To Hell and Back 1955 premiere
Tuesday October 11th, Wiltern Theatre
3790 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90010
3790 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90010
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Audie Murphy became a national hero during World War II as the most decorated combat soldier of the war. Among his 33 awards was the Medal of Honor, the highest award for bravery that a soldier can receive. In addition, he was also decorated for bravery by the governments of France and Belgium, and was credited with killing over 240 German soldiers and wounding and capturing many more.
Audie Leon Murphy was born in Kingston, Hunt County, Texas, to Josie Bell (Killian) and Emmett Berry Murphy, poor sharecroppers of Irish descent. After the death of his mother and the outbreak of WWII, Murphy enlisted in the army on his 17th birthday in June 1942 after being turned down by the Navy and the Marines. His eldest sister had provided a false affidavit that he was a year older (18) than his actual age.
After undergoing basic military training, he was sent first to North Africa. However, the Allies drove the German army from Tunisia, their last foothold in North Africa, before Murphy's unit could be sent into battle. His first engagement with Axis forces came when his unit was sent to Europe. First landing on the island of Sicily, next mainland Italy, and finally France, he fought in seven major campaigns over three years and rose from the rank of private to a battlefield commission as a second lieutenant.
Part of Murphy's appeal to many people was that he did't fit the "image" most had of a war hero. He was a slight, almost fragile-looking, shy and soft-spoken young man, whose boyish appearance often shocked people when they learned, for example, that during one battle he leaped on top of a burning tank--which was loaded with fuel and ammunition and could have exploded at any second--and used its machine gun to hold off waves of attacking German troops, killing dozens of them and saving his own unit from certain destruction and the entire line from being overrun.
In September 1945, Murphy was released from active duty, promoted to 1st Lieutenant, and assigned to inactive status. His story caught the interest of superstar James Cagney, who invited Murphy to Hollywood.
Cagney Productions paid for acting and dancing lessons but was reluctantly forced to admit that Murphy -- at least at that point in his career -- didn't have what it took to become a movie star. For the next several years he struggled to make it as an actor, but jobs were few --specifically just two bit parts in Beyond Glory (1948) and Texas, Brooklyn & Heaven (1948). He finally got a lead role in Bad Boy (1949), and starred in the trouble-plagued production of MGM's The Red Badge of Courage (1951), directed by John Huston. While this film is now considered a minor classic, the politics behind the production sparked an irreparable fissure within the ranks of the studio's upper management.
Murphy proved adequate as an actor, but the film, with virtually no female presence (or appeal), bombed badly at the box office. Murphy, however, had already signed with Universal-International Pictures, which was putting him in a string of modestly budgeted Westerns, a genre that suited his easygoing image and Texas drawl. He starred in the film version of his autobiography, To Hell and Back (1955), which was a huge hit, setting a box-office record for Universal that wasn't broken for 20 years until it was finally surpassed by Jaws (1975)). One of his better pictures was Night Passage (1957), a Western in which he played the kid brother of James Stewart. He worked with Huston again on The Unforgiven (1960).
Meanwhile, the studio system that Murphy grew into as an actor crumbled. Universal's new owners, MCA, dumped its "International" tag in 1962 and turned the studio's focus toward the more lucrative television industry. For theatrical productions, it dropped its roster of contract players and hired actors on a per-picture basis only. That cheap Westerns on the big screen were becoming a thing of the past bode no good for Murphy, either. The Texican (1966), his lone attempt at a new, European form of inexpensive horse opera, to become known as "the Spaghetti Western", was unsuccessful. His star was falling fast.
In addition to his acting career -- he made a total of 44 films -- Murphy was a rancher and businessman. He bred and raised thoroughbred horses and owned several ranches in Texas, Arizona and California. He was also a songwriter, and penned hits for such singers as Dean Martin, Eddy Arnold, Charley Pride, and many others.
During his postwar life, he suffered from what is now called Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) but was then called "combat fatigue", and was known to have a hair-trigger temper. He woke up screaming at night and slept with a loaded M1911 .45 semi-automatic pistol nearby. He was acquitted of attempted murder charges brought about by injuries he inflicted on a man in a bar fight. Director Don Siegel said in an interview that Murphy often carried a pistol on the set of The Gun Runners (1958) and many of the cast and crew were afraid of him.
He had a short-lived and turbulent marriage to Wanda Hendrix, and in the 1960s his increasing bouts of insomnia and depression resulted in his becoming addicted to a particularly powerful sleeping pill called Placidyl, an addiction he eventually broke. He ran into a streak of bad financial luck and was forced to declare bankruptcy in 1968. Admirably, he campaigned vigorously for the government to spend more time and money on taking care of returning Vietnam War veterans, as he knew, more than most, what kinds of problems they were going to have.
On May 18, 1971, Murphy was aboard a private plane on his way to a business meeting when it ran into thick fog over Craig County, Virginia, near Roanoke, and crashed into the side of a mountain, killing all six aboard. He was buried with full military honors in Arlington National Cemetery. According to cemetery records, the only gravesite visited by more people than that of Murphy is that of assassinated President John F. Kennedy.- Actor
- Soundtrack
1950s and 60s second lead actor Keith Andes fits into the tall, handsome, strapping and highly virile mold that encompassed the likes of George Nader, Guy Madison, and Jeffrey Hunter. Although he may not be as well remembered as the aforementioned, he managed to maintain a reliable career on radio (from age 12), stage, TV and films for over three decades.
Born John Charles Andes on July 12, 1920, in Ocean City, New Jersey, Keith found work on radio singing and acting throughout his high school years. While serving with the Air Force during WWII, he performed in the patriotic 1943 Broadway stage show "Winged Victory" and, after being seen by studio mogul Darryl F. Zanuck, was given a minor part in the film version the following year.
Keith returned to Hollywood in the post-war years and won the role of one of Loretta Young's brothers (the others being Lex Barker and James Arness) in the classic film The Farmer's Daughter (1947). His enviable physique and photogenic good looks made the blond looker an obvious choice to continue in both rugged adventures and beefcake drama but his output was fairly minimal. In Clash by Night (1952), one of his best roles, he dallied hot and heavy with a young Marilyn Monroe and, in Blackbeard, the Pirate (1952), he demonstrated some expert swashbuckling skills.
Meanwhile on the musical front, Keith proved he had a resilient baritone. He won a Theatre World Award for "The Chocolate Soldier" in 1947 and, subsequently, starred in "Kiss Me Kate" with Anne Jeffreys of TV's Topper (1953) fame. More notably, he appeared opposite Lucille Ball in her only Broadway musical "Wildcat" in 1960, winding things up playing "Don Quixote" for over 400 performances in "Man of La Mancha" in 1968. Ironically, the movie studios did not take advantage of Keith's musical prowess, appearing in a bland role with Jane Powell and singing one musical number in The Girl Most Likely (1957).
Beside numerous episodic appearances on such popular 60's and 70's shows as "Have Gun, Will Travel," "The Rifleman," "77 Sunset Strip," "Perry Mason," "The Outer Limits," "Daniel Boone," "The Andy Griffith Show," "Star Trek," "I Spy," "Petticoat Junction," "Gunsmoke," "Cannon" and "Buck Rogers in the 25th Century," Keith co-starred in two television series: This Man Dawson (1959) and the sitcom Glynis (1963), the latter starring popular Brit actress Glynis Johns. Both were short-lived. He occasionally found voiceover work.
After a minor part in the film And Justice for All (1979), Keith made his final appearance as Father Adam in the TV movie drama Blinded by the Light (1980) ). He then retired, bought and lived on a boat and ran charters on trips to Catalina and Mexico. Twice married and divorced, Keith had two children (Mark and Matt) by first wife, Jean Alice Cotton. Mark Andes became a rock musician. Keith's second wife was actress/dancer/choreographer Shelah Hackett.
Sadly, his final years were marred by extreme ill health, including bladder cancer, and he committed suicide in his Santa Clarita, California home at age 85.- Actor
- 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.- Actor
- Writer
- Soundtrack
Jim Backus was born James Gilmore Backus on February 25, 1913 in Cleveland, Ohio. He was one of the few actors to do it all: radio, Broadway, movies, television and cartoons. After attending preparatory school in his hometown Cleveland, Backus enrolled at the American Academy of Dramatic Art, to ply his trade. While waiting for parts, he did radio and became friends with such future notables as Garson Kanin and Keenan Wynn. Backus stuck it out and soon was doing motion pictures in addition to radio. He was typecast in roles as "rich types" but broke the mold when he portrayed James Dean's father in the classic Rebel Without a Cause (1955). With his career in full swing, Backus also tackled two roles that he would be best known for, Mr. Magoo in cartoons and Thurston Howell III in Gilligan's Island (1964). After the series' run ended, he continued doing guest spots on television and movies, before passing away on July 3, 1989.- Alexander Crichlow Barker Jr. was a direct descendant of the founder of Rhode Island, Roger Williams, and of Sir William Henry Crichlow, historical Governor-General of Barbados. Barker attended the Fessenden School and Phillips-Exeter Academy, where he excelled in football and track. He went to Princeton, but left to become an actor. A year later he was spotted while working in summer stock theatre, and received a contract offer from 20th Century Fox. World War II intervened; he enlisted as an infantry private, and rose to the rank of major.
Although later signed by Fox and then Warner Bros, he was too tall for supporting parts and too unknown for leads. Tarzan's Magic Fountain (1949) (RKO) provided his first starring role. After five Tarzan films, he went into other adventure films. After 16 non-Tarzan films, mostly westerns, he went to Europe in 1957 (he spoke French, Spanish, Italian, and German). He went on to make more than 50 more films worldwide: Brazil, Germany, Spain, Yugoslavia, Italy, Lebanon, France, as well as the USA. He became very popular in Germany owing to his roles as "Old Shatterhand", "Kara Ben Nemsi", and "Dr. Karl Sternau", in films based on books written by Karl May, a popular German writer of adventure literature. Barker won Germany's Bambi Award as Best Foreign Actor of 1966. - Actor
- Director
- Producer
Richard Allen Boone was born in Los Angeles, California, to Cecile Lillian (Beckerman) and Kirk Etna Boone, a wealthy corporate lawyer. His maternal grandparents were Russian Jewish immigrants, while his father was descended from a brother of frontiersmen Daniel Boone and Squire Boone.
Richard was a college student, boxer, painter and oil-field laborer before ending up in the U.S. Navy during World War II. After the war he used the G.I. Bill to study acting with the Actor's Studio in New York. Serious and methodical, Boone debuted on Broadway in the play "Medea". Other plays followed, as did occasional TV work. In 1950 20th Century-Fox signed him to a contract and he made his screen debut in Halls of Montezuma (1951), playing a Marine Corps officer. Tall and craggy, Boone was continually cast in a number of war and western movies. He also tackled roles such as Pontius Pilate in The Robe (1953) and a police detective in Vicki (1953). In 1954 he was cast as Dr. Konrad Styner in the pioneering medical series Medic (1954), which was a critical but not a ratings success. This role lasted for two years, though in the meantime, he continued to appear in westerns and war movies.
In 1957 he played Dr. Wright, who treats Elizabeth for her memory lapses, in Lizzie (1957). It was also in that year that Boone was cast in what is his best-known role, the cultured gunfighter Paladin in the highly regarded western series Have Gun - Will Travel (1957). Although a gun for hire, Paladin was usually a moral one, did the job and lived at the Hotel Carlton in San Francisco. Immensely popular, the show made Boone a star. The series lasted six years, and in addition to starring in it, Boone also directed some episodes. He still kept busy on the big screen during the series' run, appearing as Sam Houston in the John Wayne epic The Alamo (1960), and as a weary cavalry captain fighting Indians in A Thunder of Drums (1961). After Have Gun - Will Travel (1957) ended in 1963, Boone hosted a dramatic anthology series, The Richard Boone Show (1963), but it was not successful.
Boone moved to Hawaii for the next seven years. During this time he made a few Westerns, including the muscular Rio Conchos (1964), but he was largely absent from the screen. In the 1970s he moved to Florida, and resumed his film and TV career with a vengeance. In 1972 he again appeared on television in the Jack Webb-produced series Hec Ramsey (1972) (years before he had played a police captain in Webb's first "Dragnet" film, Dragnet (1954)). Based on a real man, Hec was a tough, grizzled old frontier sheriff at the turn of the 20th century who, late in life, has studied the newest scientific theories of crime detection. His new boss, a much younger man, doesn't always approve of Hec, his nonconformist style or his new methods. The series lasted for two years. Boone continued working until the end of the decade but died as a result of throat cancer in 1981.- William Campbell was born on 30 October 1923 in Newark, New Jersey, USA. He was an actor, known for Escape from Fort Bravo (1953), The High and the Mighty (1954) and Star Trek (1966). He was married to Tereza Pavlovic, Barbara Bricker and Judith Campbell Exner. He died on 28 April 2011 in Woodland Hills, California, USA.
- The actress was born Marilyn Watts in Santa Monica, California, 17 years before she put her foot on the bottom step of the show biz ladder, dancing in the back row of the chorus in "Earl Carroll's Revue" at the famed showman's theater-restaurant in Hollywood. Modeling for photographers led to wider exposure and ultimately to TV roles and bit parts in low-budget movies. As a Universal-International contract player, she was in most every type of B picture that the studio made. She gave up acting in the early '60s to concentrate on marriage and motherhood during 17 tumultuous years as the wife of actor Richard Long. Since his 1974 death, she's played supporting parts in her friend Clint Eastwood's movies, just as he played a supporting role in one of hers (Tarantula (1955)).
- Actress
- Soundtrack
Jeanne Crain was born in Barstow, California, on May 25, 1925. The daughter of a high school English teacher and his wife, Jeanne was moved to Los Angeles not long after her birth after her father got another teaching position in that city. While in junior high school, Jeanne played the lead in a school production which set her on the path to acting. When she was in high school Jeanne was asked to take a screen test to appear in a film by Orson Welles. Unfortunately, she didn't get the part, but it did set her sights on being a movie actress.
After high school, Jeanne enrolled at UCLA to study drama. At the age of 18, Jeanne won a bit part in Fox Studio's film entitled The Gang's All Here (1943) and a small contract. Her next film saw Jeanne elevated to a more substantial part in Home in Indiana (1944) the following year, which was filmed in neighboring Kentucky. The movie was an unquestionable hit. On the strength of that box-office success, Jeanne was given a raise and star billing, as Maggie Preston, in the next film of 1944, In the Meantime, Darling (1944). Unfortunately, the critics not only roasted the film, but singled out Jeanne's performance in particular. She rebounded nicely in her last film of the year, Winged Victory (1944). The audiences loved it and the film was profitable.
In 1945, Jeanne was cast in State Fair (1945) as Margie Frake who travels to the fair and falls in love with a reporter played by Dana Andrews. Now, Jeanne got a bigger contract and more recognition. Later that year, Jeanne married Paul Brooks on New Year's Eve. Although her mother wasn't supportive of the marriage, the union lasted until her husband's death and produced seven children. The year 1947 was an off year for Jeanne, as she took time off to bear the Brooks' first child.
In 1949, Jeanne appeared in three films, A Letter to Three Wives (1949), The Fan (1949), and Pinky (1949). It was this latter film which garnered her an Oscar nomination as Best Actress for her role as Pinky Johnson, a nurse who sets up a clinic in the Deep South. She lost to Olivia de Havilland for The Heiress (1949). Jeanne left Fox after filming Vicki (1953) in 1953, with Jean Peters. She had made 23 films for the studio that started her career, but she needed a well-deserved change. As with any good artist, Jeanne wanted to expand her range instead of playing the girl-next-door types.
She went briefly to Warner Brothers for the filming of Duel in the Jungle (1954) in 1954. The film was lukewarm at best. Jeanne, then, signed a contract, that same year, with Universal Studios with promises of better, high profile roles. She went into production in the film Man Without a Star (1955) which was a hit with audiences and critics. After The Joker Is Wild (1957) in 1957, Jeanne took time off for her family and to appear in a few television programs. She returned, briefly, to film in Guns of the Timberland (1960) in 1960. The films were sporadic after that. In 1967, she appeared in a low-budget suspense yarn called Hot Rods to Hell (1966). Her final film was as Clara Shaw in 1972's Skyjacked (1972).
Jeanne died of a heart attack in Santa Barbara, California, on December 14, 2003. Her husband Paul Brooks had died two months earlier.- Actress
- Soundtrack
A very pleasing and thoroughly enjoyable vision on 1950s film and 1960s TV, Patricia Crowley effortlessly lit up her surroundings with a warm, inviting personality and fresh-faced attractiveness that she still carries today. At her peak she courted top TV stardom in the mid-'60s as the beleaguered wife and mom on the successful series Please Don't Eat the Daisies (1965) and easily made the original Doris Day film role her own. Both she and TV husband Mark Miller made a handsome couple and the series deserved more than its two-season run. Perhaps audience taste, which was changing rapidly with the counterculture era taking over, triggered its somewhat quick demise.
Born September 17, 1933 (some sources incorrectly list 1929), in Olyphant, Pennsylvania, to Vincent, a coal mining foreman, and Helen (Swartz) Crowley, it was her older sister Ann Crowley (born October 17, 1929) who triggered Pat's interest in performing when, during Ann's appearance in a Chicago musical production, the ten-year-old Pat was given a walk-on part. Ann Crowley would go on to have a promising musical career appearing in such late 40s/early 50s N.Y. shows as "Carousel", "Oklahoma!" and "Paint Your Wagon". By age 11, Patricia had become a photographer's model and subsequently attended New York's High School of Performing Arts. She won her first major TV part scarcely out of high school and seemed destined to become an important teen star as the bobbysoxer lead in the Saturday morning TV series A Date with Judy (1951), which was adapted from the highly popular radio series of the 1940s. When the series moved to prime time, however, another actress replaced her.
Like her sister, Patricia was also musically inclined and appeared in a few tuneful stage shows such as "Tovarich" and "Kiss Me Kate" (as Bianca). Billed as "Pat Crowley", she made an auspicious Broadway debut with the relatively short-lived comedy play "Southern Exposure" in 1950, earning the 1951 Theatre World Award for "promising personality". She followed this with another short run (one day) in the comedy "Four Twelves Are 48".
After a number of early 1950s TV assignments, Pat was brought out to Hollywood to co-star with Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis in one of the pair's typical slapstick outings Money from Home (1953). In it, she played a feisty lady veterinarian. She then moved engagingly into the show business comedy Forever Female (1953) co-starring William Holden and Ginger Rogers. As the young aspirant who is vying with the long-in-the-tooth Rogers for a prime Broadway ingénue role, Pat made the most of her role and earned a Golden Globe award for "best promising female newcomer". From there, she played the second female lead in the musical Red Garters (1954) but crooning headliners Rosemary Clooney and Guy Mitchell got most of the songs. Pat did have a dance number, however, opposite Mitchell with the tune "Meet a Happy Guy".
While much of her work came from dramatic TV showcases, Pat continued in movie roles co-starring as the girlfriend of Tony Curtis in the boxing yarn The Square Jungle (1955), appearing as the female ingénue in the sudsy drama There's Always Tomorrow (1956) opposite veterans Barbara Stanwyck, Fred MacMurray and Joan Bennett, and reuniting with Martin & Lewis in their very last film Hollywood or Bust (1956) before the pair's professional breakup.
When her film career started to lose steam in the late 50s (she did appear to good effect, however, with Jeffrey Hunter in the crime drama Key Witness (1960) as a couple terrorized by gang leader Dennis Hopper), Pat found steadier work on TV and guested on many of the popular shows of the day both drama Bonanza (1959), Cheyenne (1955), The Twilight Zone (1959), The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (1964)) and the occasional comedy (The Tab Hunter Show (1960)). It was in the sitcom vein that Pat achieved her biggest success when she was cast as "Joan Nash", the nontraditional, harried wife/columnist of an English professor whose four precocious sons and huge sheep dog added greatly to the mayhem in Please Don't Eat the Daisies (1965). Based on the best-selling Jean Kerr book, it was a role that suited Pat (now billed Patricia) to a tee and made her a household name at the time.
Since then, Patricia has continued to maintain a strong visibility especially on TV, although she was not given the star-making opportunities like this again. Crowley is best known to a later generation of viewers for her regular roles on daytime's Generations (1989) (1989-1990), Port Charles (1997) (1997-2003) and The Bold and the Beautiful (1987) (2005). A guest on such sitcoms as Frasier (1993), Roseanne (1988) and Friends (1994), recurring roles on Joe Forrester (1975) (perfectly paired with Lloyd Bridges), Dynasty (1981) and Beverly Hills, 90210 (1990) also showed Pat to good advantage. More recently, she has graced episodes of "The Closer" and "Cold Case" and a featured role in the film Mont Reve (2012).
In 1958 Patricia married Ed Hookstratten, a successful attorney for top entertainment and sports icons. They had a son, Jon, and a daughter, Ann, named after her sister. After their two-decade marriage ended, she went on to marry producer Andy Friendly in 1986. While many understandably agree that Patricia Crowley's talents deserved perhaps a better serving in Hollywood, particularly on film, she has nevertheless proved herself a lovely, lively and still ingratiating presence.- Actress
- Soundtrack
June Haver was born on June 10, 1926, in Rock Island, Illinois, with the birth name of Beverly June Stovenour. Her parents divorced at an early age and she was adopted by Bert Haver, her stepfather. Her mother and new father moved to Cincinnati, where she appeared on the stage for the first time at the age of six in a local theater production of "Midnight in a Toyshop". Very soon after, June was winning musical contests around the Queen City. By 1936, little June and her mother had returned to the city of her birth, after a film screen test the year before. It was here that she blossomed even further with her singing, appearing on local radio. Later, while touring with various musical bands, June and her mother found their way to sunny California, in the entertainment mecca of Los Angeles. While in high school, she played in various secondary productions.
In 1942, at the age of 16, June joined Fox Studios as a fringe actress. Dropped because the studio thought she was too young, they signed her the following year to appear in The Gang's All Here (1943). It was an uncredited part, but a start in the film world, nonetheless. Unless one looked hard, she would have been easy to miss in the film. Her next one with Fox was in 1944's Home in Indiana (1944). But it was her next film where she was able to showcase her acting talent in Irish Eyes Are Smiling (1944). In 1945, she appeared in Where Do We Go from Here? (1945) with her future husband, Fred MacMurray, who she wed in 1954.
It was the only film the two of them would be in together. In 1946, at the age of 20, June got top billing for the first time in Three Little Girls in Blue (1946). Her only other film that year was Wake Up and Dream (1946). After only one film in 1947, June resurfaced the next year in the utterly forgettable Scudda Hoo! Scudda Hay! (1948). This was one of the starting vehicle's for a rising talent named Marilyn Monroe. In 1949, June was in two productions. They were Look for the Silver Lining (1949) and Oh, You Beautiful Doll (1949). By now, it was obvious that she was being groomed to take over the Fox throne held by Betty Grable. It was not to be, because June was about to leave films, altogether. The filming of 1953's The Girl Next Door (1953) proved to be her last silver screen appearance. She had announced, the year before, that she would become a nun after her contract ran out. True to her word, she entered the convent but only stayed a few months.
It was after she left the convent that she was seen with Fred MacMurray. After they were wed, the couple adopted twin girls. June's last foray into the glare of the camera lights was when she played herself in the television production of The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour (1957). She died of respiratory failure in Brentwood, California on July 6, 2005.- Actress
- Writer
- Soundtrack
Martha Hyer was born on August 10, 1924 in Fort Worth, Texas. Once she finished her formal schooling, Martha played a bit role in 1946's The Locket (1946). Slowly, Martha began picking up roles with more and more substance. The best years for the beautiful actress began in 1954 when she played in films such as Down Three Dark Streets (1954), Showdown at Abilene (1956) and Battle Hymn (1957). Perhaps the best role of her long career was as "Gwen French" in 1958's Some Came Running (1958) in which she starred opposite Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Shirley MacLaine. As a result of her stellar role, Martha received an Academy Award nomination as Best Supporting Actress, but she lost out to Wendy Hiller in Separate Tables (1958). Afterwards, Martha's stint on the US silver screen's trailed off some. She did make a handful of foreign films, returning to appear in the US from time to time, but nothing compared to the pace she had in the fifties. Her last film was in 1973 in the film The Day of the Wolves (1971). In 1966, she married producer Hal B. Wallis and remained with him until his death in 1986.- Actor
- Producer
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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.- Actor
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Born in Pasadena, California, George Nader became interested in acting while still in school and appeared in several productions at the Pasadena Playhouse. This led to several small parts in movies before earning the lead role in the ridiculous 3-D thriller Robot Monster (1953). The movie was bad but profitable, and Nader soon had a contract with Universal Pictures. Unfortunately, the studio already had on its roster such good-looking and athletic actors as Rock Hudson, Tony Curtis and Jeff Chandler, so Nader often found himself being cast in their leftovers, usually playing parts that emphasized his "beefcake" appeal. (At 6' 1" and 180 pounds, Nader had the kind of physique fan magazines drooled over and unlike many of his colleagues, he frequently appeared with his chest hair intact.) However, he did enjoy a few good years in the mid-1950s, turning in a commendable performance in Away All Boats (1956) before his career began to decline. He tried his hand at three TV series and then relocated to Europe, where he enjoyed a modest revival in the late 1960s starring as "Jerry Cotton" in a series of West German films.- Hillevi Rombin was born on 14 September 1933 in Alfta, Gävleborg, Sweden. She was an actress, known for Istanbul (1957), The Adventures of Hiram Holliday (1956) and The Tonight Show (1953). She was married to G. David Schine. She died on 19 June 1996 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- The epitome of poise, charm, style and grace, beautiful brunette Barbara Rush was born in Denver, Colorado in 1927 and enrolled at the University of California before working with the University Players and taking acting classes at the Pasadena Playhouse. It didn't take long for talent scouts to spot her and, following a play performance, Paramount quickly signed her up in 1950, making her debut with The Goldbergs (1950).
Just prior to this, she had met fellow actor Jeffrey Hunter, a handsome newcomer who would later become a "beefcake" bobbysoxer idol over at Fox. The two fell in love and married in December 1950. Soon, they were on their way to becoming one of Hollywood's most beautiful and photogenic young couples. Their son Christopher was born in 1952.
While at Paramount, she was decorative in such assembly-line fare as When Worlds Collide (1951), Quebec (1951) and Flaming Feather (1952). She later co-starred opposite some of Hollywood's top leading males: James Mason, Montgomery Clift, Marlon Brando, Dean Martin, Paul Newman, Richard Burton and Kirk Douglas. In most cases, she played brittle wives, conniving "other women" or socialite girlfriend types.
Despite the "A" list movies Barbara was piling up, the one single role that could put her over the top never showed its face. By the early 1960s, her film career started to decline. She married publicist Warren Cowan in 1959 and bore a second child, Claudia Cowan, in 1964. TV became a viable source of income for her, appearing in scores of guest parts on the more popular shows of the time while co-starring in standard mini-movie dramas.
She even had a bit of fun playing a "guest villainess" on the Batman (1966) series as temptress "Nora Clavicle". The stage also became a strong focus for Barbara, earning the Sarah Siddons Award for her starring role in "Forty Carats". She made her Broadway debut in the one-woman showcase "A Woman of Independent Means", which also subsequently earned her the Los Angeles Drama Critics Award during its tour. Other showcases included "Private Lives", "Same Time, Next Year", "The Night of the Iguana" and "Steel Magnolias". Rush continued to occasionally appear onscreen, most recently in a recurring role on TV's 7th Heaven (1996). She died on March 31, 2024, aged 97. - The Tennessee-born Snowden (real name: Martha Lee Estes) was a movie actress and model who first made a splash on the Jack Benny TV show, sashaying across the stage at the San Diego Naval base. Twenty thousand sailors gave the curvy sweater-clad starlet a standing ovation that made headlines in "Variety", and every talent scout in Hollywood was on Snowden's trail the very next morning. Three days later, she was hired to make her film debut in director Robert Aldrich's obtuse crime classic Kiss Me Deadly (1955) (Aldrich expanded her role and gave her featured billing). In January 1955, she signed a seven-year contract with Universal Studios, beginning by playing up her Dixie drawl in their glossy soap opera All That Heaven Allows (1955). Other movies include Francis in the Navy (1955), The Creature Walks Among Us (1956) and the Bridey Murphy-inspired I've Lived Before (1956). In September 1956, Snowden married Dick Contino, a big-name singer/accordion player, and a few years later she retired from acting. Mother to five children from two marriages, she died of cancer at age 51.
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Lana Turner had an acting ability that belied the "Sweater Girl" image MGM thrust upon her, and even many of her directors admitted that they knew she was capable of greatness (check out The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946)). Unfortunately, her private life sometimes overshadowed her professional accomplishments.
Lana Turner was born Julia Jean Mildred Francis Turner in Wallace, Idaho. There is some discrepancy as to whether her birth date is February 8, 1920 or 1921. Lana herself said in her autobiography that she was one year younger (1921) than the records showed, but then this was a time where women, especially actresses, tended to "fib" a bit about their age. Most sources agree that 1920 is the correct year of birth. Her parents were Mildred Frances (Cowan) and John Virgil Turner, a miner, both still in their teens when she was born. In 1929, her father was murdered and it was shortly thereafter her mother moved her and the family to California where jobs were "plentiful". Once she matured into a beautiful young woman, she went after something that would last forever: stardom. She wasn't found at a drug store counter, like some would have you believe, but that legend persists. She pounded the pavement as other would-be actors and actresses have done, are doing and will continue to do in search of movie roles.
In 1937, Lana entered the movie world, at 17, with small parts in They Won't Forget (1937), The Great Garrick (1937) and A Star Is Born (1937). These films didn't bring her a lot of notoriety, but it was a start. In 1938 she had another small part in Love Finds Andy Hardy (1938) starring Mickey Rooney. It was this film that made young men's hearts all over America flutter at the sight of this alluring and provocative young woman--known as the "Sweater Girl"--and one look at that film could make you understand why: she was one of the most spectacularly beautiful newcomers to grace the screen in years. By the 1940s Lana was firmly entrenched in the film business. She had good roles in such films as Johnny Eager (1941), Somewhere I'll Find You (1942) and Week-End at the Waldorf (1945). If her career was progressing smoothly, however, her private life was turning into a train wreck, keeping her in the news in a way no one would have wanted.
Without a doubt her private life was a threat to her public career. She was married eight times, twice to Stephen Crane. She also married Ronald Dante, Robert Eaton, Fred May, Lex Barker, Henry Topping and bandleader Artie Shaw. She also battled alcoholism. In yet another scandal, her daughter by Crane, Cheryl Crane, fatally stabbed Lana's boyfriend, gangster Johnny Stompanato, in 1958. It was a case that would have rivaled the O.J. Simpson murder case. Cheryl was acquitted of the murder charge, with the jury finding that she had been protecting her mother from Stompanato, who was savagely beating her, and ruled it justifiable homicide. These and other incidents interfered with Lana's career, but she persevered. The release of Imitation of Life (1959), a remake of a 1934 film (Imitation of Life (1934)), was Lana's comeback vehicle. Her performance as Lora Meredith was flawless as an actress struggling to make it in show business with a young daughter, her housekeeper and the housekeeper's rebellious daughter. The film was a box-office success and proved beyond a doubt that Lana had not lost her edge.
By the 1960s, however, fewer roles were coming her way with the rise of new and younger stars. She still managed to turn in memorable performances in such films as Portrait in Black (1960) and Bachelor in Paradise (1961). By the next decade the roles were coming in at a trickle. Her last appearance in a big-screen production was in Witches' Brew (1980). Her final film work came in the acclaimed TV series Falcon Crest (1981) in which she played Jacqueline Perrault from 1982-1983. After all those years as a sex symbol, nothing had changed--Lana was still as beautiful as ever.
She died on June 25, 1995, in Culver City, California, after a long bout with cancer. She was 74 years old.- Actor
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Colorful character actor of American Westerns. Named "Chill" as an ironic comment on his birth date being the hottest day of 1902. A musician from his youth, he performed from the age of 12 with tent shows, in vaudeville, and with stock companies. While performing in vaudeville in Kansas City, he married ballet dancer Betty Chappelle, with whom he had two children. He formed a musical group, Chill Wills and His Avalon Boys. During an appearance at the Trocadero in Hollywood, they were spotted by an RKO executive, subsequently appearing as a group in several low-budget Westerns. After a prominent appearance with The Avalon Boys as both himself and the bass-singing voice of Stan Laurel in Way Out West (1937), Wills disbanded the group and began a solo career as a usually jovial (but occasionally sinister) character actor, primarily in Westerns. His delightful portrayal of Beekeeper in The Alamo (1960) won him an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor, but his blatant and embarrassing campaign for the Oscar cost him the award and subjected him to a great deal of humiliation -- and probably cost the film a number of awards as well. His wife died in 1971, and he remarried, to Novadeen Googe, in 1973. He continued to work in films and television, usually in roguishly lovable good-ol'-boy parts, up until his death in 1978.- Judith Campbell Exner was born on 11 January 1934 in New York, USA. She was married to Daniel Ray Exner and William Campbell. She died on 24 September 1999 in Duarte, California, USA.
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Perry Lopez was born on 22 July 1929 in New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for Chinatown (1974), The Two Jakes (1990) and Kelly's Heroes (1970). He was married to Claire Kelly. He died on 14 February 2008 in Beverly Hills, California, USA.