understanding and does not disapprove. That isn't his job, anyway. He's a lovely guy to play, a thoughtful, unorthodox cop with a touch of the private eye" (The Independent, 13/2/2002).
Other notable television roles followed. Among the best of them was as Kaiser Wilhelm in BBC's excellent miniseries Fall of Eagles (1974). He was again perfectly cast as eccentric spook Saul Enderby, one of Smiley's People (1982), played with typical aplomb and dry humour. In 1978, Barry lent his voice to an impersonation of the great detective Sherlock Holmes in a 13-part BBC radio series. In films, Barry will be best remembered as the serial killing grocer Bob Rusk in Hitchcock's thriller Frenzy (1972). From the 1980s, Barry Foster concentrated once again on the theatre. In 1995, he toured Australia with Priestley's 'An Inspector Calls' (playing the part of Inspector Goole), directed by Stephen Daldry. Five years later, he starred as Prospero in 'The Tempest' and, just prior to his untimely death, appeared with Nigel Havers and Roger Lloyd Pack in the play 'Art' at the London Whitehall theatre. Barry Foster was a singularly accomplished and likeable actor who once explained his versatility thus: "I'm neither very tall nor very short. You can't look at my face and say 'he's the killer', or 'the guy next door' or 'the mad scientist'. All I've got is my curly hair - which everyone thinks is a wig anyway" (The Telegraph, 12/2/2002). - Producer
- Writer
Bob Simon was born on 29 May 1941 in Bronx, New York, USA. He was a producer and writer, known for 60 Minutes (1968), 60 Minutes II (1999) and CSI: NY (2004). He was married to Françoise. He died on 11 February 2015 in Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA.- Actress
- Director
- Writer
Caroline McWilliams was born on 4 April 1945 in Seattle, Washington, USA. She was an actress and director, known for Mermaids (1990), Benson (1979) and Beverly Hills, 90210 (1990). She was married to Michael Keaton. She died on 11 February 2010 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Actor
- Stunts
Chavo Guerrero Sr. was born on 7 January 1949 in El Paso, Texas, USA. He was an actor, known for Streets of Rage (1993), The One and Only (1978) and Alligator II: The Mutation (1991). He was married to Nancy Vasquez. He died on 11 February 2017 in El Paso, Texas, USA.- David Stout was born on 13 May 1942 in Erie, Pennsylvania, USA. He was a writer, known for A Child Is Missing (1995) and Carolina Skeletons (1991). He died on 11 February 2020 in Washington D.C., USA.
- Actor
- Director
Don Porter was born on 24 September 1912 in Miami, Oklahoma, USA. He was an actor and director, known for She-Wolf of London (1946), Night Monster (1942) and Danger Woman (1946). He was married to Peggy Converse. He died on 11 February 1997 in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA.- Actress
- Additional Crew
- Soundtrack
Eleanor Powell was born in 1912 in Springfield, Massachussetts, and got her professional start in Atlantic City clubs, from where she moved into in revue in New York at the Ritz Grill and Casino de Paris at the age of sixteen. She started her career on Broadway in 1929, where her machine-gun foot work gained her the title of world champion in tapping. In 1935 she came to Hollywood where she starred in the great MGM musicals in the late 1930s, establishing herself as a Queen of Ra-Ta-Taps. In spite of the fact that she was primarily a solo performer she also danced with Fred Astaire and George Murphy. After her marriage she wasn't seen on the screen, except for a short number in the Duchess of Idaho (1950). After her divorce she started a short but successful night-club career.- Composer
- Actor
- Writer
Francis Smith was born in 1938 in Argentina. He was a composer and actor, known for Estoy hecho un demonio (1972), Crucero de placer (1980) and Todos los pecados del mundo (1972). He died on 11 February 2009 in Buenos Aires, Argentina.- Writer
- Script and Continuity Department
Frank Herbert was born on 8 October 1920 in Tacoma, Washington, USA. He was a writer, known for Dune (2021), Dune (1984) and Dune: Part Two (2024). He was married to Theresa Shackleford, Beverley Ann Stuart and Flora Parkinson. He died on 11 February 1986 in Madison, Wisconsin, USA.- Frank Mills was born on 11 April 1927 in Peckham, London, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Oliver Twist (2005), Big Deal (1984) and Flambards (1979). He died on 11 February 2021 in Essex, England, UK.
- Actor
- Writer
- Director
George O'Hanlon was born on 23 November 1912 in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for Rocky (1976), So You Want a Television Set (1953) and So Your Wife Wants to Work (1956). He was married to Nancy Owens, Martha Stewart and Inez Yvonne Witt. He died on 11 February 1989 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Soundtrack
Harvey Scales was born on 27 September 1941 in Osceola, Arkansas, USA. He died on 11 February 2019 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA.- Director
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
- Art Department
Henry Hathaway, son of a stage actress and manager, started his career as a child actor in westerns directed by Allan Dwan. His movie career was interrupted by World War I. After his discharge he briefly tried a career in finance but returned to Hollywood to work as an assistant director under such directors as Frank Lloyd, Paul Bern, Josef von Sternberg and Victor Fleming, whom Hathaway credited for his eventual success. In 1932 he directed his first picture, Heritage of the Desert (1932), a western. His approach has been described as uncomplicated and straightforward, while at the same time noted for their striking visual effects and unusual locations. He had a reputation as being difficult on actors, but stars such as John Wayne and Marilyn Monroe benefited under his direction. Although Hathaway was a highly successful and reliable director working within the Hollywood studio system, his work has received little attention from critics.- Producer
- Publicist
- Actor
Howard Bragman was one of the most recognized public relations professionals in America. He took his 30+ years of agency experience, in virtually every area of PR, and became the "go-to" guy on television to explain celebrity misbehavior, corporate crisis and the role of "spin" in our everyday lives. He was a frequent contributor to ABC's Good Morning America (1975), and PR expert on CNN and MSNBC.
He founded "Fifteen Minutes" in 2005, which evolved into a respected American boutique entertainment public relations agency. His personal participation included high-level strategy, top-tier media contacts, crisis communications, media training and agency vision and values. Prior to "Fifteen Minutes", he founded "BNC", which became the largest entertainment PR agency in the world. He sold the agency to IPG in 2000.
Prior to that, he was a Vice President at the PR firm Burson-Marsteller. In addition to his agency work, Bragman was an award-winning adjunct professor at the University of Southern California's Annenberg School for Communications and is the author of the bestselling book, "Where's My Fifteen Minutes? (Penguin/Portfolio, 2008).
He received numerous awards and recognition for his work as a political activist for those with HIV/AIDS, GLBT Civil Rights and Jewish causes. He resided in Los Angeles with his husband, a nationally-respected horse trainer.- Writer
- Actor
- Additional Crew
Howard Lindsay was born on 29 March 1889 in Waterford, New York, USA. He was a writer and actor, known for The Sound of Music (1965), Arsenic and Old Lace (1944) and Swing Time (1936). He was married to Dorothy Stickney and Maria Virginia Frolich. He died on 11 February 1968 in New York City, New York, USA.- Isabel Torres was born on 14 July 1969 in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Canary Islands, Spain. She was an actress, known for Veneno (2020), 8 años (2022) and Fotos (1996). She died on 11 February 2022 in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Canary Islands, Spain.
- James Flynn was born on 21 August 1965 in Kilmacud, Ireland. He was a producer, known for Vikings (2013), Becoming Jane (2007) and The Count of Monte Cristo (2002). He was married to Juanita Wilson. He died on 11 February 2023 in Dublin, Ireland.
- Actor
- Additional Crew
James Lanphier was born on 31 August 1920 in Hempstead, Long Island, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for The Pink Panther (1963), The Party (1968) and The Green Hornet (1966). He died on 11 February 1969 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Actress
- Additional Crew
Jan Maxwell was born on 20 November 1956 in Fargo, North Dakota, USA. She was an actress, known for BrainDead (2016), An Unfinished Life (2005) and The Good Wife (2009). She was married to Robert Emmet Lunney. She died on 11 February 2018 in New York City, New York, USA.- Jerry Neill was born on 12 October 1950 in Terrell, Texas, USA. He was an actor, known for Dallas (1978). He was married to Sandra Coplin. He died on 11 February 2022 in Mesquite, Texas, USA.
- Actress
- Soundtrack
A blue-eyed, chestnut-haired beauty, Joan Weldon trained to be a singer, and made her professional debut as a member of the San Francisco Opera Company. While appearing with the Los Angeles Civic Light Opera Company, she came to the attention of Warner Brothers, who took her out of grand opera and put her in horse operas (The Command (1954), Riding Shotgun (1954)), a crime drama (The System (1953)) and, most famously, the biggest and best of the "Big Bug" movies, 1954's Them! (1954). Amidst her movie roles, all of them dramatic, non-singing parts, Weldon sang at the Hollywood Bowl, on her TV series This Is Your Music (1955) and on tour in "The Music Man" (on tour for three years as the repressed Marian the Librarian). She and her husband reside in Manhattan.- Joe Schlesinger was born on 11 May 1928 in Vienna, Austria. He was a writer, known for Children Saved from the Nazis: The Story of Sir Nicholas Winton (2016), Nicky's Family (2011) and The Power of Good: Nicholas Winton (2002). He was married to Myra Eileen Kemmer. He died on 11 February 2019 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
- John Bailey was born on 26 June 1912 in Lewisham, London, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Celia (1949), Doctor Who (1963) and The Forsyte Saga (1967). He died on 11 February 1989 in Chelsea, London, England, UK.
- John Comer was born on 1 March 1924 in Manchester, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Last of the Summer Wine (1973), Emmerdale Farm (1972) and The Family Way (1966). He died on 11 February 1984 in Blackpool, Lancashire, England, UK.
- Actor
- Soundtrack
Jonathan Hole (August 13, 1904 - February 11, 1998) was an American actor whose entertainment career covered five genres over 50 years. From his early days on the vaudeville stage and in legitimate theater, through radio, television and feature-length films that took his career up to the 1990s, Hole created a variety of characters in hundreds of roles.- Actor
- Composer
- Music Department
Joseph Shabalala was born on 28 August 1941 in Ladysmith, South Africa. He was an actor and composer, known for The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003), Dude, Where's My Car? (2000) and Invictus (2009). He was married to Nellie and Thokozile. He died on 11 February 2020 in Pretoria, South Africa.- Cinematographer
- Director
- Producer
Joseph Vilsmaier was born on 24 January 1939 in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. He was a cinematographer and director, known for Stalingrad (1993), The Harmonists (1997) and Brother of Sleep (1995). He was married to Dana Vávrová and Hanna Vilsmaier. He died on 11 February 2020 in Munich, Bavaria, Germany.- Joy Garrett was born on 2 March 1945 in Fort Worth, Texas, USA. She was an actress, known for Days of Our Lives (1965), Remington Steele (1982) and Who? (1974). She died on 11 February 1993 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Actor
- Director
- Writer
Justin Grant was born performing. He shot out of his mother's womb in a top hat with a cane. His first words? "Hello my baby, hello my darling, hello my ragtime gal!..." He was only 7lbs and 4 ounces that first performance. 20 plus years later, he is still ambitiously looking to recreate that moment of awe that once captured by the unsuspecting doctors and nurse staff at Hugley Medical. More recently he has collaborated with some local Los Angeles talent to help create two sketch teams as well as co-creating a short space-epic, Cerberus showcasing his love of drama as well as a passion for comedy.- Kevin Gray was born on 25 February 1958 in Westport, Connecticut, USA. He was an actor, known for Miami Vice (1984), The Equalizer (1985) and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (1999). He died on 11 February 2013 in Hartford, Connecticut, USA.
- Actor
- Director
- Soundtrack
Lee J. Cobb, one of the premier character actors in American film for three decades in the post-World War II period, was born Leo Jacoby in New York City's Lower East Side on December 8, 1911. The son of a Jewish newspaper editor, young Leo was a child prodigy in music, mastering the violin and the harmonica. Any hopes of a career as a violin virtuoso were dashed when he broke his wrist, but his talent on the harmonica may have brought him his first professional success. At the age of 16 or 17 he ran away from home to Hollywood to try to break into motion pictures as an actor. He reportedly made his film debut as a member of Borrah Minevitch and His Harmonica Rascals (their first known movie appearance was in the 1929 two-reeler Boyhood Days), but that cannot be substantiated. However, it's known that after Leo was unable to find work he returned to New York City, where he attended New York University at night to study accounting while acting in radio dramas during the day.
An older Cobb tried his luck in California once more, making his debut as a professional stage actor at the Pasadena Playhouse in 1931. After again returning to his native New York, he made his Broadway debut as a saloonkeeper in a dramatization of Fyodor Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment, but it closed after 15 performances (later in his career, Dostoevsky would prove more of a charm, with Cobb's role as Father Karamazov in The Brothers Karamazov (1958) garnering him his second Oscar nomination),
Cobb joined the politically progressive Group Theater in 1935 and made a name for himself in Clifford Odets' politically liberal dramas Waiting for Lefty and Til the Day I Die, appearing in both plays that year in casts that included Elia Kazan, who later became famous as a film director. Cobb also appeared in the 1937 Group Theater production of Odets' Golden Boy, playing the role of Mr. Carp, in a cast that also included Kazan, Julius Garfinkle (later better known under his stage name of John Garfield), and Martin Ritt, all of whom later came under the scrutiny of the House Un-American Activities Committee during the heyday of the McCarthy Red Scare hysteria more than a decade later. Cobb took over the role of Mr. Bonaparte, the protagonist's father, in the 1939 film version of the play, despite the fact that he was not yet 30 years old. The role of a patriarch suited him, and he'd play many more in his film career.
It was as a different kind of patriarch that he scored his greatest success. Cobb achieved immortality by giving life to the character of Willy Loman in the original 1949 Broadway production of Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman. His performance was a towering achievement that ranks with such performances as Edwin Booth as Richard III and John Barrymore as Hamlet in the annals of the American theater. Cobb later won an Emmy nomination as Willy when he played the role in a made-for-TV movie of the play (Death of a Salesman (1966)). Miller said that he wrote the role with Cobb in mind.
Before triumphing as Miller's Salesman, Cobb had appeared on Broadway only a handful of times in the 1940s, including in Ernest Hemingway's The Fifth Column (1940), Odets' "Clash by Night" (1942) and the US Army Air Force's Winged Victory (1943-44). Later he reprised the role of Joe Bonaparte's father in the 1952 revival of Golden Boy opposite Garfield as his son, and appeared the following year in The Emperor's Clothes. His final Broadway appearance was as King Lear in the Repertory Theatre of Lincoln Center's 1968 production of Shakespeare's play.
Aside from his possible late 1920s movie debut and his 1934 appearance in the western The Vanishing Shadow (1934), Cobb's film career proper began in 1937 with the westerns North of the Rio Grande (1937) (in which he was billed as Lee Colt) and Rustlers' Valley (1937) and spanned nearly 40 years until his death. After a hiatus while serving in the Army Air Force during World War II, Cobb's movie career resumed in 1946. He continued to play major supporting roles in prestigious A-list pictures. His movie career reached its artistic peak in the 1950s, when he was twice nominated for Best Supporting Actor Academy Awards, for his role as Johnny Friendly in On the Waterfront (1954) and as the father in The Brothers Karamazov (1958). Other memorable supporting roles in the 1950s included the sagacious Judge Bernstein in The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit (1956), as the probing psychiatrist Dr. Luther in The Three Faces of Eve (1957) and as the volatile Juror #3 in 12 Angry Men (1957).
It was in the 1950s that Cobb achieved the sort of fame that most artists dreaded: he was called before the House Un-American Activities Committee on charges that he was or had been a Communist. The charges were rooted in Cobb's membership in the Group Theater in the 1930s. Other Group Theater members already investigated by HUAC included Clifford Odets and Elia Kazan, both of whom provided friendly testimony before the committee, and John Garfield, who did not.
Cobb's own persecution by HUAC had already caused a nervous breakdown in his wife, and he decided to appear as a friendly witness in order to preserve her sanity and his career, by bringing the inquisition to a halt. Appearing before the committee in 1953, he named names and thus saved his career. Ironically, he would win his first Oscar nomination in On the Waterfront (1954) directed and written by fellow HUAC informers Kazan and Budd Schulberg. The film can be seen as a stalwart defense of informing, as epitomized by the character Terry Malloy's testimony before a Congressional committee investigating racketeering on the waterfront.
Major films in which Cobb appeared after reaching his career plateau include Otto Preminger's adaptation of Leon Uris' ode to the birth of Israel, Exodus (1960); the Cinerama spectacle How the West Was Won (1962); the James Coburn spy spoofs, Our Man Flint (1966) and In Like Flint (1967); Clint Eastwood's first detective film, Coogan's Bluff (1968); and legendary director William Wyler's last film, The Liberation of L.B. Jones (1970).
In addition to his frequent supporting roles in film, Cobb often appeared on television. He played Judge Henry Garth on The Virginian (1962) from 1962-66 and also had a regular role as the attorney David Barrett on The Young Lawyers (1969) from 1970-71. Cobb also appeared in made-for-TV movies and made frequent guest appearances on other TV shows. His last major Hollywood movie role was that of police detective Lt. Kinderman in The Exorcist (1973).
Lee J. Cobb died of a heart attack in Woodland Hills, California, on February 11, 1976, at the age of 64. He is buried in Mount Sinai Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles, California. Though he will long be remembered for many of his successful supporting performances in the movies, it is as the stage's first Willy Loman in which he achieved immortality as an actor. Bearing in mind that the role was written for him, it is through Willy that he will continue to have an influence on American drama far into the future, for as long as Death of a Salesman is revived.- Cinematographer
- Camera and Electrical Department
Lomer Akhvlediani was born on 2 October 1934. He was a cinematographer, known for Mze shemodgomisa (1973), Golden Bottom (1995) and Bless the Woman (2003). He died on 11 February 2022 in Georgia.- Costume and Wardrobe Department
- Costume Designer
Luster Bayless was born on 26 October 1937 in Ruleville, Mississippi, USA. He was a costume designer, known for Apocalypse Now (1979), The Shootist (1976) and McQ (1974). He was married to Patricia Vogt. He died on 11 February 2022 in Canyon Country, California,.- Mario Fortuna was born on 27 May 1911 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He was an actor, known for Con el más puro amor (1966), Idols of the Radio (1934) and Dock Sud (1953). He died on 11 February 1968 in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
- Animation Department
- Art Department
- Actor
Mel Keefer was born on 2 July 1926 in Los Angeles, California, USA. He was an actor, known for Jonny Quest (1964), Sabrina the Teenage Witch (1971) and The Adventures of Batman (1968). He was married to Rosanne and Joyce Eisenberg. He died on 11 February 2022 in Reseda, California, USA.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Marilyn Adele Dunlap was born on March 5, 1924 (for her stage name she took her nickname, Myrna, and shortened her middle name, Adele, to "Dell", which she used as her last name). She started her career as a showgirl in the famous Earl Carroll Revue in New York, and made her film debut in A Night at Earl Carroll's (1940). Signed by MGM, she appeared in Ziegfeld Girl (1941), but MGM didn't pick up her option and she returned to Earl Carroll's. She soon was appearing at the Billy Rose Nightclub, then spent a season in the "George White's Scandals" revue. However, the taste of Hollywood never left her, and she went back in 1943 and appeared in a string of westerns with such cowboy icons as Bob Steele and Hoot Gibson. She had a small part in the classic Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944), and shortly afterwards signed a contract with RKO Pictures. RKO kept her busy, putting her in more than 20 films over the next few years, even appearing with future US President Ronald Reagan in the 1949 comedy The Girl from Jones Beach (1949). She gave a good performance in an atypical role as the ambitious, murderous daughter of a powerful rancher in the offbeat western The Bushwhackers (1951). She worked steadily over the years, not only in films but on TV as well, and had a recurring role in the Dan Duryea adventure series China Smith (1952). At one point she wrote a gossip column, "Hollywood: Then and Now".- Omar Cerasuolo was born on 29 June 1945 in Río Segundo, Córdoba Province, Argentina. He died on 11 February 2016 in Río Segundo, Córdoba, Argentina.
- Actress
- Soundtrack
Ona Munson was born Owena Elizabeth Wolcott on June 16, 1903 in Portland, Oregon. She took singing and dancing lessons when she was a child. At the age of fourteen, Ona moved to New York City with her mother. She began her career performing in vaudeville. In 1919 she made her Broadway debut in George White's Scandals. She appeared in several hit Broadway shows including No, No, Nanette and Hold Everything. Ona married stage actor Edward Buzzell in 1926. She went to Hollywood in 1930 to make the comedy Going Wild (1930). Soon after, she divorced her husband and started dating director Ernst Lubitsch. She starred in The Hot Heiress (1931) with Ben Lyon and in Broadminded (1931) with Joe E. Brown. Ona returned to Broadway in 1933 for a production of Hold Your Horses. While appearing in the show Ghosts she had a brief romance with actress Alla Nazimova. She also had relationships with Greta Garbo, Tallulah Bankhead, and director Dorothy Arzner. In 1939 she was cast as Belle Watling, a Southern madam, in Gone with the Wind (1939). The movie was a huge success but Ona ended up being typecast in similar roles. She got rave reviews playing a madam again in the film The Shanghai Gesture (1941).
Ona had a passionate love affair with playwright Mercedes de Acosta. She said they shared "the deepest spiritual moment that life brings". Worried about being outed as a lesbian she ended the romance and married Stewart McDonald, a loan administrator, in 1941. Their marriage was an arrangement since Stewart was also gay. During World War 2 she was chosen to be "Hollywood's official hostess" and acted as a godmother to hundreds of soldiers. She made some movies at Warner Brothers but her career stalled. Her final film was the thriller The Red House (1947). Ona divorced Stewart and married French painter Eugene Berman in 1950. This was another lavender marriage to a gay man. The couple moved to an apartment in The Belnord on Manhattan's Upper West Side. During the early 1950s Ona appeared in a few television shows. Unfortunately she was plagued by health problems and became very depressed. On February 1955 she committed suicide by taking an overdose of sleeping pills. She was fifty-one years old. Ona left a note that said "This is the only way I know to be free again ... Please don't follow me." She is buried at Ferncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale, New York.- Paul English was born on 6 November 1932 in Vernon, Texas, USA. He was an actor, known for Honeysuckle Rose (1980), Barbarosa (1982) and Songwriter (1984). He died on 11 February 2020 in Dallas, Texas, USA.
- Writer
- Producer
- Actor
Grandson of famed humorist and actor Robert Benchley and the son of highly respected children's books author Nathaniel Benchley, novelist Peter Benchley's book were decidedly more dramatic in their content and style than his father's, and usually centered on the world's oceans as a backdrop to his vigorous plots.
Benchley is of course best remembered for penning the multi-million selling thriller Jaws, which was eventually filmed by director Steven Spielberg starring Roy Scheider, Richard Dreyfuss and Robert Shaw. Jaws (1975) was a box office sensation, becoming one of the seminal films of the 1970s, spawning several inferior sequels, numerous low budget copycat films starring hammerheads, tiger and mako sharks. Plus generations of swimmers chose backyard pools over the mysterious ocean surf for cooling off in summer.
Benchley also wrote The Deep and The Island which were also both brought to the screen, but with much less fanfare and box office return than the Jaws venture. Interestingly, after the enormous hysteria created over the great white shark and their alleged man-eating habits, Benchley became a dedicated environmentalist committed to learning all he could about one of the world's most amazing apex predators. In the ensuing years, Benchley became one of the great white shark's greatest defenders and publicly admitted on numerous occasions that with what he now knew about the fragility of the species, he would have never written a book like Jaws which demonised the great white.
Benchley kept very active in his passion for studying great whites up until the time of his death from pulmonary fibrosis on February 11th, 2006.- Director
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
- Producer
Ravi Tandon was born on 17 February 1935 in Agra, Uttar Pradesh, India. He was a director and assistant director, known for Anhonee (1973), Khel Khel Mein (1975) and Ek Main Aur Ek Tu (1986). He was married to Veena. He died on 11 February 2022 in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India.- Actor
- Director
- Producer
Handsome and smooth natured leading man who often played oily individuals, Ray Danton was born in New York and dramatically trained at Carnegie Tech. First debuted on-screen as a moody Native American in Chief Crazy Horse (1955) and regularly guest-starred in many 1950s TV shows including Playhouse 90 (1956), Wagon Train (1957), and 77 Sunset Strip (1958)...often as a gunslinger or a slippery criminal.
Danton found plenty of demand for his talents and appeared in several minor films including The Night Runner (1957), Tarawa Beachhead (1958), in which he starred with his wife, Julie Adams, and then as a serial rapist in The Beat Generation (1959). However, his most well remembered role was as the vicious prohibition gangster Jack Diamond in the superb The Rise and Fall of Legs Diamond (1960) also starring a young Warren Oates and directed by Budd Boetticher. Danton reprised his Legs Diamond role only a year later in the unrelated, and not as enjoyable Portrait of a Mobster (1961).
Cornering the market on playing shady characters, Danton then portrayed troubled actor George Raft in The George Raft Story (1961), but he was back on the side of good in 1962 playing an Allied officer at the invasion of Normandy in The Longest Day (1962). Europe then beckoned for the virile Danton, and like many other young US actors in the early 1960s, he made several films in Italy and Spain between 1964 and 1969 with a mixture of success. Danton returned to the USA in the early 1970s and appeared in several other low budget features; however, he also turned his hand to direction and his first film was the AIP production of Deathmaster (1972) starring Robert Quarry who was riding high on the success of the Count Yorga vampire films. Danton directed another couple of minor horror films before becoming involved in television and directing episodes of some of the most popular TV series of the 1970/80s including Quincy M.E. (1976), The Incredible Hulk (1978), Magnum, P.I. (1980) and Cagney & Lacey (1981).
His final directorial work was on the TV series Vietnam War Story (1987) in 1987. Danton passed away in 1992 from kidney failure aged only 60.- Writer
- Actor
Father of actor Sylvain Giguère, Réal Giguère hosted many talk shows and games on TVA network. He also wrote T. V. Series: "Dominique" (as Pierre Lefebvre), "Métro, boulot, dodo" and "L'or du temps". Giguère has also been seen as an actor in "Caïn" and in "La Cage aux folles", played in Montreal in 1981. He even recorded a french version of "Big Bad John" in the early 60s.- Dark, curly-haired, well-chiseled Reg Lewis started professional body-building at a very young age, a title-holder ("Junior Mr. Olympics") by age 17. A favorite model in physique magazines, the incomparable Mae West took a gander at the handsome hulk while he was working out at the gym one day and added him to her collection of absurdly-muscled, Adonis-like figures for her nightclub act in 1954, along with Mickey Hargitay, Gordon Mitchell and Dan Vadis. Ms. West and her beefcake entourage thrilled the all-female audiences as they toured throughout the U.S. Over the years Reg often acted as Mae's escort as well, accompanying her to assorted film premieres, nightclub openings, etc. During this time he also added a number of fitness trophies to his mantle - Mr. Olympics (1956), Mr. Universe (1957), Mr. America (1963) and Mr. America Over Forty (1983).
In 1962, he tried, like others, to muscle in on Steve Reeves' territory by acting in Italian films. Reg appeared as the titular hero in Maciste contro i mostri (1962) [Fire Monsters Against the Son of Hercules], where, as Maxus, he battles a swarm of fire-breathing creatures to save the residents of a remote valley. This badly-dubbed pic fared no better or worse than any others, but Reg did not appear in any others.
He did appear (actually posed is more like it) in The Brass Bottle (1964) with Burl Ives and Barbara Eden, Don't Make Waves (1967)_ with Tony Curtis and the late Sharon Tate, and Sextette (1977) with Ms. West but it led to no other offers. Reg Lewis dedicated himself to the sport of bodybuilding for over 30 years. - Ricardo Boechat was born on July 13, 1952 in Buenos Aires, Argentina as Ricardo Eugênio Boechat. He was a journalist and news anchor, known for Jornal da Band (1977). He was married to Veruska Seibel and Claudia Costa de Andrade. He died on February 11, 2019 in São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil.
- Rodrigo Mejía was born on 23 September 1975 in Mexico City, Distrito Federal, Mexico. He was an actor, known for Don't Mess with an Angel (2008), Hidden Secret (2003) and Mundo de fieras (2006). He was married to Gaby Crassus. He died on 11 February 2021 in Mérida, Yucatán, Mexico.
- Writer
- Director
- Actor
Roger Vadim was born on 26 January 1928 in Paris, France. He was a writer and director, known for Barbarella (1968), The Game Is Over (1966) and No Sun in Venice (1957). He was married to Marie-Christine Barrault, Catherine Schneider, Jane Fonda, Annette Stroyberg and Brigitte Bardot. He died on 11 February 2000 in Paris, France.- Ron Haddrick was born on 9 April 1929 in Adelaide, South Australia, Australia. He was an actor, known for Quigley Down Under (1990), Shirley Thompson Versus the Aliens (1972) and Water Rats (1996). He died on 11 February 2020 in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
- Director
- Writer
- Editor
The son of an affluent architect, Eisenstein attended the Institute of Civil Engineering in Petrograd as a young man. With the fall of the tsar in 1917, he worked as an engineer for the Red Army. In the following years, Eisenstein joined up with the Moscow Proletkult Theater as a set designer and then director. The Proletkult's director, Vsevolod Meyerhold, became a big influence on Eisenstein, introducing him to the concept of biomechanics, or conditioned spontaneity. Eisenstein furthered Meyerhold's theory with his own "montage of attractions"--a sequence of pictures whose total emotion effect is greater than the sum of its parts. He later theorized that this style of editing worked in a similar fashion to Marx's dialectic. Though Eisenstein wanted to make films for the common man, his intense use of symbolism and metaphor in what he called "intellectual montage" sometimes lost his audience. Though he made only seven films in his career, he and his theoretical writings demonstrated how film could move beyond its nineteenth-century predecessor--Victorian theatre-- to create abstract concepts with concrete images.- Additional Crew
- Actor
- Sound Department
Sergio Rossi was born on 10 April 1921 in Rome, Lazio, Italy. He was an actor, known for Napoleone a Sant'Elena (1973), La traccia verde (1975) and Africa: Blood and Guts (1966). He died on 11 February 1998 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.- Socorro Avelar was born in 1925 in Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico. She was an actress, known for Corazón salvaje (1977), Corazón salvaje (1966) and The Spring (2001). She died on 11 February 2003 in Mexico City, Mexico.
- Actor
- Director
- Soundtrack
Sorrell Booke was born in Buffalo, New York in 1930, the son of a local physician. He found his calling early in life, like most actors, when his family encouraged him to entertain relatives by doing impressions and telling jokes. He went on to study at Yale and Columbia University, and mastered five languages. During the Korean War, Booke worked in counter-intelligence where his lingual talents served him well. His intelligence and subtlety are often overlooked when considering his signature role as Jefferson Davis "Boss" Hogg during his run on The Dukes of Hazzard (1979). He died of cancer in 1994 just after his 64th birthday.- Writer
- Additional Crew
- Soundtrack
Sylvia Plath was born in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts, to Otto and Aurelia Schoeber Plath, both professors. When Sylvia was eight, Otto died of complications from diabetes. Her mother struggled to give Sylvia and her younger brother every advantage of a superior education. Self-consciousness and anxiety about status and money contributed to profound insecurity Plath concealed all her life beneath a facade of energy and brilliant achievement. Sylvia published her first poem at age eight. By the time she entered Smith College on scholarship in 1950, she had published many poems and short stories in newspapers and ladies' magazines. She was selected as a guest editor of Mademoiselle Magazine in 1953. Amid feverish overwork at Smith, she broke down in her junior year and attempted suicide. She spent almost a year in a mental hospital and was given electroconvulsive shock treatments. Sylvia eventually returned to Smith, graduating summa cum laude and winning a Fulbright fellowship to study at Cambridge University in England. In February 1956, she met poet Ted Hughes, and married him four months later. After Sylvia received her MA from Cambridge, the couple lived in Massachusetts (teaching at Smith and Amherst Colleges), then returned to England. The marriage was for six years a strong union of supremely dedicated writers. Ted's poem collections were critically praised, as was Sylvia's first volume of poetry, The Colossus, published in 1960. Sylvia worked on her autobiographical novel, The Bell Jar, which narrated a college student's nervous breakdown and recovery. Despite thriving careers and the birth of two children, personal jealousies and a return of Sylvia's depression troubled the marriage. Sylvia soon faced Hughes's infidelity, expressing herself through increasingly angry and powerful poems. After the couple separated in fall 1962, Sylvia's deep depression was fueled by the worst winter in a century, poverty, and the struggle to care for two infants. She committed suicide in February 1963, just two weeks after The Bell Jar's publication. In the 40 years following her death, Sylvia Plath has become a heroine and martyr of the feminist movement, with her work foreshadowing the feminist writing that appeared in the 1960s and 1970s. Sylvia's poems remain a terrifying record of her encroaching mental illness--graphically macabre and hallucinatory, but full of ironic wit, technical brilliance, and tremendous emotional power. Her Selected Poems, published by Ted Hughes in 1981, won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry.- Japanese character actor Takashi Shimura was one of the finest film actors of the 20th century and a leading member of the "stock company" of master director Akira Kurosawa. A native of southern Japan, Shimura was a descendant of the samurai warrior class. Following university training, he founded a theatre company, Shichigatsu-za ("July Theatre"). In 1930 he joined a professional company, Kindai-za ("Modern Theatre"). Four years later he signed with the Kinema Shinko film studio. He found a niche playing samurai roles for various studios, then signed a long-term contract with Toho Studios in 1943. He appeared in an average of six films a year for Toho over the next four decades. His greatest critical acclaim came in more than 20 roles for Kurosawa, though he is almost as well recognized outside Japan for his kindly doctor role in the original "Godzilla" (Godzilla (1954)). Shimura's triumph was his unforgettable performance as a dying bureaucrat in Kurosawa's Ikiru (1952). He continued to act steadily, in good films and bad, almost until his death, culminating with Kurosawa's Kagemusha: The Shadow Warrior (1980). He is often described as filling the spot for Kurosawa that Ward Bond filled for John Ford--an ever-present and reliable character player who consistently supplied a solidity and strength to whatever film he appeared in. Shimura was definitely a finer actor than Bond, of the most versatile "chameleons" in the world cinema, a great artist with enormous range in sublime interpretations, from Ikiru (1952)'s diffident clerk to the leader of the Seven Samurai in Kurosawa's Seven Samurai (1954). He died in 1982, a reluctant icon of Japanese cinema.
- Music Department
- Script and Continuity Department
- Soundtrack
Tom Rapp was born on 8 March 1947 in Bottineau, North Dakota, USA. He is known for Stranger Things (2016), Melody (2011) and Rio das Mortes (1971). He was married to Lynn Madison, Elisabeth Joosten and Susan Heim. He died on 11 February 2018 in Melbourne, Florida, USA.- Actor
- Soundtrack
At fourteen he worked as an usher at the NYC Paramount Theatre. His father was an electrician who played guitar and his mother taught piano. Damone attended PS 163 and sang in St. Finbar's choir and later attended the Alexander Hamilton Vocational High School and then Lafayette High School in Brooklyn. He left school at sixteen to support his family, but returned to graduate from Lafayette in 1997. Damone won first prize in an Arthur Godfrey talent scouts contest in 1945. His first night club appearance at the LA Martinique Club was set up by comedian Milton Berle. He was drafted and served in the army from 1951 to 1953. After he was discharged from the army he married actress Pier Angeli, whom he later divorced. Damone was later married to Becky Ann Jones from 1974 to 1982 and Diahann Carroll from 1987 to 1996. He married Rena Rowan, fashion designer and co-founder of Jones New York, in 1998. In 1999, he received a certificate of advanced study from Philadelphia University.- Actress
- Director
- Writer
Wen-Min Chen was born in 1920 in Taiwan. She was an actress and director, known for The Red Lotus Society (1994), Mang mang niao (1957) and Dai shu nan ren (1995). She died on 11 February 2022 in Hawaii, USA.- Music Artist
- Actress
- Producer
Whitney Elizabeth Houston was born into a musical family on 9 August 1963, in Newark, New Jersey, the daughter of gospel star Cissy Houston (née Emily Lee Drinkard) and John Russell Houston, Jr., and cousin of singing star Dionne Warwick.
She began singing in the choir at her church, The New Hope Baptist Church in Newark, as a young child and by the age of 15 was singing backing vocals professionally with her mother on Chaka Khan's 1978 hit, 'I'm Every Woman'. She went on to provide backing vocals for Lou Rawls, Jermaine Jackson and her own mother and worked briefly as a model, appearing on the cover of 'Seventeen' magazine in 1981.
She began working as a featured vocalist for the New York-based funk band Material and it was the quality of her vocal work with them that attracted the attention of the major record labels, including Arista with whom she signed in 1983 and where she stayed for the rest of her career.
Her debut album, 'Whitney Houston', was released in 1985 and became the biggest-selling album by a debut artist. Several hit singles, including 'Saving All My Love For You', 'How Will I Know', 'You Give Good Love', and 'The Greatest Love of All', were released from the album, setting her up for a Beatles-beating seven consecutive US number ones. The album itself sold 3 million copies in its first year in the US and went on to sell 25 million worldwide, winning her the first of her six Grammies.
The 1987 follow-up album, 'Whitney', which included the hits 'Where Do Broken Hearts Go' and 'I Wanna Dance With Somebody', built on her success but it was the 1992 film The Bodyguard (1992) that sealed her place as one of the best-selling artists of all time. While the movie itself and her performance in it were not highly praised, the soundtrack album and her cover of the Dolly Parton song 'I Will Always Love You' topped the singles and albums charts for months and sold 44 million copies around the world.
That same year she married ex-New Edition singer Bobby Brown with whom she had her only child, their daughter Bobbi Kristina Brown in March 1993. It was about this time that her much documented drug use began and by 1996 she was a daily user.
Her 1998 album, 'My Love Is Your Love' was well reviewed but the drug abuse began to affect her reputation and press reports at the time said that she was becoming difficult to work with, if she turned up at all. She was dropped from a performance at The 72nd Annual Academy Awards (2000) because she was "out of it" at rehearsals. Her weight fluctuated wildly - she was so thin at a 'Michael Jackson' tribute in 2001 that rumors circulated the next day that she had died - and her voice began to fail her. She was twice admitted to rehab and declared herself drug-free in 2010 but returned to rehab in May 2011.
Her 2009 comeback album 'I Look To You' was positively received and sold well, but promotional performances were still marred by her weakened voice. Her final acting performance was in Sparkle (2012) (a remake of the 1976 movie, Sparkle (1976)), released after her death.
She was found dead in a Beverly Hills hotel room on 11 February 2012.- Actor
- Director
- Producer
William Conrad became a television star relatively late in his career. In fact, the former Army Air Corps World War II fighter pilot began his screen career playing heavies. He was Max, one of The Killers (1946) hired to finish off Burt Lancaster in his dingy lodgings. He was the corrupt state inspector Turck working for the syndicate in The Racket (1951). He was a mobster in Sorry, Wrong Number (1948), the murderous gunslinger Tallman in Johnny Concho (1956) and sleazy nightclub owner Louie Castro who claimed to be 60% legitimate in Cry Danger (1951).
When not essaying outright villainy, Bill played characters like the tough fight promoter Quinn in Body and Soul (1947) or the doom-laden province commissioner in The Naked Jungle (1954). The portly, balding, crumple-faced, self-confessed gourmand had an ever-present weight problem (at one time 260 lbs.) which proved to be a natural obstacle to progressing to more substantial leading film roles. That, however, didn't hinder a very successful career in radio. In fact, Bill himself estimated that he had played in excess of 7,000 radio parts. Even if that was an exaggeration, his gravelly, resonant voice was certainly heard on countless broadcasts from "Buck Rogers" to "The Bullwinkle Show," from portraying Marshall Matt Dillon in "Gunsmoke" on the radio (before James Arness got the part on screen) to narrating the adventures of Richard Kimball in the television program The Fugitive (1963). In "The Wax Works," an episode of the anthology series Suspense (1949) in 1956, he voiced each and every part.
Since his corpulence effectively precluded playing strapping characters like Matt Dillon, Bill began to concentrate on directing and producing by the early 1960's. This, ironically, included episodes of Gunsmoke (1955). In 1963, he contributed to saving 77 Sunset Strip (1958) for yet another season. Later in the decade, he produced and directed several films for Warner Brothers, including the thriller Brainstorm (1965) with Jeffrey Hunter and Anne Francis. He returned to acting in 1971 to become the unlikely star of the Quinn Martin production Cannon (1971), for which he is chiefly remembered. Bill imbued the tough-talking, no-nonsense character of Frank Cannon with enough humanity and wit to make the series compelling but, despite the show's popularity, he made his views clear in a 1976 Times interview that he found himself poorly served by the scripts he had been given. A planned sequel, The Return of Frank Cannon (1980) failed to get beyond the movie-length pilot, but the actor's popularity resulted in another starring role in Jake and the Fatman (1987) as District Attorney McCabe, co-starring with Joe Penny) and a brief run as eccentric detective Nero Wolfe (1981). A self-effacing man with a good sense of humor and never afraid to speak his mind, Bill Conrad died of heart failure in February 1994. He was elected to the Broadcasting and Cable Hall of Fame and (posthumously) to the Radio Hall of Fame in 1997.- Actor
- Stunts
With his genial demeanor and strong presence, Will Haze managed to move quickly from featured to leading player. On one of his very first auditions for a small role in a feature film, he was asked to read for the leading role and booked it. Since then, he has appeared in over 30 films and television shows. Taking on many challenging roles such as portraying a robot in National Lampoon's "Robodoc", the ruthless drug dealer on "One Tree Hill" and working alongside some of Hollywood's greats like playing Susan Sarandon's lover in "Middle of Nowhere," appearing with Naomi Watts in "Sunlight Jr." and appearing in two of Michael Bay's films, "Transformers" and "Pain and Gain", Will Haze has the passion and the will to take on any role.