Romeo and Juliet 1936 premiere

1. Norma Shearer

She won a beauty contest at age fourteen. In 1920 her mother, Edith Shearer, took Norma and her sister Athole Shearer (Mrs. Howard Hawks) to New York. Ziegfeld rejected her for his "Follies," but she got work as an extra in several movies. She spent much money on eye doctor's services trying to ...

2. Leslie Howard

Actor | Pygmalion

Leslie Howard Steiner was born in London to Lilian (Blumberg) and Ferdinand "Frank" Steiner. His father was a Hungarian Jewish immigrant, and his English mother was of German Jewish and mostly English descent. Leslie went to Dulwich College, then worked as a bank clerk until the outbreak of World ...

3. George Cukor

Director | My Fair Lady

George Cukor was an American film director of Hungarian-Jewish descent, better known for directing comedies and literary adaptations. He once won the Academy Award for Best Director, and was nominated other four times for the same Award.

In 1899, George Dewey Cukor was born on the Lower East Side of...

4. Louis B. Mayer

Producer | The Great Secret

Mayer was born Lazar Meir in the Ukraine and grew up in Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada after his parents fled Russian oppression in 1886. He had a brutal childhood, raised in poverty and suffering physical and emotional abuse from his nearly-illiterate peddler father. In the early 1890s, he ...

5. E.J. Mannix

Producer | It's in the Air

New Jersey-born Eddie Mannix was a long-time studio executive at MGM. Known as "The Fixer", he had a reputation as someone who could take care of any problems caused by recalcitrant or wayward studio employees and major stars that might embarrass the company. Mannix had a rather unsavory past, and ...

6. Sam Katzman

Producer | Amateur Crook

New York-born Sam Katzman entered the film industry as a prop boy at age 13, and worked his way up the ladder, learning virtually every facet of film production before becoming a producer himself. Starting out producing action/adventure serials (where he got the nickname "Jungle Sam"), Katzman's ...

7. Hunt Stromberg

Producer | The Thin Man

Hunt Stromberg was born on July 12, 1894 in Louisville, Kentucky, USA. He was a producer and director, known for The Thin Man (1934), Sweethearts (1938) and Naughty Marietta (1935). He was married to Katherine Kerwin. He died on August 23, 1968 in Santa Monica, California, USA.

8. Harry Rapf

Producer | Brown of Harvard

Harry Rapf was born on October 16, 1880 in New York City, New York, USA. He was a producer and production manager, known for Brown of Harvard (1926), The Night Is Young (1935) and Let Freedom Ring (1939). He was married to Clementine Uhlfelder. He died on February 6, 1949 in Los Angeles, California...

9. Bernard H. Hyman

Producer | San Francisco

Stricken suddenly at his home, Bernard Hyman, 45, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer executive, died on the night of Sept 7. 1942. He had suffered a previous heart attack. Hyman, born in Grafton. W.Va., was graduated from Yale University and started in the film industry as a salesman. He later became an exchange ...

10. Albert Lewin

Writer | The Picture of Dorian Gray

Albert Lewin was born on September 23, 1894 in Brooklyn, New York, USA. He was a writer and producer, known for The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945), Pandora and the Flying Dutchman (1951) and The Living Idol (1957). He was married to Mildred Mindlin Jacobs. He died on May 9, 1968 in New York City, ...

11. Edgar Selwyn

Director | The Sin of Madelon Claudet

What a life! Edgar Selwyn was born Edgar Simon on October 20, 1875, in Cincinnati, OH. As a child he and his family lived in Toronto, Canada, before moving to Selma, AL, where his parents died. He moved to Chicago at the age of 17 to seek his fortune, but Fortune would not let the young man take ...

12. Jesse L. Lasky

Producer | The Dictator

Lasky, one of the first pioneers of the Hollywood film industry and its first genuine 'mogul', was not only a consummate showman and entrepreneur, but a jack-of-all-trades. Born in San Francisco in September 1880, the son of a shoe salesman, he attended high school in San Jose and held down his ...

13. Adolph Zukor

Sullivan's Travels

Adolph Zukor was a poor Hungarian immigrant when he arrived in the United States in 1889. He tried his hand in the fur trade (starting as a sweeper for $2 a week pay) and proved his entrepreneurial acumen by steady advancement, eventually setting up successful businesses in New York and Chicago. By...

14. Cedric Gibbons

Art_director | Gaslight

After graduating from New York's Art Students League he worked for his architect father, then started film work at Edison Studios in 1915 assisting Hugo Ballin. In 1918 he moved to Goldwyn as art director and, in 1924, began his 32 year stint as supervising art director for some 1500 MGM films, ...

15. Sam Marx

Sam Marx was born on October 23, 1859 in Alsace, France. He was an actor. He was married to Miene Schönberg. He died on May 10, 1933 in Los Angeles, California, USA.

16. John M. Stahl

Director | Leave Her to Heaven

John Stahl was the final executive in charge of Tiffany Pictures (located on the Talisman lot, later owned by Monogram Pictures), once a big fish in the pond of "Poverty Row", which in those days also included Columbia Pictures. With a B-movie history dating back to the silent era and after making ...

17. Lucien Hubbard

Writer | The Star Witness

Lucien Hubbard was born on December 22, 1888 in Fort Thomas, Kentucky, USA. He was a producer and writer, known for The Star Witness (1931), The Mysterious Island (1929) and Smart Money (1931). He died on December 31, 1971 in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA.

18. Frank Whitbeck

Some of the Best: Twenty-Five Years of Motion Picture Leadership

Frank Whitbeck was born on July 17, 1882 in Rochester, New York, USA. He was an actor and producer, known for Some of the Best: Twenty-Five Years of Motion Picture Leadership (1949), Lest We Forget (1937) and A Fireside Chat with Lionel Barrymore (1938). He died on December 23, 1963 in Los Angeles,...

19. Robert Taylor

Actor | The Bribe

Born Spangler Arlington Brugh, Robert Taylor began displaying a diversity of talents in his youth on the plains of Nebraska. At Beatrice High School, he was a standout track athlete, but also showed a talent for using his voice, winning several oratory awards. He was a musician and played the cello...

20. 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 ...

21. Johnny Weissmuller

Actor | Tarzan the Ape Man

Johnny Weissmuller was born as Peter Johann Weißmüller in Freidorf, today a district of the city of Timisoara in Romania, then a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Weissmuller would later claim to have been born in Windber, Pennsylvania, probably to ensure his eligibility to compete as part of ...

22. Carole Lombard

Actress | My Man Godfrey

Carole Lombard was born Jane Alice Peters in Fort Wayne, Indiana, on October 6, 1908. Her parents divorced in 1916 and her mother took the family on a trip out West. While there they decided to settle down in the Los Angeles area. After being spotted playing baseball in the street with the ...

23. Barbara Stanwyck

Actress | Double Indemnity

Today Barbara Stanwyck is remembered primarily as the matriarch of the family known as the Barkleys on the TV western The Big Valley (1965), wherein she played Victoria, and from the hit drama The Colbys (1985). But she was known to millions of other fans for her movie career, which spanned the ...

24. Joan Crawford

Actress | What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?

Joan Crawford was born Lucille Fay LeSueur on March 23, 1906, in San Antonio, Texas, to Anna Belle (Johnson) and Thomas E. LeSueur, a laundry laborer. By the time she was born, her parents had separated, and by the time she was a teenager, she'd had three stepfathers. It wasn't an easy life; ...

25. Franchot Tone

Actor | Dangerous

President of the Dramatic Club at Cornell University, Franchot Tone gave up the family business for acting, making his Broadway debut in "The Age of Innocence".

Tone then went into movies for MGM, making his film debut (at Paramount Pictures) in The Wiser Sex (1932). With his theatrical background, ...

26. Nelson Eddy

Soundtrack | Let Freedom Ring

The only career Nelson Eddy ever considered was singing. His parents, Isabel (Kendrick) and William Darius Eddy, were singers, his grandparents were musicians. Unable to afford a teacher, he learned by imitating opera recordings. At age 14 he worked as a telephone operator in a Philadelphia iron ...

27. Freddie Bartholomew

Actor | Captains Courageous

One of the most popular child actors in film history, Child superstar Freddie Bartholomew was born Frederick Cecil Bartholomew in Harlesden, London, the son of Lilian May (Clarke) and Cecil Llewellyn Bartholomew. From age three, he grew up in the town of Warminster under the care of his father's ...

28. Myrna Loy

Actress | The Thin Man

Myrna Williams, later to become Myrna Loy, was born on August 2, 1905 in Helena, Montana. Her father was the youngest person ever elected to the Montana State legislature. Later on her family moved to Radersburg where she spent her youth on a cattle ranch. At the age of 13, Myrna's father died of ...

29. Arthur Hornblow

Writer | The Mask

Arthur Hornblow was born on January 6, 1865 in Manchester, England, UK. He was a writer, known for The Mask (1921), The Isle of Conquest (1919) and The Profligate (1915). He was married to Nora Marie Georghegan and Natalie Lambert. He died on May 6, 1942 in Asbury Park, New Jersey, USA.

30. Groucho Marx

Actor | A Night at the Opera

The bushy-browed, cigar-smoking wise-cracker with the painted-on moustache and stooped walk was the leader of The Marx Brothers. With one-liners that were often double entendres, Groucho never cursed in any of his performances and said he never wanted to be known as a dirty comic. With a great love...

31. Luise Rainer

Actress | The Great Ziegfeld

Luise Rainer, the first thespian to win back-to-back Oscars, was born on January 12, 1910 in Dusseldorf, Germany, into a prosperous Jewish family. Her parents were Emilie (Königsberger) and Heinrich Rainer, a businessman. She took to the stage, and plied her craft on the boards in Germany. As a ...

32. Stuart Erwin

Actor | Before Dawn

Stuart Erwin was an American actor, often working as a voice actor in radio and animation. He was once nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.

Erwin was born in Squaw Valley, Fresno County, California, in 1903. Squaw Valley is a census-designated place, the location of a post ...

33. Irene Hervey

Actress | Play Misty for Me

Attractive, blond, dimple-cheeked artist's daughter Irene Hervey was first tutored in acting by the noted English stage thespian Emma Dunn. She appeared in junior theatrical productions during her time at Venice High School in Los Angeles. Irene completed her training at the M-G-M School of Acting ...

34. Allan Jones

Actor | A Night at the Opera

Allan Jones was born Theodore Allen Jones in Old Forge, Pennsylvania. A coal miner's son, he worked in the mines until 1926. At that point in time, he received a scholarship from Syracuse University, but chose instead to study music at New York University with Claude Warford and then with Felix ...

35. Frances Langford

Soundtrack | The Hit Parade

Frances Langford won fame on radio (primarily as Bob Hope's vocalist, later sparring comically with Don Ameche as "The Bickersons"), via recordings and in the movies. In spite of the fact that she played mostly in minor musicals (plus appearing occasionally in "A" productions, including Yankee ...

36. Francine Larrimore

Actress | The Royal Pauper

French-born Francine Larrimore arrived in the United States as a child and first appeared on stage at the age of 12 in 'Where There's a Will' in 1910. A member of the Adler dynasty of actors (cousin of Luther, Stella and Jay Adler), she had her first major theatrical successes in the Rudolf Friml ...

37. Edna May Oliver

Actress | Penguin Pool Murder

She was born Edna May Nutter, a child of solid New England stock, on 9th November 1883 in Malden, Massachusetts. The daughter of Ida May and Charles Edward Nutter, Edna was a descendant of the 2nd American president John Adams and his son, the 6th American president John Quincy Adams. In addition, ...

38. Cecilia Parker

Actress | Ah, Wilderness!

Canadian-born Cecilia Parker, daughter of a British army officer, moved with her family to Hollywood when she was a child. After graduation from high school she got a job as an extra. She did extra work for about a year before she was noticed by Fox executives, who signed her to a contract in 1931....

39. Jessie Ralph

Actress | Captain Blood

Jessie Ralph was a sailor's daughter, who first came to the stage at the age of 16, performing with a stock company in either Boston, Massachusetts, or Providence, Rhode Island (accounts differ). The year was 1880, and it took Jessie another 26 years to make her debut on the Great White Way in "The...

40. May Robson

Actress | A Star Is Born

Born Mary Jeanette Robison. She was the youngest daughter of Henry Robison of Penrith, Cumberland, England and Julia Schelesinger of Liverpool, Lancashire, England. Her father died in 1860 and her mother remarried. In 1866/67 they were living in St Kilda, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia and moved ...

41. Elissa Landi

Actress | The Sign of the Cross

Elissa Landi was born in Venice, Italy on December 6, 1904. From an early age, she wanted to be an actress and writer. Her acting career started at the Oxford Repertory Company and on London's West End performing with actors such as Laurence Olivier and John Gielgud. She played Desdemona in "...

42. Gail Patrick

Actress | My Man Godfrey

Cold, calculating and hard-as-nails is probably the best definition of Gail Patrick's femmes on the 30s and 40s silver screen, and the actress herself was no softie in real life. The tall, slender, patrician beauty was born with the equally stately-sounding name Margaret LaVelle Fitzpatrick in ...

43. Andy Devine

Actor | Stagecoach

Rotund comic character actor of American films. Born Andrew Vabre Devine in Flagstaff, Arizona, he was raised in nearby Kingman, Arizona, the son of an Irish-American hotel operator Thomas Devine and his wife Amy. Devine was an able athlete as a student and actually played semi-pro football under a...

44. June Travis

Actress | The Case of the Black Cat

Fetching secondary actress June Travis was signed by Warner Bros. in 1934 and made her film debut the following year, but would last only three years before leaving Hollywood forever and focusing on marriage. Born June Dorothea Grabiner on August 7, 1914, she was the daughter of Harry Grabiner who ...

45. William Wyler

Director | The Best Years of Our Lives

William Wyler was an American filmmaker who, at the time of his death in 1981, was considered by his peers as second only to John Ford as a master craftsman of cinema. The winner of three Best Director Academy Awards, second again only to Ford's four, Wyler's reputation has unfairly suffered as the...

46. Conway Tearle

Actor | Romeo and Juliet

This West Point-educated actor was a tall, dark and handsome American co-star who romanced some of the most illustrious femme stars ever to appear on the silent silver screen. Conway Tearle was born in New York City on May 17, 1878 to a family of entertainers. Christened Frederick Conway Levy, his ...

47. Reginald Denny

Actor | Rebecca

Sometime in the early 1930s, Denny was between scenes on a movie set when he met a neighborhood boy who was trying to fly a bulky gas-powered model plane. When he tried to help by making an adjustment on the machine, Denny succeeded only in wrecking it. But this launched his infatuation with model ...

48. 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 ...

49. Charles Ruggles

Actor | The Parent Trap

Charles Ruggles had one of the longest careers in Hollywood, lasting more than 50 years and encompassing more than 100 films. He made his film debut in 1914 in The Patchwork Girl of Oz (1914) and worked steadily after that. He was memorably paired with Mary Boland in a series of comedies in the ...

50. June Lang

Actress | Chandu the Magician

This approachable blue-eyed blonde with a striking, open-faced beauty had a very encouraging career going for her in 30s Hollywood but extenuating circumstances hurt her chances in the long run. In less than a decade and a half June Lang was out of pictures altogether (after appearing in over 30) ...

51. Glenda Farrell

Actress | Girl Missing

Glenda Farrell began as the archetypal wisecracking blonde in 1930s gangland films like Little Caesar (1931) and I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932). Diminutive, grey-eyed and undeniably sassy, she was a seasoned performer long before Warner Brothers snapped her up as a contract player in 1929...

52. Julie Bishop

Actress | Northern Pursuit

Colorado-born leading lady Julie Bishop, who also acted under her birth name of Jacqueline Wells and the stage name Diane Duval, started off as a silent movie child actress, working with such legends as Clara Bow and Mary Pickford.

The daughter of a wealthy banker and oilman, she was raised in Texas ...

53. Walter Brooks

Director | The Beauty Spot

Walter Brooks was born in 1884 in London, England, UK. He was a writer and director, known for The Beauty Spot (1930), Mister Ed (1961) and Ride 'em Cowboy (1930). He died on November 10, 1968 in Valley Stream, Long Island, New York, USA.

54. Inez Courtney

Actress | The Shop Around the Corner

Redhead Inez Courtney was the quintessential coquettish soubrette of Broadway musical comedy in the 1920's. Having left school, she abandoned plans to become a milliner and instead embarked on a career as a 'specialty dancer' in vaudeville (where she acquired the nickname 'Mosquito'),serving a ...

55. Marjorie Gateson

Actress | Wife vs. Secretary

Brooklyn-born Marjorie Gateson learned elocution and poise from her mother, a speech teacher. It was not surprising that her sophistication, correct manners and use of language led to her frequent portrayals of upper crust society matrons, hostesses, social climbers and blue-blooded snobs. Her ...

56. Pat O'Brien

Actor | Some Like It Hot

Although he came to be called "Hollywood's Irishman in Residence"--and, along with good friends James Cagney, Allen Jenkins, Frank McHugh and a few others were called "The Irish Mafia"--and he often played Irish immigrants, Pat O'Brien was US-born and -bred. As a young boy the devoutly Roman ...

57. Eloise Taylor

Actress | Damaged Love

Eloise Taylor was born on February 3, 1903 in Iowa, USA. She was an actress, known for Damaged Love (1931), Convict's Code (1930) and Ragtime (1981). She was married to Pat O'Brien. She died on December 16, 1987 in Santa Monica, California, USA.

58. Donald Woods

Actor | The Case of the Stuttering Bishop

Donald Woods, a prolific cinema and television character actor whose career spanned 75 films and 150 TV programs over 40 years, was born Ralph L. Zink on December 2, 1906, in Brandon, Manitoba. (He legally changed his name to Donald Woods in 1945.) His family eventually departed Canada for ...

59. Fritz Leiber

Actor | Bagdad

Fritz Leiber was born on January 31, 1882 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. He was an actor, known for Bagdad (1949), Monsieur Verdoux (1947) and Anthony Adverse (1936). He was married to Virginia Bronson. He died on October 14, 1949 in Pacific Palisades, California, USA.

60. Dorothy Kelly

Actress | Flying with Music

Dorothy Kelly was born on February 11, 1918 in San Francisco, California, USA. She was an actress, known for Flying with Music (1942) and Sappy Pappy (1942). She died on November 28, 1969 in La Jolla, California, USA.

61. Paul Kelly

Actor | Flying Tigers

Lean, red/auburn-haired, athletically-inclined Paul Michael Kelly grew up on the tough streets of Brooklyn, New York. Born August 9, 1899, the ninth of ten children in a Roman Catholic family of Irish descent. The siblings' father, Michael, owned a bar called Kelly's Cafe. He died while Paul was ...

62. Evalyn Knapp

Actress | Bachelor Mother

Evalyn Knapp was an American film actress, with a film career spanning the years 1929 to 1943. In the 1930s, she was a leading actress in then-popular B-movie serial films. Her most memorable role was that protagonist Pauline Hargraves in the film serial Perils of Pauline (1933).

In 1906, Knapp was ...

63. Sonja Henie

Actress | Sun Valley Serenade

The daughter of a fur wholesaler in Norway, Sonja Henie received her first pair of ice skates when she was six. At 14 she was the Norwegian Skating Champion. At 15 she would win the Olympic gold medal in Skating, a feat she would repeat in 1932 and 1936. In 1936 she would turn professional and tour...

64. Frances Langford