Francis of Assisi 1961 premiere

1. Bradford Dillman

Actor | The Enforcer

Dark-haired, Ivy League-looking Bradford Dillman, whose white-collar career spanned nearly five decades, possessed charm and confident good looks that were slightly tainted by a bent smile, darting glance and edgy countenance that often provoked suspicion. Sure enough, the camera picked up on it ...

2. Ann Blyth

Actress | Mildred Pierce

The dark, petulant beauty of this petite American film and musical star worked to her advantage, especially in her early dramatic career. Anne Marie Blythe was born of Irish stock to Harry and Annie (nee Lynch) Blythe on August 16, 1928 in Mt. Kisco, New York. Her parents split while she was young ...

3. Joseph Cotten

Actor | The Third Man

Joseph Cheshire Cotten, Jr. was born in Petersburg, Virginia, into a well-to-do Southern family. He was the eldest of three sons born to Sally Whitworth (Willson) and Joseph Cheshire Cotten, Sr., an assistant postmaster.

Jo (as he was known) and his brothers Whit and Sam spent their summers at their...

4. Dennis Day

Actor | Music in Manhattan

Always bright and beaming from ear to ear, Irish singer Dennis Day's name and career remains synonymous with that of Jack Benny's, working with the star comedian on radio and TV for the entire duration. It was Jack who gave him his break in 1939 and Jack who kept him employed as a singer and naive ...

5. Irene Dunne

Actress | The Awful Truth

Irene Marie Dunne was born on December 20, 1898, in Louisville, Kentucky. She was the daughter of Joseph Dunne, who inspected steamships, and Adelaide Henry, a musician who prompted Irene in the arts. Her first production was in Louisville when she appeared in "A Midsummer Night's Dream" at the age...

6. Tom Ewell

Actor | The Seven Year Itch

Beleaguered character actor Tom Ewell, the unlikely film and TV star with the trademark lumpy figure and droopy, lugubrious mug, was born Samuel Yewell Tompkins on April 29, 1909, in Kentucky. His family tried to steer him towards a law career but he chose the path of acting instead after becoming ...

7. Helen Grayco

Actress | Cha-Cha-Cha Boom!

Helen Grayco was born on September 20, 1924 in Tacoma, Washington, USA. She was an actress, known for Cha-Cha-Cha Boom! (1956), That Certain Age (1938) and The Spike Jones Show (1957). She was married to William Rosen and Spike Jones. She died on August 20, 2022 in Los Angeles, California, USA.

8. Brett Halsey

Actor | The Godfather Part III

Internationally-known actor Brett Halsey, one of Hollywood's busiest and handsomest actors of the mid-to-late '50s and early '60s, was born Charles Oliver Hand to a builder/contractor in Santa Ana, California on June 20, 1933. Interested in performing from childhood (he appeared in local community ...

9. Rafer Johnson

Actor | Licence to Kill

A distinguished American athlete and occasional actor with many other strings to his bow, Rafer Johnson was a UCLA basketball star who went on to become Pan American decathlon champion in 1955, a two time decathlon silver medallist at the Melbourne Olympics (despite injuries) and winner of gold ...

10. Spike Jones

Soundtrack | Mr. Nobody

Spike Jones was born on December 14, 1911 in Long Beach, California, USA. He was an actor and composer, known for Mr. Nobody (2009), I.Q. (1994) and Fireman Save My Child (1954). He was married to Helen Grayco and Patricia Middleton. He died on May 1, 1965 in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, California,...

11. Dianne Lennon

Actress | Jimmy Durante Presents the Lennon Sisters

Dianne Lennon was born on December 1, 1939 in Los Angeles, California, USA. She is an actress, known for Jimmy Durante Presents the Lennon Sisters (1969), Shower of Stars (1954) and Perry Como's Kraft Music Hall (1948). She has been married to Richard Edward Gass since October 16, 1960. They have ...

12. Peggy Lennon

Actress | Love, American Style

Peggy Lennon was born on April 8, 1941 in Los Angeles, California, USA. She is an actress, known for Love, American Style (1969), Jimmy Durante Presents the Lennon Sisters (1969) and Shower of Stars (1954). She was previously married to Dr. Robert Preston Felt and Dick Cathcart.

13. Kathy Lennon

Actress | Love, American Style

Kathy Lennon was born on August 2, 1943 in Los Angeles, California, USA. She is an actress and producer, known for Love, American Style (1969), Jimmy Durante Presents the Lennon Sisters (1969) and Shower of Stars (1954). She has been married to James Daris since April 24, 1982. She was previously ...

14. Janet Lennon

Actress | Love, American Style

Janet Lennon was born on June 14, 1946 in Culver City, California, USA. She is an actress and producer, known for Love, American Style (1969), Jimmy Durante Presents the Lennon Sisters (1969) and Shower of Stars (1954). She has been married to John Bahler since September 25, 1976. She was ...

15. Mimi Lennon

Self | Family Feud

Mimi Lennon was born on September 16, 1955 in Los Angeles, California, USA. She has been married to Daniel Macias since November 5, 1977. They have two children.

16. Carol Lynley

Actress | The Poseidon Adventure

Blonde and blue-eyed with an attractively feline appeal, Carol Lynley began her professional career as Carolyn Lee. She learned ballet at age seven, became a successful child model at age 10 (eventually working for the Sears & Roebuck department store in New York), and got her face nationally ...

17. Jayne Mansfield

Actress | The Girl Can't Help It

One of the leading sex symbols of the 1950s and 1960s, film actress Jayne Mansfield was born Vera Jayne Palmer on April 19, 1933 in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, the only child of Vera J. (nee Palmer; later Peers) and Herbert W. Palmer. Her parents were well-to-do, with her father a successful attorney ...

18. Patricia Medina

Actress | Snow White and the Three Stooges

Patricia Paz Maria Medina was born on July 19, 1919 in Liverpool, England to a Spanish father and an English mother. She began acting as a teenager in the late 1930s and worked her way up to leading roles in the mid-1940s, then left for Hollywood. Medina teamed up with British actor Louis Hayward ...

19. Dolores Michaels

Actress | The Wayward Bus

Dolores Michaels was born on January 30, 1933 in Kansas City, Missouri, USA. She was an actress, known for The Wayward Bus (1957), Warlock (1959) and Fräulein (1958). She was married to Bernard Woolfe and Maurice Martine. She died on September 25, 2001 in West Hollywood, California, USA.

20. George Murphy

Actor | This Is the Army

After giving up college, George Murphy decided to become a dancer. Starting in 1927, he worked with his wife and partner Julie Johnson on Broadway. In 1934, after his wife retired from show business, he worked with Shirley Temple, in Hollywood, as well as Eleanor Powell, Fred Astaire, and Ronald ...

21. Paul Newman

Actor | The Hustler

Screen legend, superstar, and the man with the most famous blue eyes in movie history, Paul Leonard Newman was born on January 26, 1925, in Cleveland, Ohio, the second son of Arthur Sigmund Newman (died 1950) and Theresa Fetsko (died 1982). His elder brother was Arthur S. Newman Jr., named for ...

22. Cathy O'Donnell

Actress | The Best Years of Our Lives

Born and raised in Alabama as Ann Steely, O'Donnell attended high school and college in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, then worked as a stenographer to finance a trip to Hollywood, where she was spotted by a talent scout, leading to her being signed to a contract by producer Samuel Goldwyn.

Recognizing ...

23. Maureen O'Sullivan

Actress | The Thin Man

Of Irish, English, and Scottish descent, Maureen Paula O'Sullivan was born on May 17, 1911 in Boyle, County Roscommon, Ireland. Her father was Charles Joseph O'Sullivan, an officer in the Connaught Rangers, and his wife, the former Mary Fraser (or Frazer). She was educated at Catholic schools in ...

24. Juliet Prowse

Actress | Can-Can

Born in India to South African parents, Juliet studied to be a dancer from the age of 4. Attending the Royal Academy of Dance, by the time Juliet was 14, she was deemed too tall to enter the world of ballet. She signed as a chorus dancer with the London Palladium and then pursued a career as a ...

25. Jon Provost

Actor | Lassie

Forever associated with a heroic TV collie whom he frequently had his arms lovingly wrapped around, blond tyke Jon Provost actually was a veteran performer by the time he won the role of "Timmy Martin" at age seven in the series Lassie (1954). Los Angeles born (March 12, 1950) and bred, Jon was ...

26. Lee Remick

Actress | The Omen

Lee Remick was born in Quincy, Massachusetts, to Gertrude Margaret (Waldo), an actress, and Francis Edwin Remick, a department store owner. She had Irish and English ancestry. Remick was educated at Barnard College, studied dance and worked on stage and TV, before making her film debut as a sexy ...

27. Jill St. John

Actress | Diamonds Are Forever

An incredible piece of 1960s eye candy, Jill St. John absolutely smoldered on the big screen, a trendy presence in lightweight comedy, spirited adventure and spy intrigue who appeared alongside some of Hollywood's most handsome male specimens. Although she was seldom called upon to do much more ...

28. Edson Stroll

Actor | Snow White and the Three Stooges

Edson Stroll was born on January 6, 1929 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. He was an actor, known for Snow White and the Three Stooges (1961), The Twilight Zone (1959) and McHale's Navy Joins the Air Force (1965). He died on July 18, 2011 in Marina del Rey, California, USA.

29. Lawrence Welk

Soundtrack | Good Morning, Vietnam

The accordion maestro provided nearly two decades of squeaky-clean music and family entertainment on TV every Saturday night between 1955 and 1971 on prime-time, and for another 11 years in syndication. His trademarks included his "A uh-one, a uh-two" intro and a perpetual bubble machine.

30. Carole Wells

Actress | Pistols 'n' Petticoats

Carole started working in television and motion pictures at the age of 12. Her first commercial was Dial Soap, then cast on the "Eddie Fisher Coke Time". She played a young "Lizzy" in her first film by the same name. She continued to co-star in most of the television shows in the late fifties, ...

31. Stuart Whitman

Actor | The Comancheros

American leading man Stuart Maxwell Whitman was known for his rugged roles. He was born in San Francisco, California, the elder of two sons of Cecilia (Gold) and Joseph Whitman, a realtor. His mother was a Russian Jewish immigrant, while his paternal grandparents were Polish Jews. His family moved ...

32. Joanne Woodward

Actress | Rachel, Rachel

Joanne Gignilliat Trimmier Woodward was born on February 27, 1930, in Thomasville, Georgia, to Wade Woodward and Elinor Gignilliat Trimmier Woodward in a modest household. Her one older brother, Wade Jr., who was the favorite of her father, eventually became an architect. Elinor Woodward was a ...

33. Jane Wyatt

Actress | Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home

Born in Campgaw, New Jersey, Jane Waddington Wyatt came from a New York family of social distinction (her father was a Wall Street investment banker and her mother was a drama critic). Jane was raised from the age of three months in New York City and attended the fashionable Chapin School and later...

34. Jane Wyman

Actress | Falcon Crest

Jane Wyman was born Sarah Jane Mayfield on January 5, 1917, in St. Joseph, Missouri (she was also known later as Sarah Jane Fulks). When she was only eight years old, and after her parents filed for divorce, she lost her father prematurely. After graduating high school she attempted, with the help ...

35. Loretta Young

Actress | The Stranger

Sweet, sweeter, sweetest. No combination of terms better describes the screen persona of lovely Loretta Young. A&E's Biography (1987) has stated that Young "remains a symbol of beauty, serenity, and grace. But behind the glamour and stardom is a woman of substance whose true beauty lies in her ...

36. Johnny Grant

Actor | Hollywood Homicide

Johnny Grant was born on May 9, 1923 in Goldsboro, North Carolina, USA. He was an actor and producer, known for Hollywood Homicide (2003), Gene Autry: America's Cowboy (2000) and Mask of the Dragon (1951). He died on January 9, 2008 in Hollywood, California, USA.

37. John Farrow

Writer | Around the World in Eighty Days

John Farrow wrote short stories and plays during his four-year career in the navy. In the late 1920s he came to Hollywood as a technical advisor for a film about Marines and stayed as a screenwriter, from A Sailor's Sweetheart (1927) through Tarzan Escapes (1936). He married Tarzan's Jane, Maureen ...

38. James Doheny

Self | Omnibus

39. Richard Dillon

Actor | Ironside

Richard Dillon is known for Ironside (1967), CPO Sharkey (1976) and The F.B.I. (1965).

40. Edward Kennedy

41. George Montgomery

Actor | Samar

George Montgomery was boxing champion at the University of Montana where he majored in architecture and interior design. Dropping out a year later he decided to take up boxing more seriously. He moved to California where he was coached by ex-heavyweight world champion James J. Jeffries. While in ...

42. Dinah Shore

Soundtrack | The Dinah Shore Chevy Show

Her real name was Frances "Fanny" Rose Shore, and she was born in Winchester, Tennessee. Stricken with polio at 18 months of age, she recovered after receiving the Sister Kenny treatment. She became a cheerleader at Hume-Fogg High School in Nashville and went on to graduate from Vanderbilt ...