Alice in Wonderland 1951 premiere

1. Kathryn Beaumont

Kathryn Beaumont was just ten years old when she was chosen for the voice of Alice, in Disney's animated version of the classic children's tale, Alice in Wonderland (1951). Walt Disney was so impressed with Kathryn's long curly blonde hair, sparkling eyes and acting ability, that he chose her as ...

2. Ed Wynn

Actor | Alice in Wonderland

An old-fashioned comedian, who, by recommendation by his son Keenan Wynn, became one of the world's most beloved clowns, and one of the best actors of his time. He was born on November 9, 1886. He performed in the Ziegfeld Follies, and later had a son Keenan in 1916. He later wrote his own shows, ...

3. Jerry Colonna

Actor | Alice in Wonderland

Comedian, composer, songwriter ("At Dusk", "I Came to Say Goodbye"), author and trombonist, educated in high school, then a trombonist with the Columbia Symphony (1931-1936). He was a member of the Bob Hope radio program, and appears in many films. Joining ASCAP in 1956, his other songs include "...

4. Richard Haydn

Actor | The Sound of Music

London-born character actor George Richard Haydon was noted for his put-on nasal delivery and pompous, fussy manner. Haydn had a laborious start to his show business career, selling tickets in the box office of London's Daly Theatre. This was followed by an unsuccessful stint with a comedy act in ...

5. Sterling Holloway

Actor | The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh

Popular American character actor of amusing appearance and voice whose long career led from dozens of highly enjoyable onscreen performances to world-wide familiarity as the voice of numerous Walt Disney animated films. Born in the American Deep South to grocer Sterling P. Holloway Sr. and Rebecca ...

6. Verna Felton

Actress | Sleeping Beauty

Verna Felton had extensive experience on the stage and in radio before she broke into film and television. Her trademarks was her distinctive husky voice and her no-nonsense attitude. She was quite in demand for voiceover work, as evidenced by her roles in Cinderella (1950), Alice in Wonderland (...

7. J. Pat O'Malley

Actor | One Hundred and One Dalmatians

J. Pat had a warm smile, twinkling eyes, and an Irish name. He was born in Burnley, England, and began his acting career in British musical halls. J. Pat came to the USA at the outbreak of World War II. He also worked on the Broadway stage during the 1940s and 1950s. J. Pat was a very familiar face...

8. Bill Thompson

Actor | Lady and the Tramp

Bill Thompson was born on July 8, 1913 in Terre Haute, Indiana, USA. He was an actor, known for Lady and the Tramp (1955), Peter Pan (1953) and Sleeping Beauty (1959). He was married to Mary Margaret McBride. He died on July 15, 1971 in Los Angeles, California, USA.

9. Heather Angel

Actress | Peter Pan

Heather Grace Angel was born in Oxford, England, on February 9, 1909. She dabbled on the stage for a time before coming to California to try her luck on the screen. Heather was 20 years old when she landed a bit part for the 1929 film, Bulldog Drummond (1929). Although she didn't know it at the ...

10. Joseph Kearns

Actor | Alice in Wonderland

Joseph Kearns was born on February 12, 1907 in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA. He was an actor, known for Alice in Wonderland (1951), Dennis the Menace (1959) and Anatomy of a Murder (1959). He died on February 17, 1962 in Los Angeles, California, USA.

11. Larry Grey

Actor | Alice in Wonderland

Larry Grey was born on March 23, 1895 in Leeds, Yorkshire, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Alice in Wonderland (1951) and Mr. Celebrity (1941). He was married to Carlotta Dale Garrison. He died on May 5, 1951 in Oakland, California, USA.

12. Queenie Leonard

Actress | Alice in Wonderland

Pearl Walker (Queenie Leonard), actress and singer was born on 7 April 1905. She had already amassed 20 years of stage and screen experience when, in 1941, she made the first of more than 30 Hollywood films. She also appeared in cabaret in England and in the United States, starred in a one-woman ...

13. Dink Trout

Actor | Alice in Wonderland

Dink Trout was born on June 18, 1898 in Beardstown, Illinois, USA. He was an actor, known for Alice in Wonderland (1951), Scattergood Baines (1941) and Cinderella Swings It (1943). He died on March 26, 1950 in Hollywood, California, USA.

14. Doris Lloyd

Actress | The Time Machine

Doris Lloyd was an English actress with a lengthy film career. She appeared in over 150 films between 1920 and 1960. She spent most of her life abroad in the United States.

In 1891, Lloyd was born in Walton, Liverpool. Her parents were Edward Franklin Lloyd and Hessy Jane McCappin. One of her ...

15. James MacDonald

Actor | Cinderella

James MacDonald was born on May 19, 1906 in Crewe, Cheshire, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Cinderella (1950), Alice in Wonderland (1951) and The Black Hole (1979). He was married to Sarah Roberta Cullen. He died on February 1, 1991 in Glendale, California, USA.

16. Thurl Ravenscroft

Actor | The Brave Little Toaster

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

17. Bill Lee

Actor | One Hundred and One Dalmatians

Bill Lee was born on August 21, 1916 in Johnson, Nebraska, USA. He was an actor, known for One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961), Give a Girl a Break (1953) and Snow White and the Three Stooges (1961). He died on November 15, 1980 in Los Angeles, California, USA.

18. Max Smith

Actor | One Hundred and One Dalmatians

Max Smith was born on January 23, 1913 in Des Moines, Iowa, USA. He was an actor, known for One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961), Puddin' Head (1941) and Jingle Belles (1941). He was married to Helen Leyser. He died on July 23, 1999 in San Luis Obispo, California, USA.

19. Bob Hamlin

Actor | Waikiki Melody

Bob Hamlin was born on February 19, 1929 in Los Angeles, California, USA. He was an actor, known for Waikiki Melody (1945) and All Star Revue (1950). He died on July 18, 2010 in Los Angeles, California, USA.

20. Don Barclay

Actor | Cinderella

Besides being a zany comedian, Don Barclay ( born Donn Van Tassel Barclay) was an innovative caricaturist whose humorous depictions of celebrities can be found in countless art galleries, museums, bars and restaurants across the United States. His most famous drawing (entitled 'SkiNose', displayed ...

21. Lucille Bliss

Actress | Cinderella

Lucille Bliss was an American voice actress from New York City who was known for voicing Smurfette from The Smurfs, Anastasia from Cinderella and Ms. Bitters from Invader Zim. She voiced in other animated projects and video games including Robots and The Secret of NIMH. She passed away in November ...

22. Pinto Colvig

Actor | Creation

Pinto Colvig was the quintessential clown whose own identity was always hidden but whose innate warmhearted character always came through his many talents. His humor tickled the funny bone and touched the heart. Incredibly gifted in music, art and mime, he spoke to different generations in ...

23. Tommy Luske

Actor | Peter Pan

Tommy Luske was born on February 12, 1947 in Los Angeles, California, USA. He was an actor, known for Peter Pan (1953), The Walt Disney Christmas Show (1951) and The Music of Disney: A Legacy in Song (1992). He was married to Gail Christine Luske. He died on January 19, 1990 in San Bernardino, ...

24. Marni Nixon

Actress | The Sound of Music

"Loverly" soprano Marni Nixon ensured herself a proper place in film history although most moviegoers would not have recognize her had they passed her on the street. But if you heard her, that might be a horse of a different color. She was one of those unsung heroes (or should I say "much sung" ...

25. Norma Zimmer

Soundtrack | 3:10 to Yuma

Norma Zimmer was born on July 13, 1923 in Larson, Idaho, USA. She was an actress, known for 3:10 to Yuma (1957), Glory (1956) and Mr. Music (1950). She was married to Randal H. Zimmer. She died on May 10, 2011 in Brea, California, USA.

26. Clyde Geronimi

Director | Cinderella

Clyde Geronimi was born on June 12, 1901 in Chiavenna, Lombardy, Italy. He was a director, known for Cinderella (1950), Alice in Wonderland (1951) and Peter Pan (1953). He died on April 24, 1989 in Newport Beach, California, USA.

27. Wilfred Jackson

Director | Cinderella

Wilfred Jackson was born on January 24, 1906 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. He was a director, known for Cinderella (1950), Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) and Alice in Wonderland (1951). He died on August 7, 1988 in Balboa Island, Newport Beach, California, USA.

28. Hamilton Luske

Director | Cinderella

Hamilton Luske was an American animator and film director from Chicago, who spend most of his career at the Walt Disney Animation Studios. He served as the supervising director of several of Disney's films. He was also the supervising animator for the character of Snow White in the feature film "...

29. Walt Disney

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

Walter Elias Disney was born on December 5, 1901 in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Flora Disney (née Call) and Elias Disney, a Canadian-born farmer and businessperson. He had Irish, German, and English ancestry. Walt moved with his parents to Kansas City at age seven, where he spent the majority of ...

30. Milt Banta

Writer | Sleeping Beauty

Milt Banta was born on November 1, 1922 in Ontario, California, USA. He was a writer, known for Sleeping Beauty (1959), Alice in Wonderland (1951) and Peter Pan (1953). He died on October 4, 1959 in Pasadena, California, USA.

31. Del Connell

Writer | Alice in Wonderland

Del Connell was a prolific writer, artist, and sculptor who started as a charter member of the Walt Disney Studios in 1939. He began in the Character Model Department where he sculpted models to provide three-dimensional reference for the animators in such films as "Fantasia," "Dumbo," "The ...

32. William Cottrell

Director | Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

William Cottrell was born on November 19, 1906 in South Bend, Indiana, USA. He was a writer, known for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937), Alice in Wonderland (1951) and Peter Pan (1953). He was married to Hazel Sewell. He died on December 22, 1995 in Burbank, California, USA.

33. Joe Grant

Writer | Fantasia

Joe Grant was born on May 15, 1908 in New York City, New York, USA. He was a writer, known for Fantasia (1940), Dumbo (1941) and Alice in Wonderland (1951). He was married to Jenny Grant. He died on May 6, 2005 in Glendale, California, USA.

34. Winston Hibler

Writer | Sleeping Beauty

Songwriter ("A Boy Is a Curious Thing"), auhor, director, producer and actor, educated at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. Between 1928 and 1938 he was a Broadway stage actor and appeared in several films, and from 1938 to 1942 he was a writer for radio, films and stage productions, and later...

35. Dick Huemer

Writer | Fantasia

Dick Huemer was born on January 2, 1898 in New York City, New York, USA. He was a writer and director, known for Fantasia (1940), Dumbo (1941) and Alice in Wonderland (1951). He died on November 30, 1979 in Burbank, California, USA.

36. Dick Kelsey

Writer | Alice in Wonderland

Dick Kelsey was born on May 3, 1905 in California, USA. He was a writer and art director, known for Alice in Wonderland (1951), Dumbo (1941) and Bambi (1942). He died on May 3, 1987 in Ventura, California, USA.

37. Tom Oreb

Writer | Alice in Wonderland

Tom Oreb was born on October 30, 1913 in California, USA. Tom was a writer, known for Alice in Wonderland (1951), Sleeping Beauty (1959) and One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961). Tom died on May 10, 1987 in Los Angeles, California, USA.

38. Bill Peet

Writer | Cinderella

Bill Peet was born on January 29, 1915 in Grandview, Indiana, USA. He was a writer, known for Cinderella (1950), Sleeping Beauty (1959) and Dumbo (1941). He was married to Margaret Brunst. He died on May 11, 2002 in Studio City, California, USA.

39. Erdman Penner

Writer | Sleeping Beauty

Erdman Penner was born on January 17, 1905 in Rosthern, Saskatchewan, Canada. He was a writer and director, known for Sleeping Beauty (1959), Cinderella (1950) and Lady and the Tramp (1955). He died on November 10, 1956 in Los Angeles, California, USA.

40. Joe Rinaldi

Writer | Cinderella

Joe Rinaldi was born on August 1, 1914 in San Francisco, California, USA. He was a writer, known for Cinderella (1950), Lady and the Tramp (1955) and Sleeping Beauty (1959). He died on November 25, 1974 in Los Angeles, California, USA.

41. Ted Sears

Writer | Pinocchio

As his writing partner, Winston Hibler, once put it, "Perhaps Ted's greatest talent was his own unique brand of humor. It was warm, gentle humor; there was never a barb in it. And his was the key, to Ted's whole personality. He was the kindest man I ever knew. He lived with laughter and without ...

42. John Walbridge

Writer | Alice in Wonderland

John Walbridge was born on December 10, 1900 in California, USA. He was a writer, known for Alice in Wonderland (1951), Dumbo (1941) and Pinocchio (1940). He died in April 1964 in California, USA.

43. Oliver Wallace

Composer | Dumbo

Oliver Wallace was born on August 6, 1887 in London, England, UK. He was a composer and actor, known for Dumbo (1941), Alice in Wonderland (1951) and Cinderella (1950). He was married to Claire Burch Wallace. He died on September 15, 1963 in Los Angeles, California, USA.

44. Charlton Heston

Actor | Ben-Hur

With features chiseled in stone, and renowned for playing a long list of historical figures, particularly in Biblical epics, the tall, well-built and ruggedly handsome Charlton Heston was one of Hollywood's top leading men of his prime and remained active in front of movie cameras for over sixty ...

45. Bobby Driscoll

Actor | Peter Pan

Bobby Driscoll was a natural-born actor. Discovered by chance at the age of five-and-a-half in a barber shop in Altadena, CA. and then convincing in anything he ever undertook on the movie screen and on television throughout his career spanning 17 years (1943-1960). Includes such notable movie ...

46. Clark Gable

Actor | It Happened One Night

William Clark Gable was born on February 1, 1901 in Cadiz, Ohio, to Adeline (Hershelman) and William Henry Gable, an oil-well driller. He was of German, Irish, and Swiss-German descent. When he was seven months old, his mother died, and his father sent him to live with his maternal aunt and uncle ...

47. Eddie Albert

Actor | Roman Holiday

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

48. Errol Flynn

Actor | The Adventures of Robin Hood

Errol Flynn was born to parents Theodore Flynn, a respected biologist, and Marrelle Young, an adventurous young woman. Young Flynn was a rambunctious child who could be counted on to find trouble. Errol managed to have himself thrown out of every school in which he was enrolled. In his late teens ...

49. Thelma Ritter

Actress | Rear Window

Thelma Ritter appeared in high school plays and was trained at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. In the 1940s she worked in radio. Her movie career was started with a bit part in the 1946 Miracle on 34th Street (1947). In the movie she played a weary Xmas shopper. Her performance in the short ...

50. Margaret Hamilton

Actress | The Wizard of Oz

Margaret Hamilton was born December 9, 1902 in Cleveland, Ohio, to Jennie (Adams) and Walter Hamilton. She later attended Hathaway Brown School in Shaker Heights, Ohio, and practiced acting doing children's theater while a Junior League of Cleveland member. Margaret had already built her resume ...

51. Gordon MacRae

Actor | Oklahoma!

Albert Gordon MacRae was born on March 12, 1921, in East Orange, NJ. During his early years, he resided in Syracuse, NY, and, while in high school, spent much of his time singing and acting in the Drama Club. It was also during this time that he learned to play the piano, clarinet and the saxophone...

52. Richard Burton

Actor | Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

Probably best-remembered for his turbulent personal life with Elizabeth Taylor (whom he married twice), Richard Burton was nonetheless also regarded as an often brilliant British actor of the post-WWII period.

Burton was born Richard Walter Jenkins in 1925 into a Welsh (Cymraeg)-speaking family in ...

53. Cary Grant

Actor | North by Northwest

Once told by an interviewer, "Everybody would like to be Cary Grant", Grant is said to have replied, "So would I."

Cary Grant was born Archibald Alec Leach on January 18, 1904 in Horfield, Bristol, England, to Elsie Maria (Kingdon) and Elias James Leach, who worked in a factory. His early years in ...

54. James Cagney

Actor | Angels with Dirty Faces

One of Hollywood's preeminent male stars of all time, James Cagney was also an accomplished dancer and easily played light comedy. James Francis Cagney was born on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in New York City, to Carolyn (Nelson) and James Francis Cagney, Sr., who was a bartender and amateur ...

55. James Mason

Actor | Lolita

James Mason was born in Huddersfield and had a film career spanning over 50 years during which he appeared in over 100 films in England and America but never won an Oscar. Whatever role he played, from the wounded Belfast gunman in Odd Man Out to Rommel in The Desert Fox, his creamy velvet voice ...

56. Yvonne De Carlo

Actress | The Ten Commandments

Yvonne De Carlo was born Margaret Yvonne Middleton on September 1, 1922 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. She was three when her father abandoned the family. Her mother turned to waitressing in a restaurant to make ends meet--a rough beginning for an actress who would, one day, be one of ...

57. Hedy Lamarr

Actress | Samson and Delilah

Hedy Lamarr, the woman many critics and fans alike regard as the most beautiful ever to appear in films, was born Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler in Vienna, Austria. She was the daughter of Gertrud (Lichtwitz), from Budapest, and Emil Kiesler, a banker from Lemberg (now known as Lviv). Her parents were ...

58. Dorothy McGuire

Actress | Gentleman's Agreement

A genuine model of sincerity, practicality and dignity in most of the roles she inhabited, actress Dorothy McGuire offered Tinseltown more talent than it probably knew what to do with. A quiet, passive beauty, she had a soothing quality to her open-faced looks and voice. She was a natural when he ...

59. Olivia de Havilland

Actress | Gone with the Wind

Olivia Mary de Havilland was born on July 1, 1916 in Tokyo, Japan to British parents, Lilian Augusta (Ruse), a former actress, and Walter Augustus de Havilland, an English professor and patent attorney. Her sister Joan, later to become famous as Joan Fontaine, was born the following year. Her ...

60. Burt Lancaster

Actor | From Here to Eternity

Burt Lancaster, one of five children, was born in Manhattan, to Elizabeth (Roberts) and James Henry Lancaster, a postal worker. All his grandparents were immigrants from the north of Ireland. He was a tough street kid who took an early interest in gymnastics. He joined the circus as an acrobat and ...

61. Laurence Olivier

Actor | Sleuth

Laurence Olivier could speak William Shakespeare's lines as naturally as if he were "actually thinking them", said English playwright Charles Bennett, who met Olivier in 1927. Laurence Kerr Olivier was born in Dorking, Surrey, England, to Agnes Louise (Crookenden) and Gerard Kerr Olivier, a High ...

62. Bob Hope

Actor | The Ghost Breakers

Comedian Bob Hope was born Leslie Townes Hope in Eltham, London, England, the fifth of seven sons of Avis (Townes), light opera singer, and William Henry Hope, a stonemason from Weston-super-Mare, Somerset. His maternal grandmother was Welsh. Hope moved to Bristol before emigrating with his parents...

63. Wendell Corey

Actor | Rear Window

Wendell Corey was a hard-working American character actor who appeared in numerous movies and television productions in the 1940s, '50s and '60s. Born on March 20, 1914 in Dracut, Massachusetts, in the northeastern part of the Commonwealth near the New Hampshire border, Corey was the son of a ...

64. Raymond Burr

Actor | Rear Window

Born Raymond William Stacy Burr on May 21, 1917 in New Westminster, British Columbia, he spent most of his early life traveling. As a youngster, his father moved his family to China, where the elder Burr worked as a trade agent. When the family returned to Canada, Raymond's parents separated. He ...

65. Gene Nelson

Actor | Oklahoma!

Gene Nelson was barely a teen when he saw the Fred Astaire movie Flying Down to Rio (1933), which would change his life. It was then that he decided he would be a dancer. After graduating from high school, Nelson joined the Sonja Henie Ice Show and toured for 3 years before joining the Army in ...

66. Michael Rennie

Actor | The Day the Earth Stood Still

The British actor Michael Rennie worked as a car salesman and factory manager before he turned to acting. A meeting with a Gaumont-British Studios casting director led to Rennie's first acting job - that of stand-in for Robert Young in Secret Agent (1936) directed by Alfred Hitchcock. He put his ...

67. Donna Reed

Actress | It's a Wonderful Life

Donna Reed was born in the midwestern town of Denison, Iowa, on January 27, 1921, as Donna Belle Mullenger. A small town - a population of less than 3,000 people - Denison was located by the Boyer River, and was the county seat of Crawford County. Donna grew up as a farm girl, much like many young ...

68. Vivien Leigh

Actress | A Streetcar Named Desire

If a film were made of the life of Vivien Leigh, it would open in India just before World War I, where a successful British businessman could live like a prince. In the mountains above Calcutta, a little princess is born. Because of the outbreak of World War I, she is six years old the first time ...

69. Audrey Meadows

Actress | The Honeymooners

Audrey Meadows was born in New York City as Audrey Cotter, the youngest of four children. After she was born, her family returned to Wu'chang, China, where they worked as missionaries. Her family returned to the US and settled in New England when Audrey was age 6, and she and sister Jayne Meadows ...

70. Gloria Grahame

Actress | In a Lonely Place

Gloria Grahame Hallward, an acting pupil of her mother (stage actress and teacher Jean Grahame), acted professionally while still in high school. In 1944 Louis B. Mayer saw her on Broadway and gave her an MGM contract under the name Gloria Grahame. Her debut in the title role of Blonde Fever (1944)...

71. Gladys Cooper

Actress | My Fair Lady

Gladys Cooper was the daughter of journalist William Frederick Cooper and his wife Mabel Barnett. As a child she was very striking and was used as a photographic model beginning at six years old. She wanted to become an actress and started on that road in 1905 after being discovered by Seymour ...

72. Patricia Neal

Actress | The Day the Earth Stood Still

Patricia Neal, the Oscar and Tony Award-winning actress, was born Patsy Louise Neal in Packard, Kentucky, where her father managed a coal mine and her mother was the daughter of the town doctor. She grew up in Knoxville, Tennessee, where she attended high school. She was first bit by the acting bug...

73. Doris Day

Soundtrack | Love Me or Leave Me

One of America's most loved actresses was born Doris Mary Kappelhoff on April 3, 1922, in Cincinnati, Ohio, to Alma Sophia (Welz), a housewife, and William Joseph Kappelhoff, a music teacher and choir master. Her grandparents were all German immigrants. She had two brothers, Richard, who died ...

74. Beulah Bondi

Actress | It's a Wonderful Life

Character actress Beulah Bondi was a favorite of directors and audiences and is one of the reasons so many films from the 1930s and 1940s remain so enjoyable, as she was an integral part of many of the ensemble casts (a hallmark of the studio system) of major and/or great films, including The Trail...

75. John McIntire

Actor | Psycho

John McIntire possessed the requisite grit, craggy features and crusty, steely-eyed countenance to make for one of television and film's most durable supporting players in western settings and film noir. Born in Spokane, Washington in 1907 and the son of a lawyer, he grew up in Montana where he ...

76. Sebastian Cabot

Actor | The Jungle Book

Sebastian Cabot was an English actor, often working as a voice actor in animation.

On 6 July, 1918, Cabot was born in London. He dropped out of school in 1932, to work in an automotive garage. He was eventually hired as both a chauffeur and a valet for actor Frank Pettingell (1891-1966). He learned ...

77. Edgar Bergen

Actor | Fun & Fancy Free

Edgar Bergen was born on February 16, 1903 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for Fun and Fancy Free (1947), The Muppet Movie (1979) and Letter of Introduction (1938). He was married to Frances Bergen. He died on September 30, 1978 in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA.

78. George Burns

Actor | Oh, God!

George Burns was an American actor, comedian, singer, and published author. He formed a comedy duo with his wife Gracie Allen (1895-1964), and typically played the straight man to her zany roles. Following her death, Burns started appearing as a solo performer. He once won an Academy Award for Best...

79. Paul Frees

Actor | The War of the Worlds

Actor, composer, songwriter, voiceover artist and author. He joined ASCAP in 1956, and his chief musical collaborators included Tony Romano, Ruby Raksin, Walter Gross, and Ed Brandt. His popular-song compositions include "Hollywood Soliloquy", "The Clown", "Drowning My Sorrow", and "Voice in the ...

80. Burl Ives

Actor | The Big Country

Burl Ives was one of six children born to a farming family in Hunt City, Jasper, Illinois, the son of Cordellia "Dellie" (White) and Levi Franklin Ives. He first sang in public for a soldiers' reunion when he was age 4. In high school, he learned the banjo and played fullback, intending to become a...

81. Walter Catlett

Actor | Mr. Deeds Goes to Town

Walter Catlett carved out a career for himself playing excitable, officious blowhards, and few actors did it better. A San Francisco native, he started out in vaudeville - with a detour for a while in opera - before breaking into films in the mid-1920s. Two of his best remembered roles were as the ...

82. Jack Webb

Writer | Dragnet

John Randolph Webb was born in Santa Monica, California, to Margaret (Smith) and Samuel Chester Webb. His father left home before he was born; Webb would never know him. He was raised by his mother and maternal grandmother in dire poverty that preceded the Depression. Making things worse, Webb ...

83. Robert Ryan

Actor | The Wild Bunch

Distinguished U.S. actor and longtime civil rights campaigner Robert Bushnell Ryan was born in Chicago, Illinois, to Mable Arbutus (Bushnell), a secretary, and Timothy Aloysius Ryan, whose wealthy family owned a real estate firm. His father was of Irish ancestry, and his mother was of English and ...

84. Red Skelton

Writer | The Red Skelton Show

The son of a former circus clown turned grocer and a cleaning woman, Red Skelton was introduced to show business at the age of seven by Ed Wynn, at a vaudeville show in Vincennes. At age 10, he left home to travel with a medicine show through the Midwest, and joined the vaudeville circuit at age 15....

85. Boris Karloff

Actor | Bride of Frankenstein

Along with fellow actors Lon Chaney, Bela Lugosi and Vincent Price, Boris Karloff is recognized as one of the true icons of horror cinema, and the actor most closely identified with the general public's perception of the "monster" from the classic Mary Shelley book, "Frankenstein". William Henry ...

86. Spencer Tracy

Actor | Judgment at Nuremberg

Spencer Tracy was the second son born on April 5, 1900, to truck salesman John Edward and Caroline Brown Tracy in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. While attending Marquette Academy, he and classmate Pat O'Brien quit school to enlist in the Navy at the start of World War I. Tracy was still at Norfolk Navy Yard...

87. Fred Astaire

Actor | The Towering Inferno

Fred Astaire was born in Omaha, Nebraska, to Johanna (Geilus) and Fritz Austerlitz, a brewer. Fred entered show business at age 5. He was successful both in vaudeville and on Broadway in partnership with his sister, Adele Astaire. After Adele retired to marry in 1932, Astaire headed to Hollywood. ...

88. Claude Rains

Actor | Casablanca

William Claude Rains, born in the Clapham area of London, was the son of the British stage actor Frederick Rains. The younger Rains followed, making his stage debut at the age of eleven in "Nell of Old Drury." Growing up in the world of theater, he saw not only acting up close but the down-to-earth...

89. Jim Backus

Actor | Rebel Without a Cause

Jim Backus was born James Gilmore Backus on February 25, 1913 in Cleveland, Ohio. He was one of the few actors to do it all: radio, Broadway, movies, television and cartoons. After attending preparatory school in his hometown Cleveland, Backus enrolled at the American Academy of Dramatic Art, to ...

90. Jimmy Durante

Actor | It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World

First wife Jeanne died in 1943. Wed second wife, Marjorie Little after 16 year courtship when she was 39 and he 67 Marjorie Little had been the hatcheck girl at the Copacabana. Durante and his second wife adopted a baby girl, Cecelia Alicia on Christmas day 1961. Durante doted on "CeCe" until his ...

91. Sid Caesar

Actor | Grease

Comedian, saxophonist, composer, actor and musician, he performed within the orchestras of Charlie Spivak, Shep Fields and Claude Thornhill as saxophonist. Later, as super-hip jazz musician "Cool Cees" in television skits, he played tenor saxophone, and sang with the satirical trio "The Hair Cuts" ...

92. Terry-Thomas

Actor | It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World

One of Britain's most beloved eccentric comedians, the irrepressible, gap-toothed Terry-Thomas was born Thomas Terry Hoar-Stevens in Lichfield Grove, Finchley. He was the son of Ellen Elizabeth (Hoar) and Ernest Frederick Stevens, a fairly well-to-do London businessman. He was afforded a private ...

93. Randolph Scott

Actor | Roberta

Handsome American leading man who developed into one of Hollywood's greatest and most popular Western stars. Born to George and Lucy Crane Scott during a visit to Virginia, Scott was raised in Charlotte, North Carolina in a wealthy family. After service with the U.S. Army in France in World War I, ...

94. Ray Bolger

Actor | The Wizard of Oz

Ray Bolger was born Raymond Wallace Bolger on January 10, 1904 in Dorchester, Massachusetts, to Anne C. (Wallace) and James Edward Bolger, both Irish-Americans. Ray began his career in vaudeville. He was half of a team called "Sanford and Bolger" and also did numerous Broadway shows on his own. ...

95. Jack Haley

Actor | The Wizard of Oz

Jack Haley was a movie and vaudeville actor who is always remembered as the Tin Man in The Wizard of Oz (1939). The Tin Man role was originally was going to Buddy Ebsen, but due to allergic reaction from the aluminum powder makeup, Ebsen was taken out of the casting and Haley replaced him. To avoid...

96. Danny Kaye

Soundtrack | The Danny Kaye Show

Danny Kaye left school at the age of 13 to work in the so-called Borscht Belt of Jewish resorts in the Catskill Mountains. It was there he learned the basics of show biz. From there he went through a series of jobs in and out of the business. In 1939, he made his Broadway debut in "Straw Hat Revue,...

97. Frank Sinatra

Actor | From Here to Eternity

Frank Sinatra was born in Hoboken, New Jersey, to Italian immigrants Natalina Della (Garaventa), from Northern Italy, and Saverio Antonino Martino Sinatra, a Sicilian boxer, fireman, and bar owner. Growing up on the gritty streets of Hoboken made Sinatra determined to work hard to get ahead. ...

98. Louis Armstrong

Actor | High Society

Louis Armstrong grew up poor in a single-parent household. He was 13 when he celebrated the New Year by running out on the street and firing a pistol that belonged to the current man in his mother's life. At the Colored Waifs Home for Boys, he learned to play the bugle and the clarinet and joined ...

99. William Powell

Actor | The Thin Man

William Powell was on the New York stage by 1912, but it would be ten years before his film career would begin. In 1924 he went to Paramount Pictures, where he was employed for the next seven years. During that time, he played in a number of interesting films, but stardom was elusive. He did ...

100. Cesar Romero

Actor | Batman: The Movie

Tall, suave and sophisticated Cesar Romero actually had two claims to fame in Hollywood. To one generation, he was the distinguished Latin lover of numerous musicals and romantic comedies, and the rogue bandit The Cisco Kid in a string of low-budget westerns. However, to a younger generation weaned...