Celebrities Born in the Midwest
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"Look for the Silver Lining" became the appropriate signature song for one of Broadways's most popular musical stage stars of the 1920s, Marilyn Miller, for she embodied a vibrant, child-like optimism in her very best "happily ever after" showcases. Such happiness, however, did not extend into her personal life.
She was born Mary Ellen Reynolds in Evansville, Indiana, in 1898. Her father was a telephone lineman and her mother a theater aspirant. Her parents divorced when Marilyn was a child and she was raised by her mother and stepfather (last name Miller), who was an acrobat and song-and-dance man in vaudeville. She joined her family (which included two sisters) in a family act billed as "The Five Columbians" which proved popular on the Midwest circuit. They also toured outside of the country when bookings were slim. When she went out on her own she abbreviated her first name to Marilyn and adopted her stepfather's last name of Miller.
While performing in a London club in 1914, she caught the eye of Broadway producer Lee Shubert, who brought her to New York for his "Passing Show" revues of 1914, 1915 and 1917. Marilyn became an instant hit with her vivid, yet delicate, beauty. However, it was her association with Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. in 1918 that put her over the top. Seeing her great potential, he took her under his wing, expanded her repertoire, focused on her tap and ballet talents and provided her with singing and acting lessons. She became a top headliner in his Follies shows of 1918 and 1919. Her first full-out performance was in Ziegfeld's "Sally" in 1920, where she introduced the song "Look for the Silver Lining." The show was a monster hit. Their professional and personal relationship became badly intertwined, however, and she soon severed the union. Producer Charles B. Dillingham, Ziegfeld's rival, signed her on and handed her the title role in "Peter Pan," which received lukewarm reviews. Her second show with Dillingham was entitled "Sunny," which introduced the soon-to-be standards "Who?" and "D'Ye Love Me?" Marilyn became the toast of Broadway once again and her salary soared to $3,000 per week, making her the highest-paid musical comedy performer in New York at the time.
She reconciled with Ziegfeld in 1928 and performed in the Gershwin musical "Rosalie" to enthusiastic audiences. Hollywood took an interest but Marilyn's venture into films would be very brief. She recreated two of her stage hits to film at the advent of sound. Sally (1929) and Sunny (1930) were warmly received, as was the musical Her Majesty, Love (1931), but that would be her third and final film. Most of Marilyn's showcases were based on Cinderella-like, poor-girl-meets-rich-boy romances. Unlike her sweet-natured stage characters, however, Marilyn had an extremely volatile diva-like demeanor and proved highly difficult to work with. Her three marriages were also immensely unhappy ones. Her first husband, stage actor Frank Carter, was killed in a car crash after only a year of marriage; second husband Jack Pickford, the brother of silent screen legend Mary Pickford, was a drug and alcohol abuser (they divorced); and third husband, stage manager Chester "Chet" O'Brien was a ne'er-do-well and opportunist. She died before they were divorced.
Marilyn's last stage triumph was "As Thousands Cheer" in 1933. Her health began to deteriorate rapidly after that, aggravated by an increasing dependency on alcohol. Suffering from recurring sinus infections, she was in a severely weakened state by the time she died of complications following nasal surgery at the age of 37. A sad end to such a bright symbol of hope and youthful exuberance. A superficial, highly sanitized version of Marilyn's life was made in the form of the biopic Look for the Silver Lining (1949) with June Haver starring as Marilyn.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Linda Hayes was born on 11 October 1918 in Sac City, Iowa, USA. She was an actress, known for The Girl from Mexico (1939), I'm Still Alive (1940) and Mexican Spitfire (1939). She was married to Frank Ward Walker, Lou Crosby and Dominic Joseph Germano. She died on 19 December 1995 in Palm Desert, California, USA.- Actor
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Fred MacMurray was likely the most underrated actor of his generation. True, his earliest work is mostly dismissed as pedestrian, but no other actor working in the 1940s and 50s was able to score so supremely whenever cast against type.
Frederick Martin MacMurray was born in Kankakee, Illinois, to Maleta Martin and Frederick MacMurray. His father had Scottish ancestry and his mother's family was German. His father's sister was vaudeville performer and actress Fay Holderness. When MacMurray was five years old, the family moved to Beaver Dam in Wisconsin, his parents' birth state. He graduated from Beaver Dam High School (later the site of Beaver Dam Middle School), where he was a three-sport star in football, baseball, and basketball. Fred retained a special place in his heart for his small-town Wisconsin upbringing, referring at any opportunity in magazine articles or interviews to the lifelong friends and cherished memories of Beaver Dam, even including mementos of his childhood in several of his films. In "Pardon my Past", Fred and fellow GI William Demarest are moving to Beaver Dam, WI to start a mink farm.
MacMurray earned a full scholarship to attend Carroll College in Waukesha, Wisconsin and had ambitions to become a musician. In college, MacMurray participated in numerous local bands, playing the saxophone. In 1930, he played saxophone in the Gus Arnheim and his Coconut Grove Orchestra when Bing Crosby was the lead vocalist and Russ Columbo was in the violin section. MacMurray recorded a vocal with Arnheim's orchestra "All I Want Is Just One Girl" -- Victor 22384, 3/20/30. He appeared on Broadway in the 1930 hit production of "Three's a Crowd" starring Sydney Greenstreet, Clifton Webb and Libby Holman. He next worked alongside Bob Hope in the 1933 production of "Roberta" before he signed on with Paramount Pictures in 1934 for the then-standard 7-year contract (the hit show made Bob Hope a star and he was also signed by Paramount). MacMurray married Lillian Lamont (D: June 22, 1953) on June 20, 1936, and they adopted two children.
Although his early film work is largely overlooked by film historians and critics today, he rose steadily within the ranks of Paramount's contract stars, working with some of Hollywood's greatest talents, including wunderkind writer-director Preston Sturges (whom he intensely disliked) and actors Humphrey Bogart and Marlene Dietrich. Although the majority of his films of the 30's can largely be dismissed as standard fare there are exceptions: he played opposite Claudette Colbert in seven films, beginning with The Gilded Lily (1935). He also co-starred with Katharine Hepburn in the classic, Alice Adams (1935), and with Carole Lombard in Hands Across the Table (1935), The Trail of the Lonesome Pine (1936) -- an ambitious early outdoor 3-strip Technicolor hit, co-starring with Henry Fonda and Sylvia Sidney directed by Henry Hathaway -- The Princess Comes Across (1936), and True Confession (1937). MacMurray spent the decade learning his craft and developing a reputation as a solid actor. In an interesting sidebar, artist C.C. Beck used MacMurray as the initial model for a superhero character who would become Fawcett Comics' Captain Marvel in 1939.
The 1940s gave him his chance to shine. He proved himself in melodramas such as Above Suspicion (1943) and musicals (Where Do We Go from Here? (1945)), somewhat ironically becoming one of Hollywood's highest-paid actors by 1943, when his salary reached $420,000. He scored a huge hit with the thoroughly entertaining The Egg and I (1947), again teamed with Ms. Colbert and today largely remembered for launching the long-running Ma and Pa Kettle franchise. In 1941, MacMurray purchased a large parcel of land in Sonoma County, California and began a winery/cattle ranch. He raised his family on the ranch and it became the home to his second wife, June Haver after their marriage in 1954. The winery remains in operation today in the capable hands of their daughter, Kate MacMurray. Despite being habitually typecast as a "nice guy", MacMurray often said that his best roles were when he was cast against type by Billy Wilder. In 1944, he played the role of "Walter Neff", an insurance salesman (numerous other actors had turned the role down) who plots with a greedy wife Barbara Stanwyck to murder her husband in Double Indemnity (1944) -- inarguably the greatest role of his entire career. Indeed, anyone today having any doubts as to his potential depth as an actor should watch this film. He did another stellar turn in the "not so nice" category, playing the cynical, spineless "Lieutenant Thomas Keefer" in the 1954 production of The Caine Mutiny (1954), directed by Edward Dmytryk. He gave another superb dramatic performance cast against type as a hard-boiled crooked cop in Pushover (1954).
Despite these and other successes, his career waned considerably by the late 1950s and he finished out the decade working in a handful of non-descript westerns. MacMurray's career got its second wind beginning in 1959 when he was cast as the dog-hating father figure (well, he was a retired mailman) in the first Walt Disney live-action comedy, The Shaggy Dog (1959). The film was an enormous hit and Uncle Walt green lighted several projects around his middle-aged star. Billy Wilder came calling again and he did a masterful turn in the role of Jeff Sheldrake, a two-timing corporate executive in Wilder's Oscar-winning comedy-drama The Apartment (1960), with Shirley MacLaine and Jack Lemmon -- arguably his second greatest role and the last one to really challenge him as an actor. Although this role would ultimately be remembered as his last great performance, he continued with the lightweight Disney comedies while pulling double duty, thanks to an exceptionally generous contract, on TV.
MacMurray was cast in 1961 as Professor Ned Brainerd in Disney's The Absent Minded Professor (1961) and in its superior sequel, Son of Flubber (1962). These hit Disney comedies raised his late-career profile considerably and producer Don Fedderson beckoned with My Three Sons (1960) debuting in 1960 on ABC. The gentle sitcom staple remained on the air for 12 seasons (380 episodes). Concerned about his work load and time away from his ranch and family, Fred played hardball with his series contract. In addition to his generous salary, the "Sons" contract was written so that all the scenes requiring his presence to be shot first, requiring him to work only 65 days per season on the show (the contract was reportedly used as an example by Dean Martin when negotiating the wildly generous terms contained in his later variety show contract). This requirement meant the series actors had to work with stand-ins and posed wardrobe continuity issues. The series moved without a hitch to CBS in the fall of 1965 in color after ABC, then still an also-ran network with its eyes peeled on the bottom line, refused to increase the budget required for color production (color became a U.S. industry standard in the 1968 season). This freed him to pursue his film work, family, ranch, and his principal hobby, golf.
Politically very conservative, MacMurray was a staunch supporter of the Republican Party; he joined his old friend Bob Hope and James Stewart in campaigning for Richard Nixon in 1968. He was also widely known one of the most -- to be polite -- frugal actors in the business. Stories floated around the industry in the 60s regarding famous hard-boiled egg brown bag lunches and stingy tips. After the cancellation of My Three Sons in 1972, MacMurray made only a few more film appearances before retiring to his ranch in 1978. As a result of a long battle with leukemia, MacMurray died of pneumonia at the age of eighty-three in Santa Monica on November 5, 1991. He was buried in the Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Well-endowed, attractive Joyce Jameson was typecast as "broads," "dames," and dizzy blondes -- somewhat in the vein of Barbara Nichols. In real life, she was said, like such other ditzy blondes as Judy Holliday and Jayne Mansfield, to have been the antithesis of her screen personae, a graduate in theatre arts from UCLA, highly intelligent and well-read.
Born in Chicago in 1927 (not 1932 as has been misreported) as Joyce Kingsley as per the Cook County, Illinois Birth Index, 1916-1935 (File Number 6045258), she began acting in films from 1951, after being 'spotted' at the small Cabaret Club by Steve Allen. At that time, she was already a seasoned performer on stage in musical revue, featured playing multiple parts in shows staged by her then-husband and mentor, Billy Barnes, initially at the Cabaret Club, then at the Las Palmas Theatre in Hollywood, and finally on Broadway.
After several small supporting bits on the big screen and the odd ghost-written TV script, Jameson's career gained momentum from the late 1950s. She was seen in better productions, such as Billy Wilder's The Apartment (1960). Adept at dialects and mimicry, Jameson made a name for herself on The Tonight Show Starring Jack Paar (1957) with a ventriloquist act, featuring her 'alter ego,' an imaginary dummy, unsurprisingly named "Marilyn." Jameson was said to have derived the idea of being subsumed by this 'other personality' from the British horror classic Dead of Night (1945). Reputedly still more uproarious, were her biting impersonations of Judy Garland, Grace Kelly, and, above all, Marlene Dietrich.
She may be most-fondly remembered for her first two cult Gothic horrors she made for Roger Corman, loosely based on stories by Edgar Allan Poe. Tales of Terror (1962), finds her (in story number two, 'The Black Cat') as perpetually inebriated Peter Lorre's philandering wife Annabel, who suffers the ignominious fate of being entombed alive in a wine cellar, alongside paramour Vincent Price. Her performance on the way to that demise -- at once funny and tragic -- amply demonstrated her ability to hold her own in a leading role opposite such dominant personalities as Lorre and Price. She was quite good (and certainly very decorative) in her second outing for Corman, The Comedy of Terrors (1963) albeit in a more typical role as decrepit Boris Karloff's ditzy daughter, Amaryllis Trumbull.
On television, she had a recurring spot on The Andy Griffith Show (1960) and guested in many classic series, including westerns and science fiction, though her forte was almost certainly comedy. Unable to escape her typecasting, she rarely got roles her acting talent would have justified. Jameson once commented acerbically in an interview, "Everyone expects to cast me as the dumb or victimized blonde. After they interview me, I can just hear them say, 'Hey! She's intelligent, but what do you do with it?'" (The Pittsburgh Press, July 27,1958).- Georgia Backus was born on 13 October 1900 in Columbus, Ohio, USA. She was an actress, known for Citizen Kane (1941), Cause for Alarm! (1951) and Suddenly It's Spring (1947). She died on 7 September 1983 in Sun City, California, USA.
- Gene Morgan was born on 12 March 1892 in Racine, Wisconsin, USA. He was an actor, known for Tangled Destinies (1932), Blonde Venus (1932) and Anybody's Blonde (1931). He was married to Rachel Laretta Hart. He died on 15 August 1940 in Santa Monica, California, USA.
- Actor
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Glenn Tryon was born on 2 August 1898 in Julietta, Idaho, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for Lonesome (1928), The Secret Menace (1931) and Hot Heels (1927). He was married to Jane Frazee and Lillian Hall. He died on 18 April 1970 in Orlando, Florida, USA.- Actor
- Additional Crew
- Soundtrack
Bob Livingston's father was a newspaper editor in Quincy, Illinois. As a reporter for the Los Angeles Daily News Bob did a story on the Pasadena Playhouse, and that got him interested in acting. In his mid-20s, he was doing bit parts for Universal and Fox and went from there to romantic roles with MGM. His first real success came with Republic, in 1936, as a masked hero in the serial The Vigilantes Are Coming (1936). That led to more cowboy roles and the leading role in the "Three Mesquiteer" series. He had more appearances (29) in that series than anyone else. He played other cowboy roles (Zorro in The Bold Caballero (1936)), worked with Al St. John in the "Lone Rider" Series (1941-43) and finished up in a number of character parts in Gene Autry and Roy Rogers movies.- Lenore Leslie Lonergan was the daughter of actor, 'Lester Lonergan, Jr (1893-1958)' and opera singer, Julia Mary (Juliet) McIntyre-Lonergan (1889-1942). Her brother, Lester Lonergan III (1924-1968) was also an actor. Her paternal grandfather was Irish born actor, Lester Lonergan (1869-1931). She was raised in New York City and attended the Professional Children's School along with her brother.
She made her stage debut in at the age of 6 in "Mother Load" starring Melvyn Douglass and went on to play the role of Fluffy Adams in Junior Miss by Jerome Cherdov and Joseph Fields. - Kathleen Burke was born on 5 September 1913 in Hammond, Indiana, USA. She was an actress, known for The Last Outpost (1935), Good Dame (1934) and The Lion Man (1936). She was married to Jose Fernandez, Glen Nelson Rardin and Forrest Lloyd Smith. She died on 9 April 1980 in Chicago, Illinois, USA.
- Actor
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Paul Lynde was born in 1926 in Mount Vernon, Ohio (one of six children and the middle of four boys). His father was a local police officer and the sheriff of the Mount Vernon Jail for two years. Lynde got his inspiration to become an actor at the age of four or five after his mother took him to see the original silent film Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ (1925). After graduating from Northwestern University, Lynde relocated to New York City where his first break came from being a stand-up comedian at the Number One Fifth Avenue nightclub. Then came an appearance on a Broadway show, "New Faces of 1952".
Lynde also had a two-year run on TV with Perry Como's Kraft Music Hall (1948) and the Broadway and film versions of Bye Bye Birdie (1963). Throught his life, Lynde appeared in the Broadway plays "The Impossible Years", "Don't Drink the Water", and "Plaza Suite". His many film credits include New Faces (1954), Send Me No Flowers (1964), and Rabbit Test (1978). One of his most memorable roles was a recurring role on Bewitched (1964) playing the sneering, sarcastic Uncle Arthur. He appeared on TV's The Dean Martin Show (1965), The Kraft Music Hall (1967), Donny and Marie (1975), and both the prime-time and daytime versions of the game show The Hollywood Squares (Daytime) (1965) where he occupied the famous center square. He had two TV series of his own, The Paul Lynde Show (1972) and The New Temperatures Rising Show (1972). Paul Lynde's witty, wisecracking one-liners and his novel line delivery made him one of Hollywood's funniest and best loved entertainers. Paul Lynde died under mysterious circumstances when he was found dead in his bed after possibly suffering a heart attack in January 1982 at age 55. He had been in ill-health for over a year with cancer or some other illness that was never fully revealed to the public before or after his death.- Louise Stanley was born on 28 January 1915 in Springfield, Illinois, USA. She was an actress, known for Sky Bandits (1940), Pinto Canyon (1940) and Gun Lords of Stirrup Basin (1937). She was married to Charles Alexander Munn III, Jack Randall, Dennis O'Keefe and Leland Hunt Bennett. She died on 28 December 1982 in Cocoa Beach, Florida, USA.
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- Music Department
John Agar was born in Chicago, the eldest of four children. In World War II, Sgt. John Agar was a United States Army Air Force physical instructor. His 1945 marriage at the Wilshire Memorial Church to "America's Sweetheart" Shirley Temple put him in the public eye for the first time, and a movie contract with independent producer David O. Selznick quickly ensued.
Agar debuted opposite John Wayne, Henry Fonda and Temple in John Ford's Fort Apache (1948), initial film in the famed director's "Cavalry Trilogy".
His marriage to Shirley Temple ended in 1949, while his movie career continued.
Popular with fans of Westerns and sci-fi flicks, Agar was a staple at film conventions and autograph shows.- Actress
- Soundtrack
The less famous, but still undeniably talented, of the "Marilyn" sex symbols of the 1940s/'50s was born Marvel Marilyn Maxwell in Clarinda, Iowa on August 3, 1920 (she later began using her middle name professionally at the suggestion of Louis B. Mayer). As a teenager, she worked as an usher at the Rialto Theater in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and later as a radio singer.
In 1942, Maxwell signed a contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, appearing on such radio shows as "The Abbott and Costello Show", "Beat the Band", and "Stars Over Hollywood". That same year, she made her movie debut in the star-studded World War II propaganda film Stand by for Action (1942). She went on to star in such popular movies of the 1940s/50s as Thousands Cheer (1943), Lost in a Harem (1944), Champion (1949), Key to the City (1950), The Lemon Drop Kid (1951) (in which she introduced the carol "Silver Bells"), and Rock-a-Bye Baby (1958). Throughout World War II, and later the Korean War, she accompanied three-time co-star (and off-screen lover) Bob Hope on USO tours to entertain troops.
Throughout the 1950s, Maxwell directed her focus to television, with guest appearances on such series as The Colgate Comedy Hour (1950), General Electric Theater (1953), The Red Skelton Hour (1951), The Tennessee Ernie Ford Show (1956), and Playhouse 90 (1956). This continued into the '60s, as Maxwell appeared on Wagon Train (1957), The Danny Thomas Show (1953), Burke's Law (1963), The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (1962), and The Bob Hope Show (1950), and even game shows such as I've Got a Secret (1952) and Stump the Stars (1947). Her most prominent part in this period was that of diner owner Grace Sherwood on Bus Stop (1961), a series she left after one season after becoming bored of "doing nothing but pour a second cup of coffee and point the way to the men's room".
Maxwell was married three times - to actor John Conte, restaurateur Anders Nylund McIntyre, and producer Jerry Davis - each marriage ending in divorce. She had one son with Davis, Matthew (b. 1956). On March 20, 1972, 15 year-old Matthew returned home from school, only to find his mother dead from an apparent heart attack. Maxwell was 51 at the time of her death.- Brawny Read Lawrence Morgan spent two years as an undergraduate at the University of Kentucky where he acquitted himself as a star baseball player for the Kentucky Wildcats. He then became heavily involved with bodybuilding, undertook further studies at Northwestern University and served for two years with the U.S. Air Force. Featured in the spreads of several high profile magazines, Morgan had established something of a tough guy image by the time he appeared as a rugged mountaineer in L'il Abner on Broadway. This duly led to his screen debut in 1949 where his muscular physique henceforth ensured a steady and lucrative employment as a character actor in innumerable TV episodes, playing stalwart soldiers and lawmen, hard-bitten westerners or athletes. His best-known role was as the eye-patch wearing U.S. Cavalry Sergeant Hapgood Tasker in NBC's The Deputy (1959). Morgan also appeared multiple times as different characters in Laramie (1959), Gunsmoke (1955), Police Woman (1974), Barnaby Jones (1973) and Lou Grant (1977). He was invariably cast in smaller roles on the big screen, beginning with the Shirley MacLaine-David Niven comedy Ask Any Girl (1959) and ending with a bit part as a card dealer in Maverick (1994) which also heralded his retirement from acting.
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Beatrice Blinn was born on 7 July 1901 in Forest County, Wisconsin, USA. She was an actress, known for Art Trouble (1934), The Shadow (1937) and Golden Boy (1939). She was married to Crane Wilbur. She died on 31 March 1979 in Oceanside, California, USA.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Born in Idaho in 1915, perky blonde Mary Kornman's acting career began at age five. She made her "name" as the cute, spunky little girl in the 1920s' "Our Gang" shorts, and was often paired with Mickey Daniels. The two returned to the screen as a pair again several years after leaving the "Rascals" series with a new series of comedy shorts for Hal Roach called "The Boy Friends" (in 1932 she made a cameo appearance, along with Daniels, in a Little Rascals short, Fish Hooky (1933), as the gang's teacher!). The "Boy Friends" series lasted three years, and after that Mary struck out on her own, but couldn't manage much beyond "B" pictures. She left the business in 1940, and died in 1973.- Actress
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Gloria Dickson was born Thais Alalia Dickerson on August 13, 1917, in Pocotello, Idaho. After her father died, her mother took Gloria and her sister to California. During high school she started acting in local theater productions. When she was nineteen a Warner Brothers talent scout saw one of her performances and offered her a contract. For her first film she was given the leading role in They Won't Forget (1937). Her performance got rave reviews and she was called the "luckiest girl in Hollywood". Gloria continued to get good roles in Gold Diggers in Paris (1938), They Made Me a Criminal (1939), and I Want a Divorce (1940). In 1938 she married makeup artist Perc Westmore. He wanted her to be more glamorous and persuaded her to have a nose job. After leaving MGM, Gloria's career stalled and she could only get small roles in B-movies like Lady of Burlesque (1943) and The Affairs of Jimmy Valentine (1942). Gloria divorced Perc and married director Ralph Murphy in 1941. Unfortunately, Ralph had a wandering eye, and their marriage only lasted two years. By 1944, Gloria was unemployed and overweight and was also struggling with a serious alcohol problem. She married former boxer William Fitzgerald and rented a house in West Hollywood. On April 10, 1945, Gloria was taking a nap when the house caught fire. She tried to escape but ended up trapped in a bathroom. Gloria suffered second-degree burns and died from asphyxiation. She was only 27 years old. Gloria is buried at Hollywood Forever cemetery with a tombstone reading "Thais A. Dickerson, My Baby".- Actor
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Rod La Rocque was born Roderick Ross LaRocque on November 29, 1898 in Chicago to a French father and an Irish mother. Stage-struck in his early teen years, he spent his summers with local stock companies, playing juvenile roles for $1.00 per performance. By the time he was 16, while he was appearing in vaudeville, he got a bit part in Triangle Studios' production The Snowman (1912), for which he was paid the princely sum of $3.25 for a day's work. He moved on to Chicago's other major studio, Essanay, as a bit player from 1914-1917. He started out in the company's Black Cat Productions division, which produced potboilers and comedies. He eventually moved up into better, and better-paying, parts.
Essanay went out of business in 1918, and La Rocque moved to New York City, where he signed with agent, and later independent producer, Edward Small, among whose clients was Norma Shearer, with whom La Rocque would later appear in MGM's Let Us Be Gay (1930). The 6'3" La Rocque got a bit part in the Billie Burke film Let's Get a Divorce (1918) and turned to the theater for work. He was cast in the lead of "Up the Ladder," which flopped, necessitating his return to cinema work, though he would continue to appear in the theater through the early 1920s. He made three movies for Sam Goldfish (who renamed himself Samuel Goldwyn) in 1918, but La Rocque remained a freelance actor, not signing with any one studio. He appeared in films for Famous Players-Lasky, Universal and Vitagraph, among others, but did not break through to the big time until Cecil B. DeMille cast him in The Ten Commandments (1923), the film that made La Rocque a star. For the next five years, until the advent of the talkies, he worked for DeMille's own Producers' Distribution Corporation and for Famous Players-Lasky (the future Paramount, with which DeMille also was associated). La Rocque met his future wife, Hungarian actress Vilma Bánky, at a dinner party at DeMille's home in 1925. When they married in 1927, it was a lavish affair in which DeMille served as best man. The wedding was attended by the creme de la creme of Hollywood society, and afterward, there was a reception for 2,000 at the Beverly Hills Hotel.
When La Rocque's contract with DeMille and Famous Players-Lasky lapsed after 1928, he went back to being a freelance actor, appearing in films for Fox, First National and MGM. It was the beginning of the sound era, but La Rocque and Banky were still popular. In 1930 Broadway producer Archibald Selwyn (one of the founders of both Goldwyn Studios and MGM) signed La Rocque and Banky to star in Anita Loos' play "Cherries are Ripe," but it drew indifferent crowds. Three years later husband and wife went to Germany, where La Rocque filmed S.O.S. Iceberg (1933) for director Leni Riefenstahl and Banky starred in what proved to be her final film, The Rebel (1933).
After returning to the US, La Rocque continued to appear in films, though now they were B-pictures, with the occasional supporting role in an A-picture such as The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939). He made his last appearance in the Frank Capra classic Meet John Doe (1941).
After retiring from the screen, Rod La Rocque and Vilma Banky continued to live in Los Angeles, where he died October 15, 1969, six weeks shy of his 71st birthday.- Janet Shaw was born on 23 January 1919 in Beatrice, Nebraska, USA. She was an actress, known for Shadow of a Doubt (1943), Night Monster (1942) and The Old Maid (1939). She was married to David Ashford Stuart and Willard Garcia Ilefeldt. She died on 15 October 2001 in Beatrice, Nebraska, USA.
- Elaine Shepard was born on 2 April 1913 in Olney, Illinois, USA. She was an actress, known for Topper (1937), Darkest Africa (1936) and Law of the Ranger (1937). She died on 6 September 1998 in New York City, New York, USA.
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Norman Foster was born on 13 December 1903 in Richmond, Indiana, USA. He was a director and actor, known for The Loretta Young Show (1953), I Cover Chinatown (1936) and Mr. Moto's Last Warning (1938). He was married to Sally Blane and Claudette Colbert. He died on 7 July 1976 in Santa Monica, California, USA.- Actress
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This swinging singer from WWII was born on April 14, 1921 in Rockford, Illionois to non-professionals. A gorgeous, fresh-faced, blue-eyed blonde doll blessed with a natural vocal talent, Betty Jane Rhodes was initially discovered on radio and was recording by age 8. Her promising contralto helped her to earn a contract at age 15 with Paramount and immediately made her debut in _Forgotten Faces (1936/I)_ initially billing herself as Jane Rhodes. She played Marsha Hunt's kid sister in her second film The Arizona Raiders (1936) in which she sang "My Melancholy Baby". Still a teenager, she played the femme lead in the Universal serial Jungle Jim (1937) opposite Grant Withers's rugged hero. She went on to warble again in such lively film fare as The Life of the Party (1937), Having Wonderful Time (1938), Oh, Johnny, How You Can Love! (1940) and even in the Tim Holt western Along the Rio Grande (1941).
Having been borrowed frequently by other studios, Paramount paid more attention to her by setting her up with the minor wartime musical Sweater Girl (1942), in which introduced the classic "I Don't Want to Walk Without You", and also giving her leads in Salute for Three (1943) opposite Macdonald Carey and You Can't Ration Love (1944). Her film career faded fast after this and she later recorded for RCA and Decca Records, making hits out of such songs as "Rumors Are Flying" and "Buttons and Bows". Married to the late Willet H. Brown, the broadcasting pioneer and co-founder of the Mutual Broadcasting System, the company that ran her program "Adventures in Rhythm," she was initially dubbed the "First Lady of Television". In the 60s she continued performing in clubs and cabarets.
Retired for some time, her husband died in 1993 and left her quite wealthy. She and Willet had one child together, Kimberly. Of Betty's stepchildren, Michael, Peter and Patricia, son Michael J. Brown followed in his father's footsteps with Brown Broadcasting. She died at age 90 on December 26, 2011, in Los Angeles.- Jan Wiley was born on 23 February 1916 in Marion, Indiana, USA. She was an actress, known for A Fig Leaf for Eve (1944), The Master Key (1945) and Adventures of Kitty O'Day (1945). She was married to Mort Greene and Roger Clark. She died on 27 May 1993 in Rancho Palos Verdes, California, USA.
- Burlesque dancer and stripper Betty Jane Rowland was born on January 23, 1916 in Columbus, Ohio. Her father was an accountant who lost his job during the Great Depression. Betty and her sisters Dian and Roz Elle all started out as dancers in vaudeville before making the transition into burlesque. Rowland performed at the famous club Minsky's in New York City, where she earned the nickname "Ball of Fire" from both her flaming red hair and hot and fast style of dancing. After New York shut down its burlesque houses in 1938, Betty moved to Los Angeles, California to continue her career in burlesque. Rowland had several run-ins with the law throughout her burlesque career: In 1952 two police officers closed her show at a downtown burlesque theater after the manager refused to let them in for free and she spent three weeks in a Lincoln Heights jail before going on to embark on a nationwide burlesque tour. In the wake of retiring from the burlesque circuit in the mid-1960's, Betty helped run various bars, worked as a hostess at the French restaurant Anisette in Santa Monica, California; and settled down to live in a one bedroom apartment in Brentwood, California
- Merna Kennedy was born on 7 September 1908 in Kankakee, Illinois, USA. She was an actress, known for The Circus (1928), Ghost Valley (1932) and The Big Chance (1933). She was married to Forrest Brayton and Busby Berkeley. She died on 20 December 1944 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
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Bill Thompson was born on 8 July 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 15 July 1971 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Actress
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Rita La Roy was born on 2 October 1901 in Bonners Ferry, Idaho, USA. She was an actress and director, known for Hold That Woman! (1940), Blonde Venus (1932) and Flight from Glory (1937). She was married to Ben Hershfield. She died on 17 February 1993 in San Diego, California, USA.- A beautiful auburn-haired lass with blue/grey eyes, Andra Martin was born Sandra Hildur Rehn (pronounced 'Wren') in Rockford, Illinois, of Swedish ancestry. She grew up on her parent's farm, attended high school in her home town and harboured dreams of becoming a star. Andra's first step on that projected career path was to spend two years studying speech and drama at Northwestern University. Her next stop was New York where she finagled her first job as a model while continuing part-time acting studies under the personal tutelage of Lee Strasberg. Strasberg was suitably impressed, considered her 'a natural' and recommended her to Joshua Logan to screen test for the female lead in Sayonara (1957) (opposite Marlon Brando). Alas, that fell through as did another audition at Warner Brothers for the part in Marjorie Morningstar (1958) which had already been earmarked for Natalie Wood. Universal-International eventually took up the option and signed the budding starlet under contract.The publicity machine went rapidly into top gear, comparing Andra to Hollywood's biggest and brightest, a melding of the attributes of Elizabeth Taylor and Betty Grable with the brains of a Katharine Hepburn. Sadly, her subsequent casting would tend to emphasize her beauty rather than her talent.
Andra only appeared in three pictures for Universal, none of them particularly good. The first was a second lead in a so-so romantic drama (The Lady Takes a Flyer (1958)) as the 'other woman', competing with Lana Turner for the affections of Jeff Chandler. Her character, a pilot, gets killed towards the end. Her other outing was a second-billed role in The Big Beat (1958), a youth-oriented musical which featured no less than fifteen musical numbers. Unsurprisingly, with just 81 minutes of screen time, there was little room for the semblance of a plot (or acting, for that matter). Number three was one of Universal's quota quickies, a lame horror film (The Thing That Couldn't Die (1958)) which cast Andra as a water diviner with telepathic abilities (!). She also made a few of films under contract to Warners, notably the submarine drama Up Periscope (1959) (as the perfunctory female lead) and the Clint Walker western Yellowstone Kelly (1959) (as the love interest, a captive Arapaho girl). By the end of the 50s, the newly minted Deb Star was earning $200 per week.
While her movie career was going nowhere, Andra managed quite well in securing spots as featured leading lady on many popular TV shows on the Warners roster, including Bronco (1958), Cheyenne (1955), 77 Sunset Strip (1958), The Alaskans (1959), Bourbon Street Beat (1959) and Hawaiian Eye (1959). In August 1958, she married Bronco star Ty Hardin (over the objections of their respective managers and Warner Brothers TV execs, who argued that such a union would ruin their romantic appeal to the public). The marriage ended in divorce in 1962. Andra left the film business following her second marriage to a department store heir which lasted six years. A third marriage, however, endured from 1970 until Andra's passing on May 3 2022 at the age of 86. - Actress
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Lola Lane, born Dorothy Mullican, grew up Indianola, Iowa. Small-town life was not to her taste and she yearned to be in show business. She was also a bit of a rebel. At one time, in her teens, she 'scandalized' the townsfolk by dancing a particularly suggestive Charleston right in front of the church--which was emptying after Sunday service.
She secured her first job playing piano accompaniment to silent films in the local movie theater for seven dollars a week. She then worked briefly in an ice cream factory, but soon had enough and quit, leaving for Des Moines (in accordance with her mother's dictates) to study music. She spent two years at the local conservatory, Simpson College, but--still the rebel--cut classes and was expelled, much to her joy. There are several versions as to what happened next: according to one, her sister Leota Lane was "discovered" by vaudevillian Gus Edwards (who was always scouting for talented youngsters) singing in an Iowa theater. Dorothy then chaperoned Leota on her trip to New York and both girls subsequently appeared in "Greenwich Village Follies" on Broadway. According to the New York Times obit of Lola Lane (June 25, 1981), Edwards discovered her "singing in a flower shop in Des Moines". Dorothy herself claimed that she wrote Edwards in New York, borrowed $200 and went to his house for an audition.
Whichever story is true, Dorothy ended up with a $450-a-week vaudeville contract. Around this time, she and her other sisters (Leota, Martha, Rosemary and Priscilla) changed their surname. Dorothy Mullican became Lola Lane. She toured with Gus Edwards in "Ritz Carlton Nights" and in 1928 appeared in "The War Song" on Broadway. During one of her performances, she was spotted by Benjamin Stoloff who was conducting auditions for a part in his movie Speakeasy (1929). Needless to say, she got the part.
While never becoming as big a star as her sister Priscilla Lane, Lola had a fairly successful career in the movies. She won critical acclaim for her performance in Marked Woman (1937) as a hard-boiled night club hostess and was rewarded with a contract at Warner Brothers. She continued to play similar characters in films like Gangs of Chicago (1940), as well as appearing in occasional "potboilers" like Zanzibar (1940). Lola also played female reporter Torchy Blane (Torchy Blane in Panama (1938)), which served as inspiration for Superman's girlfriend Lois Lane. Lola retired from the screen in 1946.- Byron Barr was born on 18 August 1917 in Corning, Iowa, USA. He was an actor, known for Double Indemnity (1944), Tokyo Rose (1946) and Tarnished (1950). He died on 3 November 1966 in Sacramento County, California, USA.
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Born in Illinois in 1912, Helen Vlahakis, later known as Joan Valerie soon settles down in Hollywood, where she studied drama at the famous Pasadena Playhouse. Darryl F. Zanuck discovered her there but gave her parts only in B movies, although in pleasant ones. By way of example, she was the charming blonde in office in John Ford's "Submarine Patrol" (1938), "Charles Chan at the Wax Museum" (also 1940), "Rio Rita" (1942). By the end of the nineteen forties her contributions had become thinner and, after marrying with Greek producer Paris Methusis, she finally gave up acting. Her happy life as Mrs. Methusis came to a tragic end when, in her late sixties, she died in the aftermath of a car accident.- Actor
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Handsome, athletic actor whose career started in the late silent era as a leading man and continued into sound features and finally television. Born in Illinois, Morton spent his adolescence in Madison, Wisconsin; receiving his education at Madison High School and the University of Wisconsin. He made his first stage appearance at the age of seven and later appeared in vaudeville, stock and the legitimate stage. Both his exceptional appearance, charm and buoyant personality were noted by the studios and at the age of 20 signed his first contract with Fox in 1927. Sadly, after 1933 his career began to lose momentum and by 1936 his roles were significantly reduced until playing small supports and bits which continued until his death from heart disease in 1966.- Charlotte Merriam born in Illinois in 1903. Her father was a Colonel in the Army. She began her film career in 1919 when she was 16 in The Flip of a Coin (1919). While visiting the Universal studios she was offered a part in a comedy series starring Eddie Lyons and Lee Moran, which she accepted. Afterwards, she starred in many short and feature comedies, also with the Vitagraph Film Company in 1924, and starred in adventure and drama films, including the role of Mary Trail in Captain Blood (1924). Later she worked for the Warner Brothers studios from 1929; she also appeared in many talkies until her last, Dancing Man (1934). She was also a accomplished singer. Married to actor Rex Lease in 1925; divorced in 1929. Died in Los Angeles in 1972, age of 69.
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Bryant Washburn was born on 28 April 1889 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. He was an actor and producer, known for Captain Midnight (1942), Skinner's Baby (1917) and Till I Come Back to You (1918). He was married to Virginia Vance and Mabel Forrest. He died on 30 April 1963 in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA.- Actress
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Carol Hughes was born on 17 January 1910 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. She was an actress, known for The Border Legion (1940), Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe (1940) and Gold Mine in the Sky (1938). She was married to Frank Faylen. She died on 8 August 1995 in Burbank, California, USA.- Actress
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Beverly Lloyd was born on 27 March 1920 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. She was an actress and writer, known for Earl Carroll Vanities (1945), Silent Partner (1944) and Sing, Neighbor, Sing (1944). She died on 22 October 2010 in Brentwood, California, USA.- Actor
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Bill Coontz was born on 28 August 1917 in Johnson, Iowa, USA. He was an actor, known for Convoy (1978), Plunderers of Painted Flats (1959) and Frankenstein's Daughter (1958). He died on 7 April 1978 in Van Buren, Arkansas, USA.- Richard Davies was born on 3 August 1915 in Provo, Utah, USA. He was an actor, known for The Mad Doctor of Market Street (1942), The Falcon in Danger (1943) and Arson, Inc. (1949). He was married to Bonnie. He died on 2 April 1994 in Weaverville, California, USA.
- Second lead and featured actor Michael St. Angel was born in Rockford, Illinois in 1916, the son of prominent business man Jasper St. Angel. Following high school the darkly handsome youth attended Wisconsin's Beloit College majoring in drama, then later transferred to Iowa's St. Ambrose College where he became a drama teacher after receiving his degree.
Deciding to pursue acting professionally, he left his teaching post after only a couple of years and returned to Wisconsin where he joined up with the Belfry Players and traveled the country in stock shows. He eventually made it to New York and in July of 1942 made his Broadway debut in the small role of a soldier in "The Cat Screams". The show closed four days later. Two months later he was cast in the much more successful comedy "Janie," which ran well over a year.
A Warner Bros. talent scout picked up on Michael's dark, wavy-haired good looks and convinced him to travel West to audition for the lead role of George Gershwin in the biopic Rhapsody in Blue (1945). The part went to Robert Alda, however, and he was about to return to NY when a meeting with RKO Studios resulted in a contract.
Michael started out inauspiciously in tiny parts starting out with the film Gangway for Tomorrow (1943). Following a couple of other obscure bits, he secured more visible roles in Bride by Mistake (1944) and Marine Raiders (1944), which led to the romantic co-starring role opposite Elaine Riley in the Leon Errol comedy starrer What a Blonde (1945). Michael showed enough promise from this to be cast as the second lead role in the thriller The Brighton Strangler (1945) which toplines John Loder as an actor dangerously obsessed by the title role he plays on stage.
Michael married Fox singer/dancer Marjorie Holliday in 1945. After the birth of their son Jasper Michael, Jr. in 1951, she abandoned her career for family obligations. But Michael's film career already went into a steep decline as quickly as it peaked. Before he knew it, he found himself back to minor roles in such films as First Yank Into Tokyo (1945), The Madonna's Secret (1946) and The Truth About Murder (1946). Over his objections, RKO changed his marquee name to "Steven Flagg" to give his career a boost but little changed. Under this name he found work with former co-star Leon Errol in several of the star's short films. Producer Howard Hughes kept Michael under contract despite his lack of stature and following a few parts in such films as Easy Living (1949), Flying Leathernecks (1951), The Pace That Thrills (1952) and The French Line (1953), he was dropped.
Quickly switching his stage name back to his real name, Michael moved more and more towards TV work. One very promising opportunity in 1957 to star as TV detective Mike Hammer fell through. Outside of acting, to make ends meet Michael worked for producer Howard Hughes over at TWA at one point and also served as a personal assistant to his old friend, columnist Walter Winchell. Finally, in 1959, Michael went into business for himself, opening his first restaurant.
In the next couple of decades only occasional small acting roles came his way both on film (What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962), 4 for Texas (1963), Dead Heat on a Merry-Go-Round (1966), The Love Machine (1971)) and TV ("The Gale Storm Show," "The Untouchables," "The Virginian," "Love, American Style," "The Magician").
Following wife Marjorie's sudden death at age 48 in 1959 of a cerebral hemorrhage, Michael ventured on in the restaurant business as manager of his last eatery, Michael's Los Feliz. He died in 1984 at age 67 at the Motion Picture and Television Hospital survived by his son. - Renee Whitney was born on 29 August 1911 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. She was an actress, known for Jimmy the Gent (1934), I've Got Your Number (1934) and Registered Nurse (1934). She died on 16 September 1972 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
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Jane Harker was born on 1 August 1922 in Evanston, Illinois, USA. She was an actress, known for The Unfaithful (1947), That Way with Women (1947) and Love and Learn (1947). She was married to Samuel Lefcourt Lanier (born: Lefkovits). She died on 21 July 2000 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA.- Actor
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Eddie Hall was born on 3 February 1912 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. He was an actor, known for Thoroughbreds (1944), Administration of Military Justice and Courts-Marshal (1943) and Gangs of the Waterfront (1945). He was married to Flower Parry, Helen Patricia Stengel and Violet N. Cane. He died on 19 February 1963 in Granada Hills, California, USA.- Actress
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Cathy Crosby was born on 24 November 1939 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. She is an actress, known for The Chinese Room (1968), The Beat Generation (1959) and Girls Town (1959).- Actor
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Attractive Hollywood leading man (and sometime villain) from the late 30s until his death following surgery, Alan Curtis (Harry Ueberroth) was born 24 July 1909 in Chicago, Illinois. He grew up in that area and in the early 1930s became a model, appearing in many magazine and newspaper advertisements. His looks did not go unnoticed in Hollywood, and he soon found himself in the movie business. He became a leading man, and was very popular in the 1940s, appearing in at least 26 movies. He died of complications of surgery on 2 February 1953 in New York City and is buried in the Ueberroth family plot in Evanston, Illinois.- Actor
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Gary Leon was born on 5 February 1906 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. He was an actor, known for Dante's Inferno (1935), Big News (1929) and This Love of Mine (1942). He died on 30 March 1988 in Beaumont, California, USA.- Dean Harens was born on 30 June 1920 in South Bend, Indiana, USA. He was an actor, known for Christmas Holiday (1944), Wonder Woman (1975) and Robert Montgomery Presents (1950). He was married to June Dayton. He died on 20 May 1996 in Van Nuys, California, USA.
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Born in Taylorville, Illinois, Joyce Taylor sang in amateur shows at age ten and turned professional when she was a very grown-up-looking 15, signing on with Mercury Records. She was under contract to Howard Hughes' RKO in the 1950s but the eccentric and enigmatic tycoon only allowed her to act in one picture (a small part in Beyond a Reasonable Doubt (1956). After the end of seven frustrating years "bottled up" by Hughes, she became a regular on the TV sci-fi/adventure series Men Into Space (1959) and acted in many other TV shows (as well as a handful of features).- Linda Perry was born on 18 August 1912 in Boise, Idaho, USA. She was an actress, known for They Won't Forget (1937), The Romance of Robert Burns (1937) and The Great Garrick (1937). She died on 12 January 2001 in Lancaster, California, USA.
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Eleanor Stewart was born on 2 February 1913 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. She was an actress, known for The Rangers Step In (1937), Rolling Caravans (1938) and Pirates on Horseback (1941). She was married to Maurice Greiner and Les Peterson. She died on 4 July 2007 in Rancho Bernardo, California, USA.- Actress
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Lillian Diana Gish was born on October 14, 1893, in Springfield, Ohio. Her father, James Lee Gish, was an alcoholic who caroused, was rarely at home, and left the family to, more or less, fend for themselves. To help make ends meet, Lillian, her sister Dorothy Gish, and their mother, Mary Gish, a.k.a. Mary Robinson McConnell, tried their hand at acting in local productions. Lillian was six years old when she first appeared in front of an audience. For the next 13 years, she and Dorothy appeared before stage audiences with great success. Had she not made her way into films, Lillian quite possibly could have been one of the great stage actresses of all time; however, she found her way onto the big screen when, in 1912, she met famed director D.W. Griffith. Impressed with what he saw, he immediately cast her in her first film, An Unseen Enemy (1912), followed by The One She Loved (1912) and My Baby (1912). She would make 12 films for Griffith in 1912. With 25 films in the next two years, Lillian's exposure to the public was so great that she fast became one of the top stars in the industry, right alongside Mary Pickford, "America's Sweetheart".
In 1915, Lillian starred as Elsie Stoneman in Griffith's most ambitious project to date, The Birth of a Nation (1915). She was not making the large number of films that she had been in the beginning because she was successful and popular enough to be able to pick and choose the right films to appear in. The following year, she appeared in another Griffith classic, Intolerance (1916). By the early 1920s, her career was on its way down. As with anything else, be it sports or politics, new faces appeared on the scene to replace the "old", and Lillian was no different. In fact, she did not appear at all on the screen in 1922, 1925 or 1929. However, 1926 was her busiest year of the decade with roles in La Bohème (1926) and The Scarlet Letter (1926). As the decade wound to a close, "talkies" were replacing silent films. However, Lillian was not idle during her time away from the screen. She appeared in stage productions, to the acclaim of the public and critics alike. In 1933, she filmed His Double Life (1933), but did not make another film for nine years.
When she returned in 1943, she appeared in two big-budget pictures, Commandos Strike at Dawn (1942) and Top Man (1943). Although these roles did not bring her the attention she had had in her early career, Lillian still proved she could hold her own with the best of them. She earned an Oscar nomination as Best Supporting Actress for her role of Laura Belle McCanles in Duel in the Sun (1946), but lost to Anne Baxter in The Razor's Edge (1946).
One of the most critically acclaimed roles of her career came in the thriller The Night of the Hunter (1955), also notable as the only film directed by actor Charles Laughton. In 1969, she published her autobiography, "The Movies, Mr. Griffith, and Me". In 1987, she made what was to be her last motion picture, The Whales of August (1987), a box-office success that exposed her to a new generation of fans. Her 75-year career is almost unbeatable in any field, let alone the film industry. On February 27, 1993, at age 99, Lillian Gish died peacefully in her sleep at her Manhattan apartment in New York City. She never married.- Actress
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Julie Wilson was born on 21 October 1924 in Omaha, Nebraska, USA. She was an actress, known for This Could Be the Night (1957), Kiss Me, Kate (1958) and Monsters (1988). She was married to Michael McAloney, Harvey Bernhard and Barron Polan. She died on 5 April 2015 in Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA.- Actress
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Kathryn Stanley was born on 12 November 1897 in Illinois, USA. She was an actress, known for Hold 'er Sheriff (1931), Hubby's Weekend Trip (1928) and The Nightwatchman's Mistake (1929). She died on 17 April 1978 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Actress
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Mary Howard was born on 24 August 1914 in Independence, Kansas, USA. She was an actress, known for Abe Lincoln in Illinois (1940), Billy the Kid (1941) and Thru Different Eyes (1942). She was married to Alfred De Liagre Jr.. She died on 6 June 2009 in Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA.- Actress
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Lillian Cornell was born on 2 June 1916 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. She was an actress, known for A Night at Earl Carroll's (1940), Las Vegas Nights (1941) and Buck Benny Rides Again (1940). She was married to Ace Cook Fessenden. She died on 25 May 2015 in Miami, Florida, USA.- Actress
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Geneva Doris Mitchell was born on February 3, 1908 in Medarysville, Indiana. Her father died in 1909 and her mother Verna Mitchell became a Ziegfeld Follies showgirl. When she was fourteen Geneva was hired to be in the Follies too. Florenz Ziegfeld said she was "the find" of the season. Her nickname was "The Pogo Girl". She also appeared in the show Sally and was chosen to be Marilyn Miller's understudy. Geneva eloped with Robert Savage, a millionaire's son, in March of 1922. They split up just five days later because she was too young. She made headlines again in May when she was fired from the Ziegfeld Follies. Florenz Ziegfeld got mad when she attended a wild party in her pajamas. After a ten day courtship she married Jack Hayes, a publicity agent, on September 22, 1923. The blue-eyed brunette starred on Broadway in the musicals Yours Truly and Take the Air. In 1929 she was offered a contract at Warner Brothers and made her film debut in the comedy Adam's Eve. She had small roles in Safety In Numbers and Her Wedding Night with Clara Bow.
Geneva divorced her husband and fell in love with director Lowell Sherman. The couple announced their engagement but they kept postponing the wedding. Lowell directed her in the 1933 drama Morning Glory. The following year she was signed by Columbia. Geneva costarred with the Three Stooges in several films including Restless Nights and Pop Goes The Weasel. She was heartbroken when Lowell, her longtime fiance, died suddenly in December of 1934. A few months later she married financier Harry J. Bryant. Sadly this marriage also ended in divorce. By the late 1930s her career had stalled and she was suffering from severe alcoholism. Her final film was the 1946 short Andy Plays Hookey. She stopped acting and got a job as a bookkeeper. Geneva married Daniel Sylvester Tuttle in February of 1948. Tragically on March 10, 1949 she died on from acute pancreatitis and cirrhosis of the liver caused by her alcoholism. She was only forty-one years old. Geneva was cremated and her ashes were buried at the Chapel Of The Pines Crematory in Los Angeles, California.- American leading lady, born Rosemary LaBie in Chicago, Illinois, and educated at Our Lady of Loretto Academy. Diana came equipped with some stage training (from a stint with Chicago's Goodman Theatre) and had won several beauty contests before moving to Los Angeles as a high fashion model. She also posed for commercial artists. Before long, she was noticed by talent scouts and spent most of the 1930s as a minor starlet at Universal and RKO. Unfortunately, her one leading role was in what some regard as John Wayne's worst-ever film, Adventure's End (1937), effectively short-circuiting Diana's career. She made several more films until exiting stage right to become a bigger fish in a smaller pond, as Mrs. Rosemary Schropp (wife of John Jack Schropp), resident of Mount Gretna, Pennsylvania, where she performed to great acclaim in such local stage productions as 'Tillie the Mennonite Maid'.
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Mary Jeanette Moran was born in Clinton, Iowa. The daughter of Louise Moran, a dancer with the famous Denishawn Dancers, and the celebrated artist Earl Moran, whose paintings graced many a barracks wall during World War II. One of Earl's favorite models was Norma Jean Baker, who later changed her name to Marilyn Monroe. Peggy never modeled for Earl, although a publicity still of the two of them was taken in Earl's atelier with Peggy posing.
From early childhood, she was called by the nickname, "Peggy". Peggy's mother took six-year-old Peggy to the office of Derio, a famous psychic of the time. Louise wanted her fortune told. Derio did not have the time for them but, when he came out of his office into the hall, he passed Peggy and her mother. Looking down at Peggy, he caressed her cheek, and said, "Hmm... an actress". From that moment on, Peggy knew she was destined to act.
Peggy appeared in some plays at school. She attended Hollywood High, where she was squired by Mike Stokey, founder of the original TV show, Stump the Stars (1947). She also attended John Marshall High for a time. There, she appeared in every play or show she could.
Hollywood soon beckoned. Peggy went to the front door of Warner Brothers and told the startled guard that she wanted to get into the lot because she was going to be a movie star. The guard introduced her to a producer who introduced her to an agent, and her career was started. She acted in a few clunkers at the beginning, playing mostly bit parts and minor roles. Among them was Ernst Lubitsch's masterpiece, Ninotchka (1939), in which Peggy appeared in two scenes as a cute cigarette girl. Later, when the picture was released, it appeared in Clinton, Iowa's only movie theatre under the marquee: "Clinton's Own Peggy Moran starring in Ninotchka (1939), with Greta Garbo". Peggy moved from Warner Brothers to Universal Pictures in the late 1930s. In between, she played the female lead in a Gene Autry western entitled Rhythm of the Saddle (1938). Working now at Universal, she met the producer, Joe Pasternak, who introduced her to his director, Henry Koster. It was love at first sight. Henry cast her first in a Deanna Durbin film, First Love (1939). She played Deanna's schoolmate. In the meantime, Universal was keeping Peggy busy starring in many of their "B" films. During this time, also, she starred in her most famous movie, the one for which she would always be remembered, The Mummy's Hand (1940). Even up to her passing, she received four or five fan letters a week from people who wanted photos of her from that film though it was produced over sixty years ago. Henry had discovered two comedians, Bud Abbott and Lou Costello, and their first movie, One Night in the Tropics (1940), starred Alan Young, Nancy Kelly, Robert Cummings, and Peggy Moran. Henry did not direct that one, or any other Abbott and Costello film, but he was responsible for their introduction to Hollywood, and Peggy was their first film character foil. Peggy was also tapped to star with Franchot Tone in Trail of the Vigilantes (1940), a Western that had all the other contract players from Universal, whether they were cowboys or not, including Broderick Crawford and Mischa Auer.
A year or so later, Henry and Peggy were married. Conrad Veidt was best man at the wedding in Las Vegas. Peggy was soon pregnant with her first son. Just after that, she was hired by Republic Pictures to play the female lead, opposite Roy Rogers, in King of the Cowboys (1943). Henry encouraged her to take the role even though she was pregnant. After that, whenever she saw the movie with her son, Nicolas Koster, she always told him, "You were there!".
That was Peggy's last film appearance except for some very recent films about stars of the early era. Peggy's life with Henry was the picture of marital bliss. They had two children, Nicolas Koster, who also acted in several of Henry's films, and Peter Koster, who works in Contra Costa County. Henry passed away in 1988. Peggy was quite active during these last fourteen years, playing billiards, dancing, entertaining, and traveling around the country to attend movie nostalgia conventions, where she invariably amazed and impressed everyone from hardened veterans of movies to new fans, with her wit, charm, intelligence and beauty. She was also active in her church, the Camarillo Church of Religious Science, where she studied to become a practitioner. On 26 August 2002, she was being driven from a friend's apartment in Ventura back to her apartment in Woodland Hills when the driver lost control of the car on the freeway. Peggy never recovered from the terrible damage that accident caused. She finally left us on 24 October, one day after her 84th birthday.