Alexander's Ragtime Band (1938) Premiere
by germanior | created - 20 Nov 2020 | updated - 20 Nov 2020 | PublicAugust 2,1938
1. Tyrone Power
Actor | Witness for the Prosecution
Tyrone Power was one of the great romantic swashbuckling stars of the mid-twentieth century, and the third Tyrone Power of four in a famed acting dynasty reaching back to the eighteenth century. His great-grandfather was the first Tyrone Power (1795-1841), a famed Irish comedian. His father, known ...
2. Alice Faye
Soundtrack | Hello Frisco, Hello
As A&E's Biography put it, "She rose from the mean streets of New York's Hell's Kitchen to become the most famous singing actress in the world. When the pressures of fame became too much, she had the courage to leave Hollywood on her own terms". Alice Faye was born Alice Jeanne Leppert in NYC on ...
3. Don Ameche
Actor | Cocoon
Don Ameche was a versatile and popular American film actor in the 1930s and '40s, usually as the dapper, mustached leading man. He was also popular as a radio master of ceremonies during this time. As his film popularity waned in the 1950s, he continued working in theater and some TV. His film ...
4. John Barrymore
Actor | Twentieth Century
John Barrymore was born John Sidney Blyth on February 15, 1882 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. An American stage and screen actor whose rise to superstardom and subsequent decline is one of the legendary tragedies of Hollywood. A member of the most famous generation of the most famous theatrical ...
5. Elaine Barrie
Actress | Midnight
Elaine Jacobs was a 16-year-old high school student in New York in 1931 when she went to see the John Barrymore film Svengali (1931). From that moment, she later said, she fell in love with Barrymore and vowed that one day she would marry him, even going so far as to change her name to Elaine ...
6. Joan Crawford
Actress | What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?
Joan Crawford was born Lucille Fay LeSueur on March 23, 1906, in San Antonio, Texas, to Anna Belle (Johnson) and Thomas E. LeSueur, a laundry laborer. By the time she was born, her parents had separated, and by the time she was a teenager, she'd had three stepfathers. It wasn't an easy life; ...
7. Bill Robinson
Soundtrack | The Shape of Water
Bill Robinson quit school at age seven and began work as a professional dancer the following year. Bojangles (the name referred to his happy-go-lucky ebullience) starred in vaudeville, musical stage and movies. He invented the stair tap routine and was considered one of the world's greatest tap ...
8. June Lang
Actress | Chandu the Magician
This approachable blue-eyed blonde with a striking, open-faced beauty had a very encouraging career going for her in 30s Hollywood but extenuating circumstances hurt her chances in the long run. In less than a decade and a half June Lang was out of pictures altogether (after appearing in over 30) ...
9. Paul Muni
Actor | Scarface
Paul Muni was born Sept. 22, 1895, in Lemberg, Austro-Hungarian Empire, to Salli and Phillip Weisenfreund, who were both professionals. His family was Jewish, and spoke Yiddish. Paul was educated in New York and Cleveland public schools. He was described as 5 feet 10 inches, with black hair and ...
10. Freddie Bartholomew
Actor | Captains Courageous
One of the most popular child actors in film history, Child superstar Freddie Bartholomew was born Frederick Cecil Bartholomew in Harlesden, London, the son of Lilian May (Clarke) and Cecil Llewellyn Bartholomew. From age three, he grew up in the town of Warminster under the care of his father's ...
11. Tony Martin
Soundtrack | The Big Store
Born Alvin Morris, the son of immigrants from Poland, Tony Martin received a soprano saxophone on his tenth birthday. In his grammar school glee club, he became an instrumentalist and soprano pop singer. When in high school, he then formed his first band called "The Red Peppers", eventually joining...
12. Janet Gaynor
Actress | A Star Is Born
Janet Gaynor was born Laura Gainor on October 6, 1906, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. As a child, she & her parents moved to San Francisco, California, where she graduated from high school in 1923. She then moved to Los Angeles where she enrolled in a secretarial school. She got a job at a shoe ...
13. Richard Greene
Actor | The Hound of the Baskervilles
Before achieving his greatest fame in the 1950s as television's "Robin Hood", handsome Richard Greene had a significant if largely unremarkable film career, turning in several skillful leading man performances in the late 1930s before becoming type-cast in routine costume adventures. Like his ...
14. Eddie Cantor
Soundtrack | Kid Millions
Singer, songwriter ("Merrily We Roll Along"), comedian, author and actor, educated in public schools. He made his first public appearance in Vaudeville in 1907 at New York's Clinton Music Hall, then became a member of the Gus Edwards Gang, later touring vaudeville with Lila Lee as the team Cantor &...
15. Ida Tobias Cantor
Actress | The Eddie Cantor Story
Ida Tobias Cantor was born on May 15, 1892 in New York, New York, USA. She was an actress, known for The Eddie Cantor Story (1953), The Eddie Cantor Comedy Theater (1955) and The Colgate Comedy Hour (1950). She was married to Eddie Cantor. She died on August 9, 1962 in Beverly Hills, California, ...
16. Henry King
Director | The Song of Bernadette
For more than three decades, Henry King was the most versatile and reliable (not to mention hard-working) contract director on the 20th Century-Fox lot. His tenure lasted from 1930 to 1961, spanning most of Hollywood's "golden" era. King was renowned as a specialist in literary adaptations (A Bell ...
17. Irving Berlin
Soundtrack | Alexander's Ragtime Band
Irving Berlin was born Israel Isidor Baline on May 11, 1888 in Mogilev, Belarus, Russian Empire. Towering composer, songwriter, ("God Bless America", "Always", "Blue Skies", "White Christmas") author and publisher, he came to the United States at age 5 and was educated in New York's public schools....
18. Darryl F. Zanuck
Producer | The Longest Day
One of the kingpins of Hollywood's studio system, Zanuck was the offspring of the ill-fated marriage of the alcoholic night clerk in Wahoo, Nebraska's only hotel and the hotel owner's daughter. Both parents had abandoned him by the time he was 13. At 15, he joined the U.S. Army, and he fought in ...
19. William Goetz
Producer | Sayonara
William Goetz, a producer and studio boss who revolutionized the industry with the development of the profit participation deal, was born on 3/24/1903 in Philadelphia, PA, to ship's purser Theodore Goetz and his wife Fanny. William was the youngest in a brood of eight children (six boys and two ...
20. Gracie Fields
Actress | Holy Matrimony
A comedienne and singer in the British Music Halls, she was the top box-office draw and the highest paid actress in Britain in the 1930's. Her Northern, working-class girl character was a favourite during the inter-war years.
21. George Sanders
Actor | All About Eve
George Sanders was born of English parents in St. Petersburg, Russia. He worked in a Birmingham textile mill, in the tobacco business and as a writer in advertising. He entered show business in London as a chorus boy, going from there to cabaret, radio and theatrical understudy. His film debut, in ...
22. Leslie Mitchell
Actor | How Do You View?
Leslie Mitchell was born on October 4, 1905 in Edinburgh, Scotland, UK. He was an actor and writer, known for How Do You View? (1949), Wicked Wife (1953) and Rynox (1931). He was married to Inge Jorgenson and Phyllis Shepherd. He died on November 23, 1985 in Paddington, London, England, UK.
23. Bobby Howes
Actor | Sweet Devil
Bobby Howes was born on August 4, 1895 in London, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Sweet Devil (1938), Yes, Madam? (1939) and The Good Companions (1957). He was married to Patricia Malone. He died on April 27, 1972 in London, England, UK.
24. Ethel Levey
Actress | High Stakes
Ethel Levey is most noted for her Broadway appearances from 1901 to 1942. She performed in such plays as "Sunny River", "Nearly a Hero", "The Governor's Son", "Go Easy, Mabel", George Washington, Jr", "Little Johnny Jones" and "Running for Office". While performing on Broadway she met and married ...
25. Mary Maguire
Actress | That Man's Here Again
A pretty and promising Australian-born actress in Hollywood films from the early 1930s, pinch-cheeked Mary Maguire was born Helene Teresa ("Peggy") Maguire in Melbourne, one of five children born to footfall player and boxer turned hotelier Michael "Mick" Maguire. One of her sisters became actress ...
26. Nelson Keys
Actor | The Triumph of the Scarlet Pimpernel
Nelson Keys was born on April 7, 1886 in London, England, UK. He was an actor, known for The Scarlet Daredevil (1928), Tiptoes (1927) and When Knights Were Bold (1929). He was married to Hazel Eileen Saqui. He died on April 26, 1939 in London, England, UK.
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