Hypothetical 1973 SAG Awards Memoriam

1. Ted Adams

The son of vaudeville performers, Richard Theodore "Ted" Adams was part of his parents' troupe before attending Cornell University at the age of 18. After college he did stock work for three years before going on to New York City and stage work there. For more than half his life he performed on the...

2. Robert Armstrong

Actor | King Kong

Robert Armstrong is familiar to old-movie buffs for his case-hardened, rapid-fire delivery in such roles as fast-talking promoters, managers, FBI agents, street cops, detectives and other such characters in scores of films--over 160--many of them at Warner Brothers, where he was part of the ...

3. Sidney Blackmer

Actor | Rosemary's Baby

Sidney Blackmer, the Tony-award winning actor who played Teddy Roosevelt in seven movies, is best remembered by today's movie audiences for his turn as the warlock/coven-leader Roman Castevet in Roman Polanski's Rosemary's Baby (1968).

Born and raised in Salisbury, North Carolina, where he made his ...

4. Veda Ann Borg

Actress | Mildred Pierce

Born in Boston, Veda Ann Borg was a New York model in 1936 when a screen test brought her a short-lived contract at Paramount, where she made her debut film, Three Cheers for Love (1936). She fit better at Warner Brothers, where she played at least 15 roles (some of them bits) in 1937-38; but in ...

5. Joe E. Brown

Actor | Some Like It Hot

Joe E. Brown happily claimed that he was the only youngster in show business who ran away from home to join the circus with the blessings of his parents. In 1902, the ten-year-old Brown joined a circus tumbling act called the Five Marvellous Ashtons that toured various circuses and vaudeville ...

6. Lon Chaney Jr.

Actor | The Wolf Man

American character actor whose career was influenced (and often overshadowed) by that of his father, silent film star Lon Chaney. The younger Chaney was born while his parents were on a theatrical tour, and he joined them onstage for the first time at the age of six months. However, as a young man,...

7. Wally Cox

Actor | Mister Peepers

Wally Cox was a beloved character actor who made his mark in television and ranks as one of the medium's most memorable performers. His ability to show his range likely was limited by his short stature, slight frame, and high-pitched voice, which along with his talent for being very funny, made him...

8. Norma Crane

Actress | Fiddler on the Roof

Norma Crane was born on November 10, 1928 in Brooklyn, New York, USA. She was an actress, known for Fiddler on the Roof (1971), Studio One (1948) and Ben Casey (1961). She was married to Herbert Sargent. She died on September 28, 1973 in Los Angeles, California, USA.

9. Rupert Crosse

Actor | Shadows

Rupert Crosse was an African-American actor. In 1969, Crosse was the first African American to receive a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.

Crosse was born in New York City, but was raised on the island of Nevis by his grandparents. Nevis is one of the Leeward Islands of the...

10. Bobby Darin

Soundtrack | Come September

Walden Robert Cassotto, nicknamed "Bobby", was born in The Bronx, New York, in 1936. Severe rheumatic fever as a child scarred his heart and led to an overprotected and pampered childhood. He was the focal point of a family that fostered and encouraged his love of music. His music career started ...

11. Ted de Corsia

Actor | The Lady from Shanghai

A big, brawny villain of many 1940s and 1950s films, Ted de Corsia was an actor in touring companies and on radio before making a memorable film debut as the killer in The Lady from Shanghai (1947). Although he occasionally played such sympathetic roles as a judge or prison warden, de Corsia's ...

12. Claire Dodd

Actress | Roberta

She was born Dorothy Arlene Dodd on December 29, 1911 in Baxter, Iowa when her Little Rock, Arkansas parents were on a trip to Des Moines. Her father was a doctor who abandoned her and her mother before she was ten years old. Her mother suffered from tuberculosis and Dorothy was forced to support ...

13. Maxine Doyle

Actress | The Mystery Man

Maxine Doyle was born on January 1, 1915 in San Francisco, California, USA. She was an actress, known for The Mystery Man (1935), 6 Day Bike Rider (1934) and Come On, Cowboys (1937). She was married to William Witney. She died on May 8, 1973 in Woodland Hills, California, USA.

14. Betty Field

Actress | Of Mice and Men

Thespian Betty Field was born in Boston on February 8, 1916, the daughter of a salesman and his wife. Ancestors on her father's side were Mayflower colonists Priscilla and John Alden. Her parents divorced while she was still young and Betty eventually learned to speak Spanish while traveling with ...

15. Steven Geray

Actor | Gilda

Diminutive, gentle-featured character actor, who specialised in playing meek, reticent or kindly gentlemen, usually of Gallic, Germanic or Eastern European backgrounds. Istvan Gyergyay was born in the old Austro/Hungarian town of Ungvar (present-day Uzhgorod) and studied at Budapest University. His...

16. Betty Grable

Actress | How to Marry a Millionaire

Elizabeth Ruth Grable was born on December 18, 1916 in St. Louis, Missouri, to Lillian Rose (Hofmann) and John Conn Grable, a stockbroker. She had German, English, Irish, and Dutch ancestry. Her mother was a stubborn and materialistic woman determined to make her daughter a star. Elizabeth, who ...

17. William Haines

Actor | Show People

Born in Staunton, Virginia, William Haines ran off to live life on his own terms while still in his teens, moving to New York City and becoming friends with such later Hollywood luminaries as designer Orry-Kelly and Cary Grant. His film career started slowly, but by the end of the silent era he was...

18. Laurence Harvey

Actor | The Manchurian Candidate

Laurence Harvey was a British movie star who helped usher in the 1960s with his indelible portrait of a ruthless social climber, and became one of the decade's cultural icons for his appearances in socially themed motion pictures.

Harvey was born Zvi Mosheh Skikne on October 1, 1928 in Joniskis, ...

19. Jack Hawkins

Actor | Ben-Hur

In Britain, special Christmas plays called pantomimes are produced for children. Jack Hawkins made his London theatrical debut at age 12, playing the elf king in "Where The Rainbow Ends". At 17, he got the lead role of St. George in the same play. At 18, he made his debut on Broadway in "Journey's ...

20. Sessue Hayakawa

Actor | The Bridge on the River Kwai

Sessue Hayakawa was born in Chiba, Japan. His father was the provincial governor and his mother a member of an aristocratic family of the "samurai" class. The young Hayakawa wanted to follow in his father's footsteps and become a career officer in the Japanese navy, but he was turned down due to ...

21. Fay Holden

Actress | Ziegfeld Girl

Fay Holden was born on September 26, 1893 in Birmingham, England, UK. She was an actress, known for Ziegfeld Girl (1941), Andy Hardy's Double Life (1942) and Love Laughs at Andy Hardy (1946). She was married to David Clyde. She died on June 23, 1973 in Los Angeles, California, USA.

22. Tim Holt

Actor | The Magnificent Ambersons

As they say, like father, like son. Cowboy hero Tim Holt avidly followed in the boots of his famous character-actor dad, the granite-jawed Jack Holt (b. Charles John Holt), who appeared in hundreds of silents and talkies (many of them westerns) over the years. The two actually appeared together as ...

23. Douglas Kennedy

Actor | The Land Unknown

A tall, powerfully built man, Douglas Kennedy entered films after graduating from Amherst. Making his debut in 1940, he appeared in many westerns and detective thrillers, often as a villain. World War II interrupted his career, and he spent the war years as a Signal Corps officer and an operative ...

24. Veronica Lake

Actress | Sullivan's Travels

Veronica Lake was born as Constance Frances Marie Ockleman on November 14, 1922, in Brooklyn, New York. She was the daughter of Constance Charlotta (Trimble) and Harry Eugene Ockelman, who worked for an oil company as a ship employee. Her father was of half German and half Irish descent, and her ...

25. Allan Lane

Music_department | Mister Ed

Most western action film heroes begin and end their career in the saddle. Not so for cowboy idol Allan Lane (nicknamed "Rocky"), who started as a leading man in major studio dramas only to segue into "B" serials and sagebrush sagas in later life. The Indiana native was born in 1909 (some sources ...

26. Bruce Lee

Actor | Jing wu men

Bruce Lee remains the greatest icon of martial arts cinema and a key figure of modern popular media. Had it not been for Bruce Lee and his movies in the early 1970s, it's arguable whether or not the martial arts film genre would have ever penetrated and influenced mainstream North American and ...

27. Jack MacGowran

Actor | The Quiet Man

Jack MacGowran was an Irish actor, probably best known for his work with Samuel Beckett.

He established his professional reputation as a member of the Abbey Players in Dublin, while he achieved stage renown for his knowing interpretations of the works of Samuel Beckett. He appeared as Lucky in ...

28. George Macready

Actor | Gilda

George Macready--the name probably does not ring any bells for most but the voice would be unmistakable. He attended and graduated from Brown University and had a short stint as a New York newspaperman, but became interested in acting on the advice of colorful Polish émigré classical stage director ...

29. Eve Miller

Actress | There's No Business Like Show Business

Eve Miller was born on August 8, 1923 in Los Angeles, California, USA. She was an actress, known for There's No Business Like Show Business (1954), April in Paris (1952) and The Big Trees (1952). She died on August 17, 1973 in Van Nuys, California, USA.

30. Cleo Moore

Actress | Congo Bill

Cleo Moore was born Cleouna Moore on October 31, 1924 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, the daughter of a building contractor. Both her parents were deeply involved in Democratic politics which, in Louisiana, was an all consuming passion with a lot of families in the 1920s. Cleo began her trek to stardom ...

31. Mantan Moreland

Actor | Charlie Chan in the Secret Service

Although his bulgy-eyed brand of humor was once popular and considered funny, "second banana" character actor Mantan Moreland, who maintained a steadfast career playing cocky but jittery characters in late 1930s and early 1940s comedy, would later be ostracized for it. The talented funnyman, who ...

32. J. Carrol Naish

Actor | Sahara

One of the most versatile character actors in the business, Joseph Patrick Carrol Naish (pronounced Nash) was born of Irish descent in New York City. His illustrious ancestors hailed from county Limerick and were listed in Burke's Peerage. He had a Catholic education at St. Cecilia's Academy, but ...

33. Michael O'Shea

Actor | Lady of Burlesque

His five brothers all became policemen, encouraged on by their father, but Hartford-born Irish-American Michael O'Shea defied family tradition and turned to acting. Born on March 17, 1906, Michael dropped out of school at age 12 and went the vaudeville route, touring with his boxing idol Jack ...

34. Katina Paxinou

Actress | For Whom the Bell Tolls

Katina Paxinou was born in 1900, in Piraeus, Greece. She first appeared on stage in 1928, in an Athens production of Henry Bataille's "La femme nue". In the early 1930's she was one of the founding members of the National Theatre of Greece (previously named Royal Theatre) and performed several ...

35. Edward G. Robinson

Actor | Double Indemnity

Emanuel Goldenberg arrived in the United States from Romania at age ten, and his family moved into New York's Lower East Side. He took up acting while attending City College, abandoning plans to become a rabbi or lawyer. The American Academy of Dramatic Arts awarded him a scholarship, and he began ...

36. Irene Ryan

Actress | The Beverly Hillbillies

Before becoming known to millions as Granny on The Beverly Hillbillies (1962), Irene Ryan was already an established vaudeville, radio and movie actress, though not as famous prior to her television stint. She accompanied Bob Hope on his famous military tours and she was known as "the gal who makes...

37. Robert Ryan

Actor | The Wild Bunch

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

38. Diana Sands

Actress | The Landlord

Diana Sands was born on August 22, 1934 in New York City, New York, USA. She was an actress, known for The Landlord (1970), A Raisin in the Sun (1961) and East Side/West Side (1963). She was married to Lucien Jean Happersberger. She died on September 21, 1973 in New York City, New York, USA.

39. Glenn Strange

Actor | Bud Abbott and Lou Costello Meet Frankenstein

At various times in his life a rancher, deputy sheriff and rodeo performer, this huge, towering (6' 5") beast of a man was born George Glenn Strange in Weed, New Mexico, on August 16, 1899, but grew up a real-life cowboy in Cross Cut, Texas. He taught himself (by ear) the fiddle and guitar at a ...

40. Constance Talmadge

Actress | Intolerance: Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages

Constance was blonde; star sister Norma Talmadge was brunette. She was buoyant and a comedienne; Norma was introspective and a tragedienne. Nicknamed "Dutch" by her stage mother Peg as she looked like a cherubic Little Dutch Boy, silver screen star Constance Talmadge was one of silent pictures' ...

41. Ernest Truex

Actor | His Girl Friday

The ultimate milquetoast and ineffectual boss in comedy outings, meek character actor Ernest Truex was a small (5'3"), adenoidal, very well-dressed fellow, a popular avuncular type in later years who enjoyed a seven-decade-long career. He was born September 19, 1889, in Kansas City, Missouri, the ...