Hollywood Child Stars
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Jackie Cooper was born John Cooper in Los Angeles, California, to Mabel Leonard, an Italian-American stage pianist, and John Cooper. Through his mother, he was the nephew of actress Julie Leonard, screenwriter Jack Leonard, and (by marriage) director Norman Taurog. Jackie served with the Navy in the South Pacific toward the end of World War II. Then, quietly and without publicity or fanfare, compiled one of the most distinguished peacetime military careers of anyone in his profession. In 1961, as his weekly TV series Hennesey (1959) was enhancing naval recruiting efforts, accepted a commission as a line officer in the Naval Reserve with duties in recruitment, training films, and public relations. Holder of a multi-engine pilot license, he later co-piloted jet planes for the Navy, which made him an Honorary Aviator authorized to wear wings of gold-at the time only the third so honored in naval aviation history. By 1976 he had attained the rank of captain, and was in uniform aboard the carrier USS Constellation for the Bicentennial celebration on July 4. In 1980 the Navy proposed a period of active duty at the Pentagon that would have resulted in a promotion to rear admiral, bringing him even with Air Force Reserve Brigadier General James Stewart. Fresh on the heels of a second directing Emmy, he felt his absence would impact achieving a long-held goal of directing motion pictures, and reluctantly declined. (The opportunity in films never materialized.) Holds Letters of Commendation from six secretaries of the Navy. Was honorary chairman of the U.S. Navy Memorial Foundation and a charter member of VIVA, the effort to return POW-MIAs from Vietnam. Upon retirement in 1982, he was decorated with the Legion of Merit by Navy Secretary John F. Lehman Jr.. Other than Stewart, no performer in his industry has achieved a higher uniformed rank in the U.S. military. (Glenn Ford was also a Naval Reserve captain, and director and Captain John Ford was awarded honorary flag rank upon his 1951 retirement from the Naval Reserve).- Actor
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Billie Thomas was an African-American child actor who was best-known for appearing in the "Our Gang" film series from 1934 to its end in 1944.
Born and raised in Los Angeles, Thomas auditioned for an "Our Gang" role when he was three years old. He was cast as a background player in the short films "For Pete's Sake!", "The First Round-Up", and "Washee Ironee", all from 1934.
With the short film "Mama's Little Pirate" (1935), Thomas became the third actor to portray the character "Buckwheat", who had at first been depicted as a bowed-pigtailed female character at first, portrayed by Carlena Beard (1929-1972) and Willie Mae Walton (1918-2018); Thomas was effectively cross-dressing for the role. Buckwheat eventually became a more masculine character, and was first credited as male in "The Pinch Singer" (1936). He gained an entirely-new costume for "Pay as You Exit" (1936), where he played a slave in search of a master. Thomas kept this new look--overalls, striped shirt, oversized shoes, and a large, unkempt Afro--for the duration of playing this role, until 1944.
Thomas performed in "Our Gang" for 10 years. During this time, he was only absent for a single film, "Feed 'em and Weep" (1938), because he was ill. His character was paired with that of Eugene "Porky" Lee: they were "the little kids" who outsmarted "the big kids": George "Spanky" McFarland and Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer.
As a young child, Thomas had a speech impediment; this was transferred to his character and used as a comic device. Both Buckwheat and Porky spoke in "garbled dialogue" and pronounced "OK" as "O-tay!"
The series' original short films were produced by Hal Roach Studios, but production was taken over by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1938. From 1938 to 1944, MGM produced 52 "Our Gang" short films and Thomas was the only cast member to appear in all of them. He was the only holdover from the Hal Roach era to remain in the series until its end.
Thomas' team-up with Eugene Lee ended when Lee was replaced by new cast member Robert Blake. By 1940 Thomas had outgrown his speech impediment, and Buckwheat started speaking clearly as well. The series' final film was "Dancing Romeo" (1944), and Thomas was 12 years old during its production.
While Buckwheat became synonymous with the "pickaninny" stereotype of African-American children, Thomas himself was well-liked for being depicted as a playmate and equal to the white children of the series. "Our Gang" featured a desegregated cast during the Jim Crow Era.
Thomas largely retired from acting following the 1940s. He served in the United States Army from 1954 to 1956 and received both a National Defense Service Medal and a Good Conduct Medal. Following his discharge, Thomas was offered new acting roles but he rejected them. He viewed an acting career as "a rat race ... with no security". Instead, he chose a more modest career as a film lab technician for the Technicolor corporation.
In the summer of 1980, surviving "Our Gang" cast members appeared in the second annual meeting of the fraternal organization the Sons of the Desert (named after a Laurel and Hardy film). Thomas received a spontaneous standing ovation by 500 fans, and cried in response. On October 10, 1980, he suffered a heart attack and died. He was 49 years old.
Thomas was survived by his son William Thomas Jr. In 1992, the younger Thomas created the Buckwheat Memorial Scholarship for students of California State Northridge University. The scholarship was named in honor of his father and his best-known role.- Actress
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Mary Ann Jackson was born on January 14, 1923. She was one of the earliest child stars of the twenties and thirties. Although she was better known as one of the child performers from the famed "Our Gang" comedies that are still popular today, Mary Ann began her film career at the age of four in 1927's "Smith's Pony." Although she didn't make any full length motion pictures during 1928, Mary Ann more than made up for it the following year when she appeared in six major pictures such as "Bouncing Babies" and "Lazy Days." After eight films in 1930 and six in 1931, Mary Ann left the film world after "Little Daddy" at the age of eight.- Actor
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Actor, songwriter ("What Every Girl Should Know"), author and publisher, David Holt was educated at Long's Professional School and the Westlake College of Music in Hollywood. He was a child actor on the stage and in early films, and composed special material. Later he became the general manager and co-owner of a music-publishing company. Joining ASCAP in 1952, his chief musical collaborators included Johnny Mercer, Robert Wells, Sammy Cahn, Paul Francis Webster and Dok Stanford. His other popular-song compositions include "Anyone Can Fall in Love".- Actor
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Matthew 'Stymie' Beard was born on 1 January 1925 in Los Angeles, California, USA. He was an actor, known for Dogs Is Dogs (1931), Love Business (1931) and Free Wheeling (1932). He was married to Annie. He died on 8 January 1981 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Actor
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Jimmy Butler was born on 20 February 1921 in Akron, Ohio, USA. He was an actor, known for The Awakening of Jim Burke (1935), No Greater Glory (1934) and Battle of Greed (1937). He was married to Jean Fahrney. He died on 18 February 1945 in Théding, Moselle, France.- Actress
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One of the brightest, most tragic movie stars of Hollywood's Golden Era, Judy Garland was a much-loved character whose warmth and spirit, along with her rich and exuberant voice, kept theatre-goers entertained with an array of delightful musicals.
She was born Frances Ethel Gumm on 10 June 1922 in Minnesota, the youngest daughter of vaudevillians Ethel Marian (Milne) and Francis Avent "Frank" Gumm. She was of English, along with some Scottish and Irish, descent. Her mother, an ambitious woman gifted in playing various musical instruments, saw the potential in her daughter at the tender age of just 2 years old when Baby Frances repeatedly sang "Jingle Bells" until she was dragged from the stage kicking and screaming during one of their Christmas shows and immediately drafted her into a dance act, entitled "The Gumm Sisters," along with her older sisters Mary Jane Gumm and Virginia Gumm. However, knowing that her youngest daughter would eventually become the biggest star, Ethel soon took Frances out of the act and together they traveled across America where she would perform in nightclubs, cabarets, hotels and theaters solo.
Her family life was not a happy one, largely because of her mother's drive for her to succeed as a performer and also her father's closeted homosexuality. The Gumm family would regularly be forced to leave town owing to her father's illicit affairs with other men, and from time to time they would be reduced to living out of their automobile. However, in September 1935 the Gumms', in particular Ethel's, prayers were answered when Frances was signed by Louis B. Mayer, mogul of leading film studio MGM, after hearing her sing. It was then that her name was changed from Frances Gumm to Judy Garland, after a popular '30s song "Judy" and film critic Robert Garland.
Tragedy soon followed, however, in the form of her father's death of meningitis in November 1935. Having been given no assignments with the exception of singing on radio, Judy faced the threat of losing her job following the arrival of Deanna Durbin. Knowing that they couldn't keep both of the teenage singers, MGM devised a short entitled Every Sunday (1936) which would be the girls' screen test. However, despite being the outright winner and being kept on by MGM, Judy's career did not officially kick off until she sang one of her most famous songs, "You Made Me Love You," at Clark Gable's birthday party in February 1937, during which Louis B. Mayer finally paid attention to the talented songstress.
Prior to this her film debut in Pigskin Parade (1936), in which she played a teenage hillbilly, had left her career hanging in the balance. However, following her rendition of "You Made Me Love You," MGM set to work preparing various musicals with which to keep Judy busy. All this had its toll on the young teenager, and she was given numerous pills by the studio doctors in order to combat her tiredness on set. Another problem was her weight fluctuation, but she was soon given amphetamines in order to give her the desired streamlined figure. This soon produced the downward spiral that resulted in her lifelong drug addiction.
In 1939, Judy shot immediately to stardom with The Wizard of Oz (1939), in which she portrayed Dorothy, an orphaned girl living on a farm in the dry plains of Kansas who gets whisked off into the magical world of Oz on the other end of the rainbow. Her poignant performance and sweet delivery of her signature song, 'Over The Rainbow,' earned Judy a special juvenile Oscar statuette on 29 February 1940 for Best Performance by a Juvenile Actor. Now growing up, Judy began to yearn for meatier adult roles instead of the virginal characters she had been playing since she was 14. She was now taking an interest in men, and after starring in her final juvenile performance in Ziegfeld Girl (1941) alongside glamorous beauties Lana Turner and Hedy Lamarr, Judy got engaged to bandleader David Rose in May 1941, just two months after his divorce from Martha Raye. Despite planning a big wedding, the couple eloped to Las Vegas and married during the early hours of the morning on July 28, 1941 with just her mother Ethel and her stepfather Will Gilmore present. However, their marriage went downhill as, after discovering that she was pregnant in November 1942, David and MGM persuaded her to abort the baby in order to keep her good-girl image up. She did so and, as a result, was haunted for the rest of her life by her 'inhumane actions.' The couple separated in January 1943.
By this time, Judy had starred in her first adult role as a vaudevillian during WWI in For Me and My Gal (1942). Within weeks of separation, Judy was soon having an affair with actor Tyrone Power, who was married to French actress Annabella. Their affair ended in May 1943, which was when her affair with producer Joseph L. Mankiewicz kicked off. He introduced her to psychoanalysis and she soon began to make decisions about her career on her own instead of being influenced by her domineering mother and MGM. Their affair ended in November 1943, and soon afterward Judy reluctantly began filming Meet Me in St. Louis (1944), which proved to be a big success. The director Vincente Minnelli highlighted Judy's beauty for the first time on screen, having made the period musical in color, her first color film since The Wizard of Oz (1939). He showed off her large brandy-brown eyes and her full, thick lips and after filming ended in April 1944, a love affair resulted between director and actress and they were soon living together.
Vincente began to mold Judy and her career, making her more beautiful and more popular with audiences worldwide. He directed her in The Clock (1945), and it was during the filming of this movie that the couple announced their engagement on set on January 9, 1945. Judy's divorce from David Rose had been finalized on June 8, 1944 after almost three years of marriage, and despite her brief fling with Orson Welles, who at the time was married to screen sex goddess Rita Hayworth, on June 15, 1945 Judy made Vincente her second husband, tying the knot with him that afternoon at her mother's home with her boss Louis B. Mayer giving her away and her best friend Betty Asher serving as bridesmaid. They spent three months on honeymoon in New York and afterwards Judy discovered that she was pregnant.
On March 12, 1946 in Los Angeles, California, Judy gave birth to their daughter, Liza Minnelli, via cesarean section. It was a joyous time for the couple, but Judy was out of commission for weeks due to the cesarean and her postnatal depression, so she spent much of her time recuperating in bed. She soon returned to work, but married life was never the same for Vincente and Judy after they filmed The Pirate (1948) together in 1947. Judy's mental health was fast deteriorating and she began hallucinating things and making false accusations toward people, especially her husband, making the filming a nightmare. She also began an affair with aspiring Russian actor Yul Brynner, but after the affair ended, Judy soon regained health and tried to salvage her failing marriage. She then teamed up with dancing legend Fred Astaire for the delightful musical Easter Parade (1948), which resulted in a successful comeback despite having Vincente fired from directing the musical. Afterwards, Judy's health deteriorated and she began the first of several suicide attempts. In May 1949, she was checked into a rehabilitation center, which caused her much distress.
She soon regained strength and was visited frequently by her lover Frank Sinatra, but never saw much of Vincente or Liza. On returning, Judy made In the Good Old Summertime (1949), which was also Liza's film debut, albeit via an uncredited cameo. She had already been suspended by MGM for her lack of cooperation on the set of The Barkleys of Broadway (1949), which also resulted in her getting replaced by Ginger Rogers. After being replaced by Betty Hutton on Annie Get Your Gun (1950), Judy was suspended yet again before making her final film for MGM, entitled Summer Stock (1950). At 28, Judy received her third suspension and was fired by MGM, and her second marriage was soon dissolved.
Having taken up with Sidney Luft, Judy traveled to London to star at the legendary Palladium. She was an instant success and after her divorce from Vincente Minnelli was finalized on March 29, 1951 after almost six years of marriage, Judy traveled with Sid to New York to make an appearance on Broadway. With her newfound fame on stage, Judy was stopped in her tracks in February 1952 when she became pregnant by her new lover, Sid. At the age of 30, she made him her third husband on June 8, 1952; the wedding was held at a friend's ranch in Pasadena. Her relationship with her mother had long since been dissolved by this point, and after the birth of her second daughter, Lorna Luft, on November 21, 1952, she refused to allow her mother to see her granddaughter. Ethel then died in January 1953 of a heart attack, leaving Judy devastated and feeling guilty about not reconciling with her mother before her untimely demise.
After the funeral, Judy signed a film contract with Warner Bros. to star in the musical remake of A Star Is Born (1937), which had starred Janet Gaynor, who had won the first-ever Academy Award for Best Actress in 1929. Filming soon began, resulting in an affair between Judy and her leading man, British star James Mason. She also picked up on her affair with Frank Sinatra, and after filming was complete Judy was yet again lauded as a great film star. She won a Golden Globe for her brilliant and truly outstanding performance as Esther Blodgett, nightclub singer turned movie star, but when it came to the Academy Awards, a distraught Judy lost out on the Best Actress Oscar to Grace Kelly for her portrayal of the wife of an alcoholic star in The Country Girl (1954). Many still argue that Judy should have won the Oscar over Grace Kelly. Continuing her work on stage, Judy gave birth to her beloved son, Joey Luft, on March 29, 1955. She soon began to lose her millions of dollars as a result of her husband's strong gambling addiction, and with hundreds of debts to pay, Judy and Sid began a volatile, on-off relationship resulting in numerous divorce filings.
In 1961, at the age of 39, Judy returned to her ailing film career, this time to star in Judgment at Nuremberg (1961), for which she received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress, but this time she lost out to Rita Moreno for her performance in West Side Story (1961). Her battles with alcoholism and drugs led to Judy's making numerous headlines in newspapers, but she soldiered on, forming a close friendship with President John F. Kennedy. In 1963, Judy and Sid finally separated permanently, and on May 19, 1965 their divorce was finalized after almost 13 years of marriage. By this time, Judy, now 41, had made her final performance on film alongside Dirk Bogarde in I Could Go on Singing (1963). She married her fourth husband, Mark Herron, on November 14, 1965 in Las Vegas, but they separated in April 1966 after five months of marriage owing to his homosexuality. It was also that year that she began an affair with young journalist Tom Green. She then settled down in London after their affair ended, and she began dating disk jockey Mickey Deans in December 1968. They became engaged once her divorce from Mark Herron was finalized on January 9, 1969 after three years of marriage. She married Mickey, her fifth and final husband, in a register office in Chelsea, London, England on March 15, 1969.
She continued working on stage, appearing several times with her daughter Liza. It was during a concert in Chelsea, London, England that Judy stumbled into her bathroom late one night and died of an overdose of barbiturates, the drug that had dominated her much of her life, on June 22, 1969 at the age of 47. Her daughter Liza Minnelli paid for her funeral, and her former lover James Mason delivered her touching eulogy. She is still an icon to this day with her famous performances in The Wizard of Oz (1939), Meet Me in St. Louis (1944), Easter Parade (1948), and A Star Is Born (1954).- Actor
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American actor who achieved some success as a child and as a young adult, especially in B-Westerns and in television. The son of a Texas newspaper editor. Jones was a accomplished horseman from infancy. At the age of four he was billed as the World's Youngest Trick Rider and Roper. At the age of six, he was hired to perform riding and lariat tricks in the rodeo owned by western star Hoot Gibson. Gibson convinced young Jones and his parents that there was a place for him in Hollywood, and the boy and his mother went west. Gibson arranged for some small parts for the boy. His good looks, energy, and pleasant voice quickly landed him more and bigger parts. In both low-budget Westerns and in more substantial productions. In 1940 he had one of his most prominent roles, as the voice of Pinocchio (1940) in Walt Disney's animated film of the same name. Jones attended Hollywood High School and at 15, took over the role of Henry Aldrich on the hit radio show "The Aldrich Family." He learned carpentry and augmented his income with jobs in that field. He served in the Army in Alaska during the final months of World War II. Gene Autry, who had cast Jones in several Westerns before the war, now put him back to work in films. And later in television, on programs produced by Autry's company. Now billed as Dick Jones the handsome young man starred as Dick West. Where he was sidekick to the Western hero known as The Range Rider (1951), in a TV series that ran for 76 episodes in 1951 (and for decades in syndication). Then Autry gave Jones his own series Buffalo Bill, Jr. (1955)', which ran for 40 episodes. Jones continued working in films throughout the 50's and into the 60's. In 1966 he retired and entered the business world.- Actress
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Having toured the world with husband, Kajar the Magician's Show 'Magicadabr', Jean Darling settled in Dublin and became an author of dozens of short mysteries for Ellery Queen, Alfred Hitchcock, Mike Shayne Mystery Magazines and Horror Fantasy for Whispers Magazine, etc. In 1980 she became Aunty Poppy (named for her home State flower) writing and telling over 450 children's story on both RTE radio and TV. Jean has also written several radio plays broadcast on RTE.- Charlene Wyatt was born on 13 July 1930 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA. She was an actress, known for Under the Big Top (1938), Untamed (1940) and Valiant Is the Word for Carrie (1936). She died on 27 May 1969 in Visalia, Tulare County, California, USA.
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Juanita Quigley was born on June 24, 1931 in Los Angeles. At age 3, she began appearing in films in small roles as an extra child; these parts were often uncredited, but when Quigley did receive credit, it was under the name "Baby Jane." Her career changed when she played Baby Jessie Pullman in Imitation of Life (1934). The role made her famous, and in her very next film, The Man Who Reclaimed His Head (1934), she was given a large part and received fourth billing (still credited as "Baby Jane"). Over the next several years she had starring roles in many popular films. Around 1935, she dropped the pseudonym "Baby Jane" and began being credited by her real name. By 1938, she was one of the most famous child stars in Hollywood. But Quigley's career slowed down in the early 1940s; she was given smaller roles and appeared only as an extra in The Blue Bird (1940), Bachelor Daddy (1941), and Paper Bullets (1941). In 1943, she acted alongside her older sister, Rita Quigley, in Whispering Footsteps (1943). She made her last notable performances in 1944, in The Lady and the Monster (1944) and the classic film National Velvet (1944), in which she played the sister of Elizabeth Taylor and Angela Lansbury. Quigley left Hollywood in 1951. As an adult, she became a nun in the order of the Daughters of Mary and Joseph, but after several years in her convent, she decided that she had made a mistake, left the vocation, and married. In 1983, Quigley made her last film appearance as an uncredited extra in Porky's II: The Next Day (1983).- Actress
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The girl who one day would be known as "Winnipeg's Sweetheart" was born at Grace Hospital on December 4, 1921, as Edna Mae Durbin. In her early childhood there were no obvious signs that one day she would be a bigger box office attraction than Shirley Temple. Renamed Deanna Durbin for show business purposes, by age 21 she was the most highly paid female star in the world. Her major motion pictures were Three Smart Girls (1936), Mad About Music (1938) and That Certain Age (1938). By the time she was 18 her income was $250,000 a year. Her voice was often described as "natural and beautiful" and her version of "One Fine Day" from Madame Butterfly, became a classic. Deanna was a Hollywood star in every way. There were Deanna Durbin dolls and dresses. An engineering firm named its so-called dream home in her honor. Her first screen kiss was described in a headline story across the continent. What makes Deanna Durbin's story different is that she was never comfortable with adulation. When she was at the top of her career as Hollywood's leading actress and singer, she turned her back on that world for a life of seclusion. Her first two marriages had failed, and before she married her third husband, director Charles David, she set one condition: he had to promise that she could have what she yearned for - "the life of nobody". Her seclusion is incomplete. She lives in the French village of Neauphlé-le-Château, and for over 35 years has resisted every approach from film companies. Her husband has told journalists that "Mario Lanza pleaded with her for years to make a film with him. But she will never go back to that life." She granted only one interview since 1949 to film historian David Shipman in 1983.- Actress
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Janet Chapman was born on 18 April 1932 in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA. She was an actress, known for On Trial (1939), Heart of the North (1938) and Presenting Lily Mars (1943). She died on 13 June 2011 in Hemet, California, USA.- Actress
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Darla Hood was born in the small town of Leedey, Oklahoma on November 8, 1931. Hood began her association with "Our Gang" at the tender age of 2 1/2, as she stated on the The Jack Benny Program (1950). Her father, James Claude Hood Jr., a banker, and especially her mother, Elizabeth Davner Hood, prodded their daughter's musical talents with singing and dancing lessons in Oklahoma City. She made an unscheduled, impromptu singing debut at Edison Hotel in Times Square when the band-leader invited her onto the stage, and the crowd roared in appreciation. By sheerest coincidence, Joe Rivkin, (an agent of Hal Roach) spotted the four year old scene stealer, screen tested her & signed her to a long-term (7 year) contract at $75 weekly.
Darla went on to perform as the leading "Rascals" actress in 51 of the popular short films plus a television movie. She recalled finding her off-camera time on set as lonely as the boys tended to group together and play such "boys" games as baseball and football. At the beginning of her association with the "Little Rascals", she appeared opposite Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy in one of their handful of feature films, The Bohemian Girl (1936). Darla Hood's tenure as most popular "Little Rascals" actress, began in 1935's Our Gang Follies of 1936 (1935) and her finale, Wedding Worries (1941). Then, almost 40 years later, during the last four months of her life, she voiced her "Little Rascals" character with the animated off-screen special, The Little Rascals' Christmas Special (1979). She did not live to see it televised.
While very few of the "Our Gang" shorts were made during World War II due to the scarcity of film (a majority of them were saved for feature-length wartime propaganda films), by the time the series was to be finally revived in 1945, she had already outgrown her role. She had some trouble dealing with the inevitable transition into a teen actor and her career faltered badly. She graduated with honors from Fairfax High School (Hollywood). She found some work with Ken Murray's popular "Blackbirds" variety show on the Los Angeles stage as well as some behind-the-scenes work in the post-war years.
With her first husband, Robert W. Decker (whom she married when she was 17 years old), she formed the vocal group "Darla Hood and the Enchanters", which provided incidental background music for such classic films as A Letter to Three Wives (1949). She also made appearances in nightclubs and on television variety shows, The Ken Murray Show (1950), The Paul Whiteman's Goodyear Revue (1949), and she was also performed & or sang songs, on a few Merv Griffin's radio programs. Another successful outlet for her was in the field of voice-over work in cartoons and commercials "Chicken of the Sea" was her longest lasting commercial tenure, as the mermaid. She also did some "Campbell's Soup" commercials, at the same time, but fewer. In time, she became a well-oiled impressionist and trick voice artist.
In June of 1957, at the age of 25, she divorced her first husband after eight years of marriage and by whom she had her first two children (one son, Brett, and one daughter, Darla Jo). She promptly married her former manager, Jose Granson, a musical publisher. She and Granson had three children together. Hood remained small in show business until her untimely end, which came on Wednesday, June 13, 1979, when she died of congestive heart failure. She had recently had an appendectomy at Canoga Park Hospital, during which she received a blood transfusion. The transfusion caused her to contract acute hepatitis, which led to her heart failure. She passed away at a Hollywood hospital. Following her funeral, she was buried at Hollywood Memorial Park Cemetery, later renamed Hollywood Forever.- Actress
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Mitzi Green, also known as Mitze Green, was born Elizabeth Keno in The Bronx on October 22, 1920. At age 3, she began appearing in her parents' vaudeville act. In the early 1930s, she starred in several popular films with Paramount Pictures, including Tom Sawyer (1930) and Huckleberry Finn (1931). She became known as "Little Mitzi," and she was the first child star to sign for a multi-picture contract with Paramount. Green had a natural talent for comedy and mimicry, and audiences were impressed by her uncanny imitations of Greta Garbo and George Arliss. She was also a gifted singer, performing two songs in Girl Crazy (1932). But her career as "Little Mitzi" would not last. Green matured quickly, and at age 14 she was cast in an adult role in Transatlantic Merry-Go-Round (1934), which marked the end of her career as a child star. Green left Hollywood and spent the next several years performing on Broadway and in night clubs. She starred in the original Broadway production of Rogers' and Hart's Babes in Arms, where she introduced the classic song "My Funny Valentine." During this time she appeared in only one film, Santa Fe Trail (1940), in which she had a bit part. Green's career as an adult star in Hollywood began in 1952, when she re-emerged on screen in Lost in Alaska (1952), opposite Abbott and Costello. She also appeared in Bloodhounds of Broadway (1952) and the sitcom So This Is Hollywood (1955), in which she played a perceptive stunt woman. After many years of retirement, Green died of cancer on May 24, 1969, in Huntington Beach, California. She was 48. She is buried in Eden Memorial Park Cemetery in Mission Hills, California.- Billy Halop's show business career started on radio in the 1920s and carried over to stage work on Broadway. There, in 1937, he and other teenage cast members of the stage hit "Dead End" were brought to Hollywood by Samuel Goldwyn for the film version of the play, which was a tremendous hit. Halop and some of the other teenage cast members went on to do a series of films at Universal as the Dead End Kids/Little Tough Guys while some of the others worked at Monogram in a series as the East Side Kids. Halop left the group in the early 1940s to seek a career on his own, but could only land parts in B pictures. His career was also hampered by a long string of marital and financial problems and a lifelong struggle against alcoholism. Toward the end of his career, he had a recurring role as Munson, the owner of the cab company where Archie Bunker worked part time, in All in the Family (1971). His last years were spent making a living as a male nurse.
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They didn't come packaged any sweeter or lovelier than Anne Shirley, a gentle and gracious 1930s teen film actress who didn't quite reach the zenith of front-rank stardom and retired all too soon at age 26. On film as a toddler, she went through a small revolving door of marquee names before legally settling (at age 16) on the name Anne Shirley, the name of her schoolgirl heroine in Anne's most famous film of all -- Anne of Green Gables (1934).
Manhattan-born Anne was christened Dawn Evelyeen Paris on April 17, 1918. Her father died while she was still a baby, and she and her widowed mother lived a very meager New York existence at first. At the age of 16 months, the child was already contributing to the household finances as a photographer's model, using sundry different monikers, including Lenn Fondre, Lindley Dawn and Dawn O'Day. With this source of monetary inspiration, her mother sought work for her daughter in films as well, and at the age of 4, Anne (billed as Dawn O'Day) made her first feature with The Hidden Woman (1922). She showed enough promise in the film Moonshine Valley (1922), as a young girl who manages to reunite her separated parents, that she and her mother made a permanent move from New York to California. Scarce work for such a young child, but Anne managed to find it with minor roles in The Rustle of Silk (1923) and The Spanish Dancer (1923) for Paramount Pictures. During her adolescence she often appeared as the leading stars' daughter in films such as Mother Knows Best (1928) with Madge Bellamy, Sins of the Fathers (1928) starring Jean Arthur and Liliom (1930) with Charles Farrell. Oftentimes she would play the female star of the film as a child, such as Janet Gaynor's in 4 Devils (1928), Frances Dee's in Rich Man's Folly (1931) and Barbara Stanwyck's in So Big! (1932).
After a rash of unbilled parts, Anne was used by Vitaphone for a series of 1930s short subjects. By her teen years she had developed before the very eyes of Hollywood into a petite and lovely young brunette. Casting agents took notice. Following roles in Rasputin and the Empress (1932) with the three Barrymores and The Life of Jimmy Dolan (1933) starring Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and Loretta Young, Anne was tested among hundreds of young aspirants and captured the role of Anne Shirley in Lucy Maud Montgomery's classic novel Anne of Green Gables (1934), imbuing the character with all the spirit and charm (not to mention talent) necessary. She officially became a teen celebrity after changing her moniker for the final time in conjunction with the release of the film.
Prominent misty-eyed ingénue leads came her way as a result of playing a swamp girl in Steamboat Round the Bend (1935) alongside Will Rogers and in M'Liss (1936) opposite John Beal, but her resume became littered with meek B-level comedies and weak dramas, such as Chasing Yesterday (1935), Too Many Wives (1937) and Meet the Missus (1937), that did little to advance her career. Finally at age 19, she found a role to match her "Green Gables" success playing Barbara Stanwyck's daughter in the classic weeper Stella Dallas (1937). The interaction between the two was magical, and both Barbara and Anne were nominated for Oscars (Anne in the supporting category) for their superb portrayals . Both lost, however, to Luise Rainer and Alice Brady, respectively.
During this time of major success, Anne met and eventually married actor John Payne in 1937. The popular Hollywood couple had one child, Julie Payne, who became an actress for a time in the 1970s. Her subsequent career was full of promise, but with every quality picture bestowed upon her, such as Vigil in the Night (1940) and The Devil and Daniel Webster (1941), came a faltering one that hurt her career, including Career (1939) and West Point Widow (1941). Especially disappointing was her long-anticipated "Green Gables" sequel Anne of Windy Poplars (1940), which received very lackluster reviews.
The still-young actress finished on top, however, opposite Dick Powell in the classic movie mystery Murder, My Sweet (1944). Divorced from John Payne in 1943 and tiring of the Hollywood rat race she had endured since a child, however, Anne decided to end her career after her second marriage, to the movie's producer Adrian Scott, in 1945. Never an ambitious actress, Anne stayed with her career as long as she did primarily to please her mother. Her three-year marriage to Scott was unable to withstand the legal troubles of her husband's 1947 blacklisting (he was one of the "Hollywood 10" imprisoned during the McCarthy era for his communist affiliations). Her 1949 marriage to screenwriter Charles Lederer, the nephew of actress Marion Davies, was her longest and most fulfilling. Their son, Daniel, was born the following year. He inherited his father's writing talent and grew up to become a poet.
Never tempted to resume her career at any time, she remained a charming and gracious socialite in the Hollywood circle. A painter on the side, she at one point entertained the thought of becoming a behind-the-scenes worker, such as a dialogue coach, but it was never pursued aggressively. Her husband's sudden death in 1976 triggered a severe emotional crisis for Anne, who turned for a time to alcohol. Recovered, she lived the rest of her life completely out of the limelight, dying in 1993 of lung cancer at age 75. Her granddaughter by daughter Julie (via her marriage to screenwriter Robert Towne) is the actress Katharine Towne, who has appeared in such films as Mulholland Drive (2001).
Not as well remembered as an actress of her award-worthy caliber should be, perhaps had Anne Shirley given Hollywood a longer tryout and added a bit more bite to her rather benign, sweetly sentimental image, her star would be brighter today. Nevertheless, her film work has unarguably brightened the silver screen.- Actor
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A fairly well-known child actor who never made it to the ranks of a Jackie Cooper or Freddie Bartholomew, Jackie Searl nevertheless gained a film following in the 1930s. A bratty counterpart to Jane Withers, the blond, freckled, clean-cut Jackie was born in Anaheim, California in 1921 and started on L.A. radio in "The Children's Hour" at the age of three. By the end of the 1920s, film beckoned and Jackie hit it big playing mean little Sid Sawyer in the early Mark Twain film classic Tom Sawyer (1930). Paramount Pictures promptly signed the youngster up and he followed this with Finn and Hattie (1931), Huckleberry Finn (1931), Skippy (1931), Topaze (1933), and as Dormouse in Alice in Wonderland (1933). Infamous at playing sissified brats, obnoxious squealers, and sandbox bullies, he was a natural scene-stealer and aptly labeled on the Paramount sets as "The Kid Everybody Wants to Spank." He continued playing secondary parts into his teens with roles in Ginger (1935), Little Lord Fauntleroy (1936), That Certain Age (1938), and Small Town Deb (1941). He joined the service in WWII and tried to resurrect his career following his discharge, but had a tough time of it. In the 1960s he played character parts, nominally as minor heavies, in such films as The Couch (1962), and Shotgun Wedding (1963) and on TV dramas. He retired in the 1970s and died in 1991.- Actress
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Virginia Susanne Gumm was born in Grand Rapids, Minnesota, as Dorothy Virginia Gumm. She was an accomplished talented performer, an actress, known for La Fiesta de Santa Barbara (1935), The Wedding of Jack and Jill (1930), and The Harvey Girls (1946). She was a member of the Gumm Sisters, along with "Baby" Frances (better known as Judy Garland) and Mary Jane Gumm. She died on May 27, 1977 in Dallas, Texas.- Robert E. Hutchins was born March 29th, 1925, in Tacoma, Washington. He was born to James Hutchins and Olga Hutchins (nee Roe). Robert was a very outgoing boy with a charming personality, because friends persuaded James and Olga to go to a Hollywood photographer and get his picture taken. The photographer was impressed by Robert's intelligence, and asked to take a few feet of film of him. The results were so good that the film ended up in the projection room at Hal Roach Studios. Hal Roach decided the boy would be a good addition to his "Our Gang" short films, and signed him to a five year contract.
On his first day at the studio, Robert didn't have an identity for his part in the movies, and he was running around so much that he began to wheeze. Such led to the coining of the "Wheezer" name, one he carried for the rest of his time in Our Gang. Robert played the perky, tag-along little brother that was always anxious to be part of the mischief that the gang was getting into. He played such a part in both the silent films and the talkies.
Jackie Cooper recalls, "You'd go to play with Wheezer, and his father would pull him away, very competitive. I didn't get a satisfactory answer from my mother or grandmother as to why, but he was to be left alone. I guess his father was trying to make him a star or something. Obviously it never happened as it did for Spanky or some of the other kids."
In trying to make Robert a star, his father malnourished him, and isolated him from the other kids when not filming. James had a plan to keep him small and employable by underfeeding him, and wanted to ensure that Bobby and his siblings never learned that normal kids got a lot more to eat than they did. Nobody ever intervened upon the children's behalf. It's made worse by the fact that his plan backfired. While Robert was incredibly photogenic, and had some fine moments on screen, he looked and acted more like the slow-witted, malnourished child he was, as he aged. Sharper boys were given the leading parts, while Robert spent the last portion of his contract as a background player.
After he left Our Gang with 1933's "Mush and Milk", his film career was essentially over -- with an appearance in Pie for Two, Yoo-Hoo, and Strange Roads outside of his Our Gang shorts -- and he did no more acting after that. His mother and father divorced, and he, his brother James, and his mother moved back to Washington. They lived in a household with their grandmother, and Olga's new husband.
Robert got a job as a gas station attendant in 1942, and enrolled as an air cadet sometime in 1943, with speculation being that he enrolled sometime in August. He was very close to completing his advanced flight training, until a very unfortunate event occurred May 17th, 1945, and he perished. He was killed in a mid-air collision while trying to land a North American AT-6D Texan, at Merced Army Air Field Base in California. The other pilot involved received only minor damage, and landed safely. - Sherwood Bailey was born on 6 August 1923 in Long Beach, California, USA. He was an actor, known for Choo-Choo! (1932), Readin' and Writin' (1932) and The Pooch (1932). He was married to Ruth. He died on 6 August 1987 in Newport Beach, California, USA.
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Billy Lee, whose real name was William Schlenaker, was born in Nelson, Indiana. As a toddler, young William lived a quiet life on his family's farm, but that all changed when he turned three years old. Billy and his parents moved to California around 1933. Billy's parents enrolled him, at age 3, in The Meglin School For Kiddies in Los Angeles. The supervisor of the school, Ethel Meglin, took a special interest in Billy Lee, noting, as his parents had, that Billy was a very bright and cooperative child, quick to learn and full of enthusiasm. Mrs. Meglin, who was Billy's personal dance instructor, got Billy Lee started in movies by age 4, only a few months after he was enrolled at the school. Billy's first role was in a "Little Rascals" short, "Mike Fright," as himself (as a tap dancer), and he gives quite an impressive example of his talent. From there it was on to Billy's first feature film, "Wagon Wheels" (1934), wherein Billy landed his first acting role, which his dance instructor, believing in his talent, had him audition for. Billy also has a solo singing part in the movie. This takes place when the primary cast, including Randolph Scott, takes turns singing lead on the movie's theme song. So it was that, at age four, young William went from being a young Indiana farm boy to Billy Lee, young Hollywood actor. In 1937, Billy Lee appeared with famous child singer Bobby Breen in Make a Wish (1937), playing Breen's best camp buddy, "Pee Wee." The two boys sang "Polly Wolly Doodle" as a duet. Billy may be best known for his starring role in the very moving 1940 movie The Biscuit Eater (1940). He continued acting throughout the 1930s, appearing in over 30 movies and working alongside some of Hollywood's finest, including Lon Chaney Jr., Roy Rogers, Charles Boyer, Randolph Scott, Olivia DeHavilland, and Broderick Crawford, to name just a few. Billy also appeared in a few short subjects. One Hal Roach short in particular cast Billy, now age 11, in the starring role of "Pinhead" in the 1941 musical comedy film Reg'lar Fellers (1941) along with Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer as "Bump." The characters in this film were based on the popular "Reg'lar Fellers" comic strip. This film not only provided Billy with a chance to play in a lead comedic role but also allowed him to show off his drumming skills during one musical number that had been recorded by "Billy Lee's Band" according to the credits. In the film, Billy is the only real musician when he is accompanied by the other kids performing as Pinhead's band. Billy also sings the closing song of the film, "Hooray For Fun." Another short in which Billy landed the lead was called War Dogs (1942) (aka "Unsung Heroes"). Billy plays the doting son of his aging, decorated military officer dad, who has turned to drink after his request to rejoin the service to help in the war effort (WW2) is turned down by the military. Billy's last film appearance came in 1943, when he was 13 (surprise, surprise) in a movie called, Eyes of the Underworld (1942) in the role of Mickey Bryan, devoted son of police chief Richard Bryan, played by Richard Dix. After this film, Billy Lee became one of the many fine young actors who, once reaching his teens, found that retiring from film making was something that was just chosen for you. Billy Lee lived until 1989; he died eight months after his 60th birthday of a sudden heart attack.- Actor
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Eugene 'Porky' Lee was born on 25 October 1933 in Fort Worth, Texas, USA. He was an actor, known for The Awful Tooth (1938), Our Gang Follies of 1938 (1937) and Canned Fishing (1938). He died on 16 October 2005 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA.- Actress
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During the early times of the Depression when life was more famine than feast, child stars became the blue plate special of the day, served up by Hollywood to help nourish a nation besieged with troubles. Following 20th Century-Fox monumental success with Shirley Temple in the early 1930s, every studio was out searching for its own precocious little commodity who could pack 'em in the aisles despite the lean times. While Paramount whipped up "Little" Mitzi Green, MGM offered Jackie Cooper in the hopes of finding a similar box office jingle. Wildly talented Janie Withers fit the bill, too, and although she earned pint-sized prominence just like the others, it was also for Temple's Fox Studios. As such, Jane remained somewhat of a side course to Temple's main dish (what child star didn't?) throughout much her young "B" level reign. Nevertheless, she became a major bright star in her own right.
The freckled, dark-haired hellraiser was born in Atlanta, Georgia, on April 12, 1926. The daughter of Walter and Lavinia Ruth (Elble) Withers, her parents wasted no time in prodding little Jane quickly into the world of entertainment. Jane was a natural--performing by the time she could walk and talk. By age three, she was taking singing and dancing lessons and at age 4, was starring on her own radio program in Atlanta. A spot-on mimic, she was simply uncanny when it came to impersonating the superstars of her day (W.C. Fields, Marie Dressler, Charles Chaplin) and was a veteran pint-sized performer by the time her family moved to Los Angeles after her father was transferred by his company. Jane was enrolled in Lawlor's Professional School and was soon modeling in shows, entertaining at benefits and making the usual rounds of the studios nabbing extra work while waiting for that one big film break.
She found it at age 8 when she won the plum role of the spoiled, obnoxious, doll-ripping, bicycle-riding brat who terrorizes sweet Shirley Temple in Twentieth Century-Fox's Bright Eyes (1934). The infamy earned Jane a sweet contract at Fox and for the next seven years she did it her way as the tyke star of close to 50 "B" level films. Where Shirley was cuddly and ultra huggable, brunette-banged Jane was fun, rambunctious and full of kinetic energy--a scrappy little tomboy who could take on any boy at any time. Her lively vehicles took full advantage of her talents for impersonating movie stars, too. Her first major success came in the form of the title role in Ginger (1935) in which Jane imitated the balcony scene from Romeo and Juliet and was rewarded by the studio with a contract of $125 weekly for six months. Her singing and dancing skills were utilized in such vehicles as This Is the Life (1935) and Paddy O'Day (1936). As the star, she was toned down, of course, from the all-out brat she played against Temple. Jane kept filmgoers entertained throughout the late 1930s with pictures like Pepper (1936) and Angel's Holiday (1937), in which she did an hilarious impression of Martha Raye. She ended 1937 with a bang when she was named one of Motion Picture's Poll's "Top Ten" (#6) box office favorites. Guess who was #1?
The early 1940s would tell the story as to whether Jane could survive the dreaded awkward teen transition that haunted every popular child star. She received her first screen kiss at age 13 in Boy Friend (1939) and was singled out for her work in The Ritz Brothers' Pack Up Your Troubles (1939), but Jane's antics simply didn't play as well and the studio began to lose interest. In fact, both Shirley and Jane felt the pressures of growing up and Darryl F. Zanuck let both of them go in July of 1942. Jane signed a three-year picture deal with Republic Pictures with lukewarm results. Her best dramatic role at that time came with The North Star (1943).
In 1947, the same year as her last picture of the decade, Jane married a wealthy Texas oil man, William Moss, and had three children by him--William, Wendy, and Randy. The marriage was not a happy one and lasted only six years. She also was suffering from rheumatoid arthritis. In 1955, she remarried, this time to Kenneth Errair, one-quarter of the harmonizing group "The Four Freshmen." They had two children, Ken and Kendall Jane. At the same time, she attempted a Hollywood comeback. While studying directing at the USC film school, she met producer/director George Stevens who cast her in an enviable character role in the epic-sized Giant (1956) supporting Rock Hudson, Elizabeth Taylor, and James Dean. Other film roles followed with The Right Approach (1961) and Captain Newman, M.D. (1963).
It was TV, however, that would turn Jane into a wealthy woman as a friendly household pitchwoman. Her decades-long job as the dress-downed Josephine the Plumber pushing Comet cleanser made her one popular gal when working in films became a non-issue. From time to time she made guest appearances on such fun, lightweight shows as The Munsters (1964), The Love Boat (1977), Murder, She Wrote (1984), and Hart to Hart (1979). Known for her strong spiritualism and charitable contributions, Jane's buoyant, indefatigable nature was still, at age 90+, highly infectious. She not only did voiceover work for Disney's animated features but still popped up here and there for interviews and convention signings--as bright-eyed and bushy-tailed as she was in her childhood heyday. A widow in 1968, (her second husband perished in a June 14th plane crash in California), she also lost one of her five children, Randy, to cancer when he was only 33.- Actor
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Sabu Dastagir (or Selar Shaik Sabu, depending on your resource) was born on January 27, 1924, in the little town of Mysore, India, which is nestled in the jungles of Karapur. The son of an elephant driver (mahout) in service for the Maharajah of his town, the young stable boy learned responsibility early in life when, at age 9, his father died and Sabu immediately became the ward of the royal elephant stables. As with many Hollywood success stories, good timing, and dumb luck allowed the impoverished youth a chance for a better life. By sheer chance the timid 12-year-old orphan was discovered by a British location crew while searching for a youth to play the title role (an elephant driver!) in their upcoming feature Elephant Boy (1937). Quite taken aback by his earnest looks, engaging naturalness and adaptability to wild animals and their natural habitat, the studio handed the boy a film career on a sterling silver platter and was placed under exclusive contract by the mogul Alexander Korda himself.
Sabu and his older brother (as guardian) were whisked away to England to complete the picture and became subsequent wards of the British government. They were given excellent schooling in the process and Sabu quickly learned the English language in preparation for his upcoming films. Elephant Boy (1937) was an unqualified hit and the young actor was promptly placed front and center once again in the film The Drum (1938) surrounded by an impressive British cast that included Raymond Massey and Valerie Hobson. With the parallel success of the Tarzan jungle movies in America, Hollywood starting taking a keen look at this refreshingly new boy talent when he first arrived in the U.S. for a publicity tour of the film. Again, his second film was given rave reviews, proving that Sabu would not be just a one-hit wonder.
His third film for Korda is considered one of the great true classics. In the Arabian fantasy-adventure The Thief of Bagdad (1940), Sabu plays Abu the Thief and is not only surrounded by superb actors -- notably June Duprez, John Justin, Rex Ingram (as the genie) and Conrad Veidt (as the evil Grand Vizier) -- but exceptional writing and incredible special effects. Sabu's name began stirring international ears. His last pairing with Korda was the excellent adaptation of Rudyard Kipling's classic book The Jungle Book (1942) playing Mowgli, the boy raised by wolves, who must adapt to the ways of mankind after being returned to his mother. The movie was directed by Alexander's brother Zoltan Korda.
Following this triumph, Sabu officially became the exotic commodity of Universal Pictures and he settled in America. Although initially rewarding monetarily, it proved to be undoing. Unfortunately (and too often typical), a haphazard assembly-line of empty-minded features were developed that hardly compared to the quality pictures in England under Korda. Saddled alongside the unexceptional Maria Montez and Jon Hall, his vehicles Arabian Nights (1942), White Savage (1943) and Cobra Woman (1944) were, for the most part, drivel but certainly did fit the bill as colorful, mindless entertainment.
Almost 20 years old by the time he became a citizen of the U.S. in 1944, he enlisted in the Army Air Force and earned WWII distinction in combat missions (Distinguished Flying Cross, Air Medal, among others) as a tail gunner. By the time Sabu returned to Universal and filming, the charm of his youth had worn off and the boyish stereotype impossible to escape.
Post-war audiences developed new tastes, but Sabu had no choice but to trudge on with retreads of his former glory. Films such as Tangier (1946) again opposite Ms. Montez, Man-Eater of Kumaon (1948) and Song of India (1949) opposite lovely princess Gail Russell did little to advance his career. While filming the last-mentioned movie, Sabu met and married actress Marilyn Cooper who temporarily filled in for an ailing Ms. Russell on the set. The couple went on to have two children.
Sabu actually fared better back in England during the late 40s, starring in the crime drama The End of the River (1947) and appearing fourth-billed as a native general in the exquisitely photographed Black Narcissus (1947). Daring in subject matter, the film had Deborah Kerr heading up a group of Anglican nuns who battle crude traditions, unexpected passions and stark raving madness while setting up a Himalayan order. By the mid-50s Sabu's career was rapidly approaching extinction, seeking work wherever he could find it - in low-budget Europe productions, public appearances, etc. An attempt to conjure up a TV series for himself failed. His life was further aggravated by unpleasant civil and paternity suits brought about against him. His last two pictures were supporting roles in Rampage (1963), which starred Robert Mitchum, and A Tiger Walks (1964), a thoroughly routine Disney picture which was released posthumously.
Sabu died unexpectedly at age 39 of a heart attack on December 2, 1963, at his home in Southern California and was buried at Forest Lawn Cemetery in the Hollywood Hills. Son Paul Sabu developed into an accomplished songwriter and even formed a rock band called Sabu; daughter Jasmine Sabu, who died in 2001, was a noted horse trainer whose skill was utilized occasionally for films. Although he went the way of too many of our former stars, Sabu continues to enchant and excite newer generations with his unmatched athletic skills and magnetic charm in those early adventure fantasies of yesteryear.- Producer
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Daughter of Bernard Granville, Bonita Granville was born into an acting family. It's not surprising that she herself became a child actor, first on the stage and, at the age of 9, debuting in movies in Westward Passage (1932). She was regularly cast as a naughty little girl, as in These Three (1936) where she played Mary, an obnoxious girl spreading lies about her teachers. Her performance left an impression on the audience, and she was nominated for a best supporting actress award. In 1938-39 came the movies she is now best remembered for -- playing the bright and feisty detective/reporter Nancy Drew in the Nancy Drew series. She also appeared with Mickey Rooney in a few Andy Hardy movies. She never really had a movie breakthrough, and after marrying oil millionaire & later producer Jack Wrather, she retired from acting in the middle of the 1950s, although she went on to produce the Lassie (1954) TV series.- One of Hollywood's staple child actors during the 30s and 40s, Mickey Kuhn played alongside many a top Hollywood star from Leslie Howard and Conrad Nagel's son to playing Dick Tracy's ward. Once he reached the "awkward teens" stage, however, he found himself primarily unemployed or in unbilled parts and looked elsewhere for career satisfaction.
Born Theodore Matthew Michael Kuhn, Jr. on September 21, 1932 in Waukegan, Illinois, he was the younger of two children born to Theodore Sr. and the former Pearl Hicks. The family moved to Hollywood during the Depression where his father found reliable work as a meat cutter. Mickey added to the family income at age 2 when, by chance, he was cast by Fox Studios for the movie Change of Heart (1934) starring the preeminent movie couple at the time, Janet Gaynor and Charles Farrell. Attending kindergarten at the Mark-Ken School for professional children, he returned to films as a 5-year-old in A Doctor's Diary (1937) made by Paramount. His devoted mother oversaw and protected him throughout most of his young career. 1939 was a banner year for Mickey as it was for Hollywood itself, appearing as Crown Prince Augustin in the "A" picture Juarez (1939) starring Paul Muni and Bette Davis, and as Ashley Wilkes' son Beau in the Civil War classic Gone with the Wind (1939).
While he did not rise to moppet stardom, the boy proved quite dependable and a fast learner, and was actively involved in a few prestigious pictures during the 1940s, including One Foot in Heaven (1941), A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945) and Red River (1948). He particularly enjoyed horses and participating in such action fare as S.O.S. Tidal Wave (1939), _Roaring Rangers (1946) and Broken Arrow (1950).
His attention also turned to the stage as a teenager, performing at the Pasadena Playhouse and other Los Angeles-based theaters in between film shoots. Fewer roles came his way, however, and in 1951 he decided to enlist in the Navy. After a four-year term of duty, he returned to films and TV in 1955 but without much fanfare. He married around this time and had two children. Preferring a steadier source of income, he attended L.A. Valley College and Cal State Northridge on his G.I. Bill majoring in Theater Arts while holding an assortment of odd jobs.
In 1965 he was hired by American Airlines and subsequently served as a supervisor to flight attendants. He later became an administrative manager at a Boston airport. Divorced, he remarried in 1984 and retired from the airlines in 1995. More recently he has spent his time conducting historical tours around and about the city of Boston and has appeared at various film festivals. He received the Golden Boot Award for his work in westerns in 2005. - Art Department
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Forever etched in our minds as the bully with the protruding lip who gave beloved Alfalfa plenty of angst in the "Our Gang" serial shorts, actor Tommy Bond was actually a gentle, benign soul off the set. Born Thomas Ross Bond on September 16, 1926, in Dallas, Texas, he was discovered by a Hal Roach talent scout at the age of five simply walking hand-in-hand down a Dallas street with his mother. Asked to interview in Hollywood, Tommy made the exhausting Depression-era trek by car with his grandmother and was not disappointed. He debuted in the short Spanky (1932), billed simply as "Tommy" and enjoyed a two-year stay. He was released from his initial contract after appearing in Washee Ironee (1934), then struggled with unbilled bits and minor roles in features and in one- and two-reelers for Charley Chase and Monte Collins for the next few years. Roach happened to spot Tommy again in a bratty film role and re-signed him for the popular series, this time as the mean little kid Butch. Starting with Glove Taps (1937), Tommy immortalized himself as every schoolboy's nightmare, the perpetually scowling young thug purposely looking for fights.
Once Tommy outgrew the "Butch" role at age 14, he was left to fend for himself again, taking whatever jobs he could scrape up. He played one of the "Little Peppers" in a series of mild comedies of the early 1940s and rejoined Carl 'Alfalfa' Switzer (although playing his constant nemesis on the "Our Gang" series, the two were friends in real life) with the low-budget "Gas House Kids" film series in the early 1950s. In between Tommy served in the Navy during WWII and found "B" feature work with Man from Frisco (1944), which was one of his best roles, The Beautiful Cheat (1945) and Big Town Scandal (1948), among others. Another highlight of his career was playing cub reporter Jimmy Olson in the Superman (1948) and Atom Man vs. Superman (1950) cliffhangers that starred Kirk Alyn and Noel Neill.
With acting jobs getting scarce, Tommy decided to focus instead on TV production. Avoiding the heartache and serious troubles (i.e., unemployment and substance abuse) suffered by many of his spurned child star alumni (including Switzer), Tommy wisely prepared for his future by attending Los Angeles City College and earning a degree in theater arts from Cal State L.A. in 1951. He worked over two decades as a stage manager and head of props for KTTV-TV in Los Angeles, and another two as stage manager and assistant director at KFSN-TV in Fresno before finally retiring. He was long married (52 years) to wife Polly Bond and had a son, Thomas R. Bond II. He died at age 79 of complications from heart disease. His autobiography "You're Darn Right It's Butch" came out in 1993 detailing his kiddie fame.- Wally Albright was born on 3 September 1925 in Burbank, California, USA. He was an actor, known for Roll Along, Cowboy (1937), Salvation Nell (1931) and Thunder (1929). He died on 7 August 1999 in Sacramento, California, USA.
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Billy Barty was born William John Bertanzetti on October 25, 1924 in Millsboro, Pennsylvania. He began performing at age three and began making pictures in 1927. He played Mickey Rooney's little brother in the "Mickey McGuire" comedy shorts series. He was equally adept in both comedy and drama, and generally gives an added zest to any production he is associated with. He founded the Little People of America in 1957 and the Billy Barty Foundation in 1975. He possessed an immense talent and energetic charm that added a much needed shot in the arm to many series and films. Billy Barty died at age 76 of heart failure on December 23, 2000 in Glendale, California.- Actor
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Roderick Andrew Anthony Jude McDowall was born in Herne Hill, London, to Winifriede Lucinda (Corcoran), an Irish-born aspiring actress, and Thomas Andrew McDowall, a merchant seaman of Scottish descent. Young Roddy was enrolled in elocution courses at age five. By age 10, he had appeared in his first film, Murder in the Family (1938), playing Peter Osborne, the younger brother of sisters played by Jessica Tandy and Glynis Johns.
His mother brought Roddy and his sister to the U.S. at the beginning of World War II, and he soon got the part of "Huw", the youngest child in a family of Welsh coal miners, in John Ford's How Green Was My Valley (1941), acting alongside Walter Pidgeon, Maureen O'Hara and Donald Crisp in the film that won that year's best film Oscar. He went on to many other child roles, in films like My Friend Flicka (1943) and Lassie Come Home (1943) until, at age eighteen, he moved to New York, where he played a long series of successful stage roles, both on Broadway and in such venues as Connecticut's Stratford Festival, where he did Shakespeare. He became a naturalized United States citizen in 1949.
In addition to making many more movies (over 150), McDowall acted in television, developed an extensive collection of movies and Hollywood memorabilia, and published five acclaimed books of his own photography. He died at his Los Angeles home, aged 70, of cancer. He never married and had no children.- Actor
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American actor who began as a child in Our Gang comedies and reappeared as a powerful adult performer of leading and character roles. Born in New Jersey, the young Mickey Gubitosi won a role in MGM's Our Gang series at the age of 5. As one of the more prominent children in the Gang, he gained attention for his cute good looks and his lovable, if somewhat melancholy, personality.
In 1940 he took on the stage name Bobby Blake (though he continued to use the name Mickey Gubitosi in the Our Gang series for another three years) and began playing child roles in a wide range of films. He gained a good deal of fame as the Indian sidekick Little Beaver in the Red Ryder series of Westerns. Though roles were sporadic as he grew to manhood, he was never long off the screen (except for a period of military service, 1954-56). But despite some fine work in films like Pork Chop Hill (1959) and Town Without Pity (1961), his career did not take off until his stunning portrayal of killer Perry Smith in In Cold Blood (1967). A number of telling performances in films of the next decade, stardom in a popular television series (Baretta (1975), and several ruefully comic appearances as a guest on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (1962) made him a popular figure even as his personal difficulties increased.
Consumed with anger over his treatment by his family and the studio as a child, he denigrated his early work, suffered bouts of difficulty with drugs, and became known as a difficult, perfectionist person to work with. He quit his successful TV series Hell Town (1985) when his personal demons became overwhelming. After a self-imposed exile of nearly eight years, during which he struggled to right his life, he successfully returned to films and television work, appearing renewed and more confident in himself and his work.
In 2001, though, the murder of his wife, Bonnie Bakley, thrust Blake into the limelight in a different way. Admittedly having married Bakley through the coercion of her pregnancy, a routine Bakley had apparently tried with various other celebrities, Blake made no denial of his distaste for the woman, but was by all accounts thrilled with the daughter born to them. Blake was arrested for his wife's murder, but the presumption of innocence trumped when jurors didn't believe what they thought was flimsy evidence, and Blake was acquitted in a trial that made worldwide headlines. Reportedly broke from legal costs, Blake indicated hopefulness that he might be allowed to return to acting work.- Allen 'Farina' Hoskins was born on 9 August 1920 in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. He was an actor, known for Love Business (1931), Moan & Groan, Inc. (1929) and A Tough Winter (1930). He was married to Frances. He died on 26 July 1980 in Oakland, California, USA.
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Dickie Moore made his acting and screen debut at the age of 18 months in the 1927 John Barrymore film The Beloved Rogue (1927) as a baby, and by the time he had turned 10 he was a popular child star and had appeared in 52 films. He continued as a child star for many more years, and became the answer to the trivia question, "Who was the first actor to kiss Shirley Temple on screen?" when that honor was bestowed upon him in 1942's Miss Annie Rooney (1942). As with many child actors, once Dickie got older the roles began to dry up. He made his last film in 1952, but was still in the public eye with the 1949 to 1955 TV series Captain Video and His Video Rangers (1949). He then retired from acting for a new career in publicity. He later produced industrial shows.- Producer
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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 unmarried sister Millicent. A precocious lad, Freddie was reciting and performing on stage at three years of age, and was soon singing and dancing as well. By age six he had appeared in his first movie, a short called Toyland (1930). Three other British film appearances and the recommendation of his teacher Italia Conti led him to be cast in the MGM film David Copperfield (1935), as the title character, resulting in a seven-year MGM contract and a move to Hollywood with his aunt. The illustrious, star-studded and highly successful David Copperfield (1935) made Freddie an overnight sensation, and he went on to star in a succession of high-quality films through 1937, including Anna Karenina (1935); Professional Soldier (1935); the riveting Little Lord Fauntleroy (1936); Lloyd's of London (1936); The Devil Is a Sissy (1936); and Freddie's biggest success, Captains Courageous (1937), opposite Spencer Tracy.
Following the success of Little Lord Fauntleroy (1936), Freddie's birth parents, who were strangers to him, stepped in and attempted for seven years to gain custody of him and his fortune. His aunt Millicent attempted to offset these legal expenses and payouts by demanding a raise in Freddie's MGM salary in 1937. Another slew of court cases ensued, this time over the MGM contract, and Freddie missed a critical year's work and some golden film opportunities. By the time he resumed acting work in 1938, he was well into his teens, and audiences grew less interested in literary period pieces as World War II erupted in Europe. Following Kidnapped (1938), many of his ten remaining films through 1942 were knock-offs or juvenile military films, and only two were for MGM. The best of the films after Kidnapped (1938) were Swiss Family Robinson (1940), Lord Jeff (1938), Listen, Darling (1938), and Tom Brown's School Days (1940). His salary soared to $2,500 a week making him filmdom's highest paid child star after Shirley Temple.
In 1943, Freddie enlisted in the U.S. Air Force for a year to work in aircraft maintenance, exiting with both a back injury and American citizenship.
The additional time away from the screen had not done him any favors, though, and efforts to revive his career on film were unsuccessful. His efforts performing in regional theaters and vaudeville did not spark a comeback either. Aunt Millicent left for England when Freddie married publicist Maely Daniele in 1946 against her wishes. Freddie toured a few months in Australia doing nightclub singing and piano, but when he returned to the U.S. in 1949 he switched to television, making a gradual move from performer to host to director, at New York station WPIX. In 1954, re-married to TV cookbook author Aileen Paul, he moved to Benton & Bowles advertising agency, as a television director and producer. He remarked at the time that the millions he had earned as a child had been spent mostly on lawsuits, many of which involved headline court battles between his parents and his aunt for custody of young Freddie and his money. "I was drained dry," he said.
He became vice president of television programming in 1964, directing and producing several prominent long-running soap operas. Bartholomew retired due to emphysema by the late 1980s, and eventually moved with his third wife Elizabeth to Florida, where he died in 1992, but not before being filmed in several lovely interview segments for the lengthy 1992 documentary, MGM: When the Lion Roars (1992).- Martin Spellman was born in 1925 in Des Moines, Iowa. His family moved to California, and at the age of nine he first entered the MGM Studios as a newsboy. He became such a familiar figure at the Studios that for Christmas 1937, they decided to give him a very special Christmas present. He was invited by Carole Lombard and Clark Gable to work as an extra for a few days on the film Test Pilot where he had an uncredited role. After that, he played Skinny in the 1938 film Boys Town, starring Spencer Tracy and Mickey Rooney. In 1939, he co-starred in Streets of New York with Jackie Cooper. The following year he had anther leading role in Son of the Navy with Jean Parker and James Dunn. His other films included: Sharpshooters; Santa Fe Stampede (with John Wayne); I Am a Criminal and several more.
Martin's film career ended in 1941. He then enlisted in United States Army Air Corp during World War II. Returning to civilian life, he worked 27 years in the finance business, and then switched to automobile finance and insurance. He had six children by two marriages, and spent his golden years in Washington state. - Actress
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Patsy O'Connor was born on 23 January 1930 in New York City, New York, USA. She was an actress, known for Redheads on Parade (1935), It Ain't Hay (1943) and Too Hot to Handle (1938). She died on 4 July 2017.- Young "Sunny Jim" McKeen was featured in 39 "Newlyweds and Their Baby" shorts in the late 1920s, then went on to make a series of six sound shorts on his own. A very blond little boy, he was a contemporary of the child actors such as Allen 'Farina' Hoskins and Jackie Cooper, Davey Lee and Shirley Temple. He died of blood poisoning in 1933, at the age of 8.
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The son of a railroad clerk/pro boxer, Frank Coghlan Jr. was born in Connecticut and soon moved with his parents to California, where all three did extra work in silent pictures. Freckle-faced Coghlan was soon one of the era's most popular child actors, but with the advent of sound (and the onslaught of adolescence) he was reduced to smaller parts. After starring in the milestone serial Adventures of Captain Marvel (1941), Coghlan became a naval aviator in World War II. He later headed the Navy's motion picture cooperation program (and other similar programs), acting as liaison between the Navy and the Hollywood studios. When his 23-year active duty stint ended in 1965, he returned to acting in movies and on television (where he had a supporting part in the pilot of the "Captain Marvel"-like comedy series Mr. Terrific (1967)). He wrote his autobiography "because my kids just kept bugging me to do it", does the occasional TV commercial, and is a popular figure at movie conventions, where, to the amazement of the 80-ish "Junior", fans still line up to meet Captain Marvel's alter ego.- Actress
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Marcia Mae Jones was born on August 1, 1924, into an acting family. Her mother, Freda Jones, was an actress, and all three of her siblings -- Margaret Jones, Macon Jones, and Marvin Jones -- were child actors. But Marcia Mae had the most successful career, and she was the only one of her siblings to become a child star.
She made her acting debut when she was just six months old, when director James Cruze saw her in her baby carriage and immediately cast her as the baby in his film Mannequin (1926). Her first major role was in Night Nurse (1931), in which she played one of two siblings targeted for murder for their inheritance by a sinister household retainer. By age 10, she had appeared in several dramatic films. In 1936, she played a terrified victim of school bullying in These Three (1936), a role that brought her much attention. In 1937, she played the crippled Klara in Heidi (1937). The film starred two other child actors, Delmar Watson (as with Marcia Mae, all of Delmar's siblings were actors) and Shirley Temple. Despite Marcia Mae being four years older than Temple, the two girls acted well together and would appear together again, in The Little Princess (1939). Marcia Mae also worked with several other child stars of the 1930s, including Jane Withers, Bonita Granville, Jackie Moran, Sybil Jason, and her favorite, Jackie Cooper.
Marcia Mae's first husband was a merchant marine with whom she had two children. This union ended in divorce. Her film career began to slow down in the early 1950s, after which she largely appeared in television roles. By 1952, she was employed as a switchboard operator in the law firm of Greg Bautzer. Her adult life was marred by the suicide of her second husband, Bill Davenport, and problems with alcohol. She eventually conquered her alcohol dependency and became a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.- Actress
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An actress from the age of 6, Anita appeared with Walter Hampden in the Broadway production of Peter Ibbetson. As a juvenile actor, Anita used the name Louise Fremault and made her film debut at 9 in the film The Sixth Commandment (1924). She continued to make films as a child actor, and in 1929, Anita dropped her "Fremault" surname, billing herself by her first and second names only. Unlike many child actors, her film career continued as a teenager, and as a blue-eyed blonde, Anita became a star in Warner Brothers costume dramas such as Madame Du Barry (1934), A Midsummer Night's Dream (1935), The Story of Louis Pasteur (1936), and Marie Antoinette (1938). Anita complained that her looks often interfered with her chances to obtain serious roles. With her ethereal beauty, she continued to appear in ingénue roles into the 1940s as she played girlfriends, sisters, and daughters. By 1940, Anita was only in her mid 20s, but her career had turned to 'B' movies, and her time on the big screen ended with the rehashed Bulldog Drummond at Bay (1947). In 1956, Anita was cast as Johnny Washbrook's mother, Nell McLaughin, on the Television series My Friend Flicka (1955), the story of a boy and his black horse. Anita was also the substitute host of The Loretta Young Show (1953) when Loretta Young was recuperating from surgery. Other shows Anita hosted included Theater of Time (1957) and Spotlight Playhouse (1958). Her television guest roles included Mannix (1967) and Mod Squad (1968). Anita devoted her final years to various philanthropic causes.- Actor
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One of the lesser remembered but quite active child actors during the 30s and 40s was Jackie Moran. Born in 1923, he was a tyke model placed into films as a teen, often cast as a feisty street orphan. David O. Selznick took an interest in the gangly, fair-haired lad and cast him as Huckleberry Finn in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1938) and in Since You Went Away (1944), not to mention a bit part in his epic classic Gone with the Wind (1939). Jackie made a solid appearance in the Buck Rogers (1939) serial in which he played young Buddy, who co-piloted the giant dirigible along with Buster Crabbe's titular hero. In the 40s Jackie played in a number of youth-oriented programmers, none particularly memorable, though he did create the role of teenager Jimmy Forrest in a mildly popular series of be-bop musical comedy romps that included Junior Prom (1946), Freddie Steps Out (1946), and High School Hero (1946). He retired from acting in 1947 and became interested in screen writing and public relations work. He died at 67 of cancer in 1990.- Actor
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Delmar Watson was born on 1 July 1926 in Los Angeles, California, USA. He was an actor, known for Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), Heidi (1937) and Clipped Wings (1937). He was married to Antoinette. He died on 26 October 2008 in Glendale, California, USA.- Wallace Reid Jr. was born on 18 June 1917 in Los Angeles, California, USA. He was an actor, known for Excuse My Dust (1920), The Adventures of Frank Merriwell (1936) and The Racing Strain (1932). He was married to Ruth Dugan and Nora Pauline Teston. He died on 28 February 1990 in at sea, off Santa Monica, California, USA.
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Bill Cody Jr. was born on 18 April 1925 in Los Angeles, California, USA. He was an actor, known for Scouts to the Rescue (1939), Frontier Days (1934) and The Girl of the Golden West (1938). He was married to Elizabeth Sidford MacGregor. He died on 11 August 1989 in Studio City, California, USA.- Norman 'Chubby' Chaney was born on 18 October 1914 in Baltimore, Maryland, USA. He was an actor, known for Love Business (1931), Shivering Shakespeare (1930) and Pups Is Pups (1930). He died on 29 May 1936 in Baltimore, Maryland, USA.
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George 'Spanky' McFarland was born on 2 October 1928 in Dallas, Texas, USA. He was an actor, known for Bedtime Worries (1933), Beginner's Luck (1935) and Second Childhood (1936). He was married to Paula Jeanne Wilkinson and Doris. He died on 30 June 1993 in Grapevine, Texas, USA.- Actor
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Scotty Beckett was one of the cutest, most successful child actors of the 1930s and 1940s. His descent into a life of alcoholism, drugs, and crime remains one of the most tragic of Hollywood stories.
Born Scott Hastings Beckett on October 4, 1929, in Oakland, California, he and his family moved to Los Angeles when Scotty was 3 years old. Shortly after arriving in LA, Beckett's father was hospitalized and Scotty would frequently entertain his dad by singing songs. During one such visit, a Hollywood casting director happened to notice the cherubic youngster and told his parents he had movie potential. Scotty made his debut in Gallant Lady (1933) starring Clive Brook and Ann Harding. Scotty played a boy of three in the film, and Dickie Moore played the same character at the age of six. It was the first of several connections between the two child stars. The next year, he filled the hole vacated by Moore in Our Gang, and they later appeared in Heaven Can Wait (1943), portraying Don Ameche's character as a child. He and Moore finally appeared together in Dangerous Years (1947), which was Marilyn Monroe's screen debut.
Scotty appeared in fifteen Our Gang shorts in two years. Hal Roach noted a resemblance to Jackie Coogan and dressed Beckett accordingly, with an oversized cap and turtleneck sweater reminiscent of Coogan's outfit in The Kid (1921). He was paired with George 'Spanky' McFarland as a kind of partnership within the gang, and their sideline observations and wisecracks highlighted the series from 1934 until 1936, just as Porky and Buckwheat sparked the one-reelers from 1936 on.
After leaving Our Gang, Beckett emerged as one of the top child stars of his era, appearing in many films with the top stars of the late '30s and early '40s. Among his major credits were Dante's Inferno (1935) with Spencer Tracy, Anthony Adverse (1936) with Fredric March, The Charge of the Light Brigade (1936) with Errol Flynn, Conquest (1937) with Greta Garbo, Marie Antoinette (1938) with Norma Shearer, My Favorite Wife (1940) with Cary Grant, and Kings Row (1942) with Claude Rains.
In 1943 Scotty began attending Los Angeles High School and was named treasurer of his freshman class. He also appeared on Broadway that same year in the play "Slightly Married", receiving the only favorable notices of the production, and also played Junior in the hit radio show "The Life of Riley". Adolescence did not slow down his film career, as Scotty continued to win roles in such movies as My Reputation (1946) with Barbara Stanwyck and, most notably, The Jolson Story (1946), wherein he played the young Al Jolson.
He enrolled at USC but dropped out when he began receiving more offers from MGM, beginning with Cynthia (1947) with Elizabeth Taylor, A Date with Judy (1948), again with Taylor and Jane Powell (the future Mrs. Dickie Moore), Battleground (1949) with Van Johnson, Nancy Goes to Rio (1950), again with Powell, and The Happy Years (1950) with fellow child stars Dean Stockwell and Darryl Hickman.
At around the same time, Scotty began to gain notoriety for his nocturnal activities. Part of the young Hollywood set, Beckett was a fixture at parties and would frequently be seen with young stars like Roddy McDowall, Jane Powell, Elizabeth Taylor, and Edith Fellows. His nightlife seemed to become more of a priority than his burgeoning acting career, and it started a trend of reckless, irresponsible behaviors which plagued Beckett the rest of his life. Early success without any sacrifice often breeds a sense of entitlement and a lack of responsibility or consequence. This seems to be an overriding theme, as Beckett began making headlines most Hollywood stars try to avoid.
In 1948 he was arrested for drunk driving after he crashed into another car after attending a frat party where he had "five bourbons". Scotty tried to run from the booking office after being arrested and refused to surrender his possessions. In September of 1949, he eloped with tennis star Beverly Baker. Right from the start, Scotty showed signs that he was not ready for marriage. On their honeymoon in Acapulco, Beckett allegedly threatened to punch a pool bystander in the nose. The couple separated after 5 months of marriage, divorcing in June of 1950. Newspapers covered the divorce, citing Baker's allegations of Beckett's jealousy and controlling, abusive behavior. Scotty tried to get Baker to quit tennis and stop seeing her parents. He also warned her never to have a soft drink "with any boy or man between 6 and 60".
In 1951, Becket met actress Sunny Vickers. Shortly after they began dating , Vickers became pregnant. They married in Phoenix on June 27, 1951, and five months later Scott Hastings Beckett, Jr. was born. The bad publicity of the divorce from Baker plus the forced marriage to Vickers in the conservative 1950s immediately made Beckett a Hollywood outcast. Between 1952 and 1954, Scotty landed only two roles, in relatively minor films, You're Only Young Twice (1952) and Hot News (1953). He was beginning to get desperate.
In early 1954, Beckett landed the role of "Winky" in a low-budget sci-fi show called Rocky Jones, Space Ranger (1954), which today has become a cult classic. However, as former co-stars and ex-friends such as Elizabeth Taylor and Jane Powell emerged as bonafide film stars of the 1950s, a supporting role in a fledgling, unproven industry likely was extremely frustrating for Scotty.
In February of that year, the Cavalier Hotel in Hollywood was robbed of a little more than $130 in cash. The bandit pistol-whipped the desk clerk and disappeared with the loot, or so police thought. Passed out drunk in the basement of the hotel, armed with a gun and a knife, was Scotty Beckett. He was arrested and charged with possession of a weapon, but not with robbery because the money was not found and the clerk could not positively identify the former star as the robber.
After posting bail, Beckett, with his wife and three-year-old son, fled to Mexico. He checked into a Tampico hotel under the name of Sean Bullock, giving Carmel, California as his address. There were two bullet holes in his car that Beckett said were from a gang who tried to rob him south of Juarez.
After running out of cash and options, Scotty wrote several checks on a nonexistent bank to different merchants. After Mexican authorities tracked him to a Ciudad Victoria hotel, he attempted to sneak himself and his family out of the hotel and got into a gunfight with the Mexican police in which 20 shots were exchanged. Miraculously, no one was killed, and Scott and Sunny were eventually captured. Scott Jr. was sent back to Los Angeles.
Scotty served only four months in a Mexican jail before returning to the US in September of 1954. He surrendered to authorities for the weapons charge, pleaded guilty, and amazingly was given only three years' probation. He told newspapers he saw this as an opportunity to pick up the pieces and start over with a clean slate, but it was too little, too late. He was dropped from the Rocky Jones series and replaced with Jimmy Lydon (with whom Beckett had appeared in Cynthia (1947)). A little more than a month later, Beckett was arrested in Las Vegas, once again for bouncing a check.
Scotty re-enrolled at USC to study medicine, but when Our Gang was reissued for TV in 1955 as The Little Rascals, Beckett saw an opportunity to make a comeback in the movies. He appeared in Three for Jamie Dawn (1956) and had walk-ons in The Oklahoman (1957) with Joel McCrea, and Monkey on My Back (1957) with Cameron Mitchell. He proved he could still act and exhibit that same youthful charm, appearing perfectly at ease on camera, particularly in his small role as a Navy corpsman with the Marine Corps in Monkey on My Back (1957). But just when it seemed as though a comeback might happen, Scotty self-destructed again.
In February of 1957, he was caught at a Mexican-US border crossing trying to bring illegal drugs into the US. He said the pills were for his wife, whom he claimed had a nervous ailment. In reality, Sunny Vickers was suffering from alcoholism and had checked herself into Metropolitan State Hospital for treatment. She filed for divorce in August of 1957. After Sunny was awarded custody of Scott Jr., Beckett attempted suicide by swallowing a bottle of sleeping pills. He recovered but realized he was finished as an actor. He tried his hand at selling used cars, among other things. He still had his charm, but he could not stay out of trouble.
In April of 1959, Beckett was arrested on a charge of drunk driving. In August of that same year, he was arrested for driving drunk again, but this time he did not emerge unscathed. He smashed his '52 sedan into a tree, fracturing his skull, thigh, and hip and suffering multiple lacerations to his head. Although he was given probation and a suspended sentence, he remained crippled for the rest of his life.
In September of 1963, he was arrested for assault with a deadly weapon. Now confined to a wheelchair from the near-fatal drunk driving accident, he attempted to stab his neighbor after a dispute. Scotty's wife of two years, Margaret, a divorcée with a teenage daughter named Susan, assisted in breaking up the fight. Three days later Beckett tried to kill himself by slashing his wrists. He recovered from this second suicide attempt, but by that time Margaret had had enough and moved out, taking Susan with her. As she was moving her belongings out, Scotty tried to stop her. He hit Susan over the head with a crutch that he now used after his car accident and was again arrested. He vowed to the judge at his sentencing "never to drink again".
After that, Scotty stayed out of the headlines for a few years. In 1967 he found employment driving an ambulance, perhaps to be close to the prescription drugs to which he was addicted, perhaps to try to revive his interest in becoming a doctor, perhaps to try to forget that he had once graced the screen with Hollywood's biggest stars before his own star had plummeted to earth, or perhaps because he had run out of alternatives.
On May 8, 1968, he checked into the Royal Palms Hotel, a Hollywood nursing home, after suffering a beating in what may have been a drug deal gone wrong. Two days later, he was dead from an overdose of barbiturates; his third suicide attempt was successful. He left behind a note, a son, and some wonderful films and memories.
Leonard Maltin summed it up best when he wrote, "It was a particularly sad end for someone who, as a child, had shown so much easy charm and talent." Scotty Beckett was not the first child star casualty, and he would not be the last, but his story is certainly one of the saddest.- Actress
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Edith Fellows was born on May 20, 1923, in Boston, Massachusetts. When she was a year old, she and her father and grandmother moved to Charlotte, North Carolina. As a toddler, Edith was pigeon-toed and had trouble walking, and one doctor suggested that dance lessons might cure this condition. At age four, Edith entered Henderson's School of Dance, where she was spotted by a man claiming to be a talent scout, who told her grandmother that he could get Edith into show business for a fifty-dollar fee. The dance school raised the money, but when Edith and her grandmother arrived in Hollywood, they discovered that the address the man had given them did not exist, and they realized he was a fraud. Stranded in Hollywood with no means to return to North Carolina, Edith's grandmother began doing housework to earn a living. While she worked, she left Edith with a neighbor and her young son. One day Edith was taken along when the neighbor's son had an audition for the film Movie Night (1929), and she ended up getting the part. Although she never become a child star, Edith appeared in many popular films of the 1930s, most notably Pennies from Heaven (1936). She also proved herself to be a very versatile actress, playing roles ranging from a spoiled rich girl, as in Heart of the Rio Grande (1942), to a poor orphan girl, as in Pennies from Heaven. Edith was even given her own series, The Five Little Peppers, while under contract to Columbia, and she made four of the Pepper films (the first was Five Little Peppers and How They Grew (1939)) in two years. Between 1929 and 1954, Edith appeared in some fifty films, mostly in juvenile roles due to her short 4' 10" stature. But her career suddenly slowed down in the mid-1950s. Between 1955 and 1980, she appeared in only one film, Lilith (1964), in which she had a bit part. During this time, Edith chose to focus on her family life; she had married producer Freddie Fields in 1946, and their only child, daughter Kathy, was born in 1947. But Edith and Fields divorced in 1955, and the end of her marriage, coupled with other factors, caused Edith to have a nervous breakdown. She recovered, and in 1981, she returned to acting in numerous supporting roles on television. In 1985, fellow former child actor Jackie Cooper announced plans to make a TV movie based on Edith's life, but this project never happened.- Actress
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Elizabeth Mary "Betty" Driver, MBE was a British actress and singer, best known for her role as Betty Williams (previously Betty Turpin) on the British soap opera, Coronation Street (1960) from 1969 to 2011, appearing in more than 2,800 episodes.
She had previously appeared as Mrs Edgley in Coronation Street spin-off Pardon the Expression (1965-1966) opposite Arthur Lowe. Her early career focussed on her as a singer, appearing in musical films such as Boots! Boots! in 1934, opposite George Formby and Penny Paradise in 1938, directed by Carol Reed. She was made an MBE in the 2000 New Year Honours.
At the age of 8, Driver began performing professionally, forced by her mother to appear with Terence Byron Repertory Theatre Company. She was singing for the BBC by the age of 10 and began touring across the UK in her first revue at the age of 12. While performing in London at the age of 14, Driver was spotted by the agent Bert Aza, who was in partnership with his brother Archie Pitt, Gracie Fields' husband. Despite her young age, he booked her for the lead in a revival of Mr Tower Of London, which had brought Gracie Fields to prominence 19 years earlier. She was also approached by George Formby after he and his wife Beryl Formby saw her perform in Manchester. The Formbys wanted Driver to appear in their new film Boots! Boots!, but according to Driver, when Beryl Formby saw her rehearsing, she decided that she did not want to be outperformed by Driver and sent her away; however, the producers felt so bad about the way Betty Driver was treated that they refused to take her name off the film credits, even though she did not appear in the theatrical release. In fact, it is now known that Driver did indeed perform in the film and her scene was included in the original release. In 1938, an edited version of the film was released which did not include Driver's scene. A restored version of the film (including Driver's scene) has recently been released on DVD which finally confirms the involvement of Driver in the film.
At 16 she was in a West End show called Home and Beauty. Film director Basil Dean, after seeing her in Jimmy Hunter's Brighton Follies, cast her in the 1938 film Penny Paradise, filmed at ATP studios in Ealing. After a few months of variety and radio work, she returned to the studio to make her second film, Let's Be Famous. They had just completed the film when the Second World War was announced and the studios were closed down. Nineteen at the time, Driver resumed touring the country in variety shows. It was at this time that her act and image altered. Against her mother's wishes, Driver and her sister modernised her performance and Driver became a ballad singer. Shortly after, during a six-month run in a revue called Twice In A Blue Moon, Driver and her sister parted company with their mother following a cardiac asthma attack which restricted her mobility.
Driver continued in variety, opening in the Coventry Hippodrome and sharing the bill with the Andrews family - father Ted, mother Barbara and Julie. She made regular trips to Bristol to sing on a radio show called Ack Ack Beer Beer and made her final film in 1941 Facing the Music.
In the 1940s, she became a noted big band singer. During the Second World War, Driver travelled through Europe with ENSA (Entertainments National Service Association), entertaining the troops. She also appeared for seven years on the radio show Henry Hall's Guest Night and on her own show, A Date with Betty, which was broadcast live from the People's Palace in London's East End on 14 July 1949. The show's format was based around Driver singing, doing sketches and introducing guests. All her words were scripted by a young Bob Monkhouse. She recorded many popular tunes in the 1940s and became an established singer during this time. When she was 14, she made her first record "Jubilee Baby", and had another major success with "The Sailor with the Navy Blue Eyes" and made several more hit records. Betty travelled to Australia where she performed her own show and her career took her to Cyprus, Malta and the Middle East. On her return to England she appeared in various Ealing Comedies, on stage in The Lovebirds, Pillar to Post and What A Racket, and on television with James Bolam in Love on the Dole.
In 1964, she auditioned for the role of Hilda Ogden on the television series Coronation Street (the role went to actress Jean Alexander as the casting directors wanted someone who did not weigh as much). She was cast later in the series Pardon the Expression, a spin-off of Coronation Street alongside Arthur Lowe. She has described Lowe as "such a difficult man to work with", so after a much-publicised injury (she damaged her back after the script called for throwing Arthur Lowe), she retired and started running a pub, the Cock Hotel in Whaley Bridge, Derbyshire, with her sister Freda.
In 1969, she was persuaded to come out of retirement to play police officer's wife Betty Turpin on Coronation Street, a role she would play for over 40 years. She was the longest serving barmaid in the history of the Rover's Return and Betty's Hot Pot (served at lunchtime in the Rovers) is an iconic dish, which has also been offered as a ready meal in UK supermarkets.
She was the subject of This Is Your Life in 1976 when she was surprised by Eamonn Andrews.
Driver wrote a memoir on her years in radio and television, called Betty, which was published in 2000. In an interview on the Parkinson show on 11 November 2006, Sir Ian McKellen revealed that Driver still drove herself into work at 07:30am each morning, despite her age. She was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) by Queen Elizabeth II in the Millennium New Year's Honours List on 31 December 1999.
In August 2008, it was announced that Driver was one of several Coronation Street stars facing large salary cuts. In April 2010 Driver was reportedly admitted to hospital with a chest infection. In May 2010 Driver was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award at the British Soap Awards. There were also rumours that Driver was to retire, however these were confirmed as false. Driver vowed in September 2010 never to retire stating that: "If I retire, I'll be dead in six months with boredom" and stated she still "loved" being part of Coronation Street.
On 23 January 2011, Driver was the guest on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs.
On 11 May 2011, Driver was rushed to hospital, suffering from pneumonia. She died on 15 October, aged 91, after around six weeks in hospital.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Delightful child/juvenile actress Virginia Anna Adelaide Weidler (her friends called her "Ginny") had that knowing gleam in her eye that usually spelled trouble in one form or another for anyone nearby. She was born in Eagle Rock, California, in 1927, one of six children. Her mother was former Wagnerian opera singer Margarete Radon (born Margarete Therese Louisa Meyer), and her father was architect Alfred Weidler.
Virginia nearly made her acting debut at age 3 in John Barrymore's Moby Dick (1930) but was summarily replaced. A year later, she scored her first small movie bit in Warner Baxter's Surrender (1931) and was on her way. One of her brothers, child actor and musician George Weidler, was Doris Day's first husband (from 1946 to 1949).
RKO picked up young Virginia after learning that she could speak a bit of French. The average-looking youngster was ably cast as rural tomboy types in Laddie (1935) and Freckles (1935), the latter film allowing her to do a dead-on parody of Shirley Temple. She earned her first lead in Girl of the Ozarks (1936) and showed she could easily hold her own. After an unimpressive stint with Paramount, who tried to groom her as a rival to Fox's bratty Jane Withers, she was finally picked up by MGM and her film career blossomed. Co-starring with Mickey Rooney in Love Is a Headache (1938), she proved a natural young comedienne and precocious scene-stealer in such films as Out West with the Hardys (1938) (again with Rooney) and Too Hot to Handle (1938).
Little Virginia could also shine in dramatic outings, as she did with The Lone Wolf Spy Hunt (1939) and Bad Little Angel (1939), but she was never a good choice for sappy roles, as demonstrated when she played Norma Shearer's whiny imp of a daughter in The Women (1939). Virginia's forte was providing comedy relief, and she reached her young peak with two classic MGM films: Young Tom Edison (1940), as Rooney's creative sister, and The Philadelphia Story (1940), as Katharine Hepburn's smart-alecky younger sister. Her tongue-in-cheek rendition of "Lydia the Tattooed Lady" at the piano was just one of many memorable highlights from this vintage classic.
The young actress's career started to slip away from her when the teenage Shirley Temple signed with MGM, abruptly bumping "Plain-Jane" Virginia back to secondary status. After rather disappointing receptions to Born to Sing (1942), The Youngest Profession (1943), and Best Foot Forward (1943), the awkward teen left films and turned to vaudeville as a song-and-dance comedy performer, utilizing her full-scale talents as a mimic. She made her legitimate stage debut in "The Rich Full Life" at the John Golden Theatre in 1945, but the show closed within a month.
Soon after, Virginia retired from show business, married, and had two children. She passed away from a heart ailment at 41. After her death it was learned that she had suffered from rheumatic fever as a child.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Carl Switzer was an American child actor, singer, dog breeder, and hunting guide from Paris, Illinois. He became famous for portraying Alfalfa in the film series "Our Gang" during the 1930s. His character was one of the most memorable characters ever portrayed in the series. Later in his career, Switzer's acting roles were limited to bit parts and appearances in B-movies. He supported himself through other lines of work. Switzer was fatally shot by an acquaintance over a money dispute. The circumstances of his death are disputed, due to contradictory accounts by the shooter and by an eyewitness.
In 1927, Switzer was born in Paris, Illinois. A small city located about 165 miles (266 kilometers) south of Chicago and 90 miles (140 kilometers) west of Indianapolis. Switzer was the youngest of four children born to George Frederick "Fred" Switzer (1905-1960) and his wife Gladys Carrie Shanks (1904-1997). Switzer's older brother was the child actor Harold Switzer (1925-1967).
In the early 1930s, the Switzer brothers were locally famous in their hometown for their music performances. In 1934, the Switzer family traveled to California. They visited the Hal Roach Studios (1914-1961) while sightseeing. The Switzer brothers gave an impromptu performance in the the Our Gang Café, the studio's open-to-the-public cafeteria. They were both offered contracts by producer Hal Roach (1892 -1992), who wanted them to appear in the film series "Our Gang" (1922-1944). The long-running series featured a large group of child actors.
Switzer made his film debut in the "Our Gang" short film "Beginner's Luck" (1935), where his character performs as the "Arizona Nightingale". By the end of the year, Alfalfa (Switzer) had become one of the series' main characters. His brother Harold was relegated to performing background characters in the series. In 1937, Switzer surpassed George McFarland in popularity. At the time, McFarland was the nominal star of the "Our Gang" series. Switzer had a difficult relationship with his co-stars, as he enjoyed playing cruel jokes on them.
Switzer's performances in "Our Gang" ended in 1940. His last appearance as Alfalfa was in the short film "Kiddie Kure" (1940), where the gang members attempted to convince a hypochondriac that his pills were unnecessary. Switzer was 12-years-old at the time of the film's production, making him the oldest member of the main cast. The production team considered him too old to keep playing a child.
Switzer initially found more work in films of the time. He played a young boy scout in the comedy film "I Love You Again" (1940). He next appeared in "Barnyard Follies" (1940), a B-Movie depicting efforts to raise funds for a rural orphanage. Switzer had a leading role in the comedy film "Reg'lar Fellers" (1941), a feature-film adaptation of the long-running comic strip "Reg'lar Fellers" (1917-1949) by Gene Byrnes.
Switzer was reduced to a supporting role in "Henry and Dizzy" (1942), his first appearance in the-then popular film series about the Aldrich Family (1939-1944). The films were adaptations of a long-running radio sitcom of the same name, which lasted from 1939 to 1953. Switzer played a younger member of the Twine family in "There's One Born Every Minute" (1942), a comedy about false advertising. The Twine family profits from marketing their puddings as containing the fantastic Vitamin Z, with the press failing to realize that this vitamin does not exist. A local scientist is persuaded to act as a shill for their product.
Switzer had a minor role in the musical comedy "Johnny Doughboy" (1942), which featured a plot about fictionalized versions of "has-been" child stars. Several other real-life former child stars had roles in this film, including Baby Sandy, Bobby Breen, and George McFarland. The film received an Academy Award nomination for Best Musical Score.
Switzer had the uncredited role of Auggie in "The Human Comedy" (1943), a comedy-drama film about life in the home front of World War II. His character was a friend of Ulysses Macauley (played by Jackie Jenkins). Over the following few years, Switzer would frequently appear in uncredited roles, in films such as "Going My Way" (1944) and "Courage of Lassie" (1946).
Switzer had his first leading role in years when cast as Sammy Levine in "Gas House Kids" (1946). The film depicted the life of unruly youths from the Gas House District of New York City. It was partly inspired by the forced relocation of the District's residents in the 1940s, to make way for an urban renewal project. About 600 buildings were razed, and 3,100 families were forced to relocate. The real-life tragic conditions had inspired the popular culture of the time. The film was successful enough to have its own sequels, "Gas House Kids Go West" (1947) and The "Gas House Kids in Hollywood" (1947). Switzer had leading roles in both sequels, his last leading roles in any film.
During the 1950s, Switzer had a few significant supporting roles in films. He played a co-pilot in the aviation adventure "Island in the Sky" (1953), a pilot in the disaster film "The High and the Mighty" (1954), and a Native American ranch hand in the Western film "Track of the Cat" (1954). He had a minor part in the comedy film "Dig That Uranium" (1956), where the Bowery Boys seek an uranium mine in the Wild West. Switzer also had several appearances in television, serving as a recurring guest star in "The Roy Rogers Show".
Switzer's film career was not particularly lucrative during his adult years. He supplemented his income by breeding and training hunting dogs, and by serving as a guide to hunting expeditions. His most notable clients were Roy Rogers, Dale Evans, James Stewart, and Henry Fonda. In 1954, Switzer married his girlfriend Diantha "Dian" Collingwood (1930-2004). She was the heiress of the company Collingwood Grain, which specialized in the construction of grain elevators. The marriage was a rather hasty decision, as the couple had only met 3 months prior to the wedding.
In 1956, Switzer was broke and his wife Dian was pregnant. Switzer's mother-in-law offered them the administration of a farm near Pretty Prairie, Kansas, and Switzer took the offer. His only, son Justin Lance Collingwood Switzer, was born later that year. Switzer had a reunion with his former co-star George McFarland in 1957. McFarland recalled that Switzer seemed restless, and he got the impression that Switzer was bored with his life as a farmer. He figured that this life "wasn't going to last" for Switzer.
Switzer received a divorce in 1957, and lost custody of his son. In January 1958, Switzer was mysteriously shot in the upper right arm while sitting in his parked car, in front of a bar in Studio City, Los Angeles. The bullet smashed through the car's window. The shooter was never found, and no motive was ever established.
In December 1958, Switzer was arrested by the authorities. He had been cutting trees in the Sequoia National Forest, with the intention to sell them as Christmas trees. This practice was illegal. He was sentenced to pay a fine of 225 dollars, and was also sentenced to one year's probation. This left him in financial trouble for the last month of his life.
In 1959, Switzer was hired to train a hunting dog by Moses Samuel "Bud" Stiltz. Switzer and Stiltz had been business associates for years, having met each other at the Corriganville Movie Ranch. During the dog's training, the dog ran off to chase after a bear. Stiltz demanded that Switzer had to either relocate his dog or pay him the equivalent of the dog's value. Switzer placed a reward for the relocation of the dog and the safe return of the animal. When the dog was found, Switzer rewarded the rescuer with 35 dollars in cash, and the worth of 15 dollars in alcoholic beverages. The reward money pushed Switzer further into poverty.
In late January, 1959, Switzer had an emotional conversation about his financial troubles with photographer Jack Piott. The two figured that Stiltz had to reimburse Switzer for the finder's fee. The two of them headed together to Stiltz's home in Mission Hills, where they got into an argument with him. After being struck on the left side of his head, Stiltz proceeded to threaten the two men with a loaded a .38-caliber revolver.
What happened next is uncertain. Stiltz testified that Switzer pulled a knife on him, and that he had shot him in self-defense. Tom Corrigan (Stiltz's adolescent stepson) later testified that Switzer had decided to end the fight and to leave empty-handed, but Stiltz shot him anyway. In any case, the bullet damaged one of Switzer's arteries and caused massive internal bleeding. Switzer had already died by the time his body was transferred to a hospital. He was 31-years-old at the time of his death.
Switzer was buried in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery, located in the Hollywood district of Los Angeles. His gravestone depicts the image of a hunting dog, to commemorate that he trained hunting dogs for a living. His death initially attracted little attention from the press, but the controversial circumstances of his death have become the subject of true-crime articles and documentaries. Switzer is still remembered as one of the better child actors of his era, and as a reliable actor in supporting roles.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Ann Gillis was born Alma Mabel Conner on February 12, 1927, in Little Rock, Arkansas. At age seven, she appeared in her first film, Men in White (1934), as an extra. During the next two years, she had uncredited appearances in six more films until she received her first major role in King of Hockey (1936). Warner Brothers Studios gave significant screen time to Gillis in this movie, in hopes that she would become another Shirley Temple. Although (like all child stars of the 1930s) she never achieved Temple's level of fame, for the next several years Gillis starred in many films, almost always playing a spoiled, bratty character. She had two rare sympathetic roles as Becky Thatcher in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1938) and as the title character in Little Orphan Annie (1938). One scene in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer called for her to go into screaming hysterics when her character was trapped in a cave of bats, and Gillis delivered in a powerful performance that is probably the most memorable scene of her film career. As Gillis grew older, however, her career slowed down, and she left Hollywood in 1947. When she left Hollywood she married Paul Ziebold and had 2 sons. She then divorced, relocated to New York City and married Richard Fraser, a Scottish-born actor (they had a son born in 1958). During the 1950s and '60s, Gillis made sporadic television appearances, and in 1959, she hosted a national telecast presentation of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Gillis and her husband moved to England in 1961, and they were living in London when they heard of a casting call for 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) that called for an American actress living in the city. Gillis auditioned and got the role, this was her final film.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Cora Sue Collins was born in Beckley, West Virginia. A chubby-cheeked, curly-haired child actress, she was nudged (or, rather, propelled) into show business by her ambitious mother. Though she was heavily in demand during the 1930s, Cora never posed a serious threat as a rival to Shirley Temple. Much of her popularity stemmed from an uncanny histrionic talent in being able to cry on demand. Cora Sue appeared in her first film, The Strange Case of Clara Deane (1932), at the age of five. Clark Gable's first wife, Josephine Dillon, was her voice coach.
Cora enjoyed a succession of small acting parts throughout the first half of the decade, by 1934 earning a respectable $250 a week. That year, she appeared in eleven films. Hand-picked by Greta Garbo to play the star's younger self in Queen Christina (1933), she developed a long-standing friendship with Garbo, as well as with Lucille Ball and other established stars, later saying "I was never intimidated by them because they were all actors, just like me".
One of Cora's notable performances was as the illegitimate daughter of Colleen Moore in The Scarlet Letter (1934). New York Times reviewer Andre Sennwald found her performance in the crime drama Evelyn Prentice (1934) 'agreeable', "in spite of the pretty-pretty lines with which the script writers have loaded her." She also commanded a rare leading role as the juvenile delinquent daughter of a court judge in Youth on Trial (1945). However, soon after, she left showbiz at the tender age of 18 in the wake of a small supporting part in Week-End at the Waldorf (1945).
The reason for her premature retirement from the screen came to light decades later, elicited through interviews with the former child star. The casting couch had always been an open secret in 1930s and 40s Hollywood. Dare to refuse and the message might well be that classic line "you'll never work in this town again!" In 2020, Cora Sue revealed that she had rebuffed the sexual advances of a screenwriter (33 years her senior) whom she had previously regarded as both friend and mentor. She later confronted MGM studio boss Louis B. Mayer, whose response was "nonchalant and dismissive". So she quit. In 2014, Cora reflected "To this day, I do think it's the best single decision of my life. I could have still been working in films or on the Broadway stage, but I learned the luxury of anonymity at a very early age; it's fun to be a housewife from Phoenix, I like it."
Post-Hollywood, Cora studied architecture and then lived the life of a socialite in Mexico for some years, hosting lavish parties. She was married three times, respectively to Ivan Stauffer, wealthy owner of a ranch in Nevada, to a James Morgan Cox and to a Phoenix theatre owner named Harry Nace.- Actor
- Producer
- Director
Mickey Rooney was born Joe Yule Jr. on September 23, 1920 in Brooklyn, New York. He first took the stage as a toddler in his parents vaudeville act at 17 months old. He made his first film appearance in 1926. The following year, he played the lead character in the first Mickey McGuire short film. It was in this popular film series that he took the stage name Mickey Rooney. Rooney reached new heights in 1937 with A Family Affair, the film that introduced the country to Andy Hardy, the popular all-American teenager. This beloved character appeared in nearly 20 films and helped make Rooney the top star at the box office in 1939, 1940 and 1941. Rooney also proved himself an excellent dramatic actor as a delinquent in Boys Town (1938) starring Spencer Tracy. In 1938, he was awarded a Juvenile Academy Award.
Teaming up with Judy Garland, Rooney also appeared in a string of musicals, including Babes in Arms (1939) the first teenager to be nominated for an Oscar for Best Actor in a leading role, Strike Up the Band (1940), Babes on Broadway (1941), and Girl Crazy (1943). He and Garland immediately became best of friends. "We weren't just a team, we were magic," Rooney once said. During that time he also appeared with Elizabeth Taylor in the now classic National Velvet (1944). Rooney joined the service that same year, where he helped to entertain the troops and worked on the American Armed Forces Network. He returned to Hollywood after 21 months in Love Laughs at Andy Hardy (1946), did a remake of a Robert Taylor film, The Crowd Roars (1932) called Killer McCoy (1947) and portrayed composer Lorenz Hart in Words and Music (1948). He also appeared in Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961), starring Audrey Hepburn and George Peppard. Rooney played Hepburn's Japanese neighbor, Mr. Yunioshi. A sign of the times, Rooney played the part for comic relief which he later regretted feeling the role was offensive. He once again showed his incredible range in the dramatic role of a boxing trainer with Anthony Quinn and Jackie Gleason in Requiem for a Heavyweight (1962). In the late 1960s and 1970s Rooney showed audiences and critics alike why he was one of Hollywood's most enduring stars. He gave an impressive performance in Francis Ford Coppola's 1979 film The Black Stallion (1979), which brought him an Academy Award nomination as Best Actor in a Supporting Role. He also turned to the stage in 1979 in Sugar Babies with Ann Miller, and was nominated for a Tony Award. During that time he also portrayed the Wizard in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz with Eartha Kitt at New York's Madison Square Garden, which also had a successful run nationally.
Rooney appeared in four television series': The Mickey Rooney Show (1954) (1954-1955), a comedy sit-com in 1964 with Sammee Tong called Mickey, One of the Boys in 1982 with Dana Carvey and Nathan Lane, and The New Adventures of the Black Stallion (1990) from 1990-1993. In 1981, Rooney won an Emmy Award for his portrayal of a mentally challenged man in Bill (1981). The critical acclaim continued to flow for the veteran performer, with Rooney receiving an honorary Academy Award "in recognition of his 60 years of versatility in a variety of memorable film performances". More recently he has appeared in such films as Night at the Museum (2006) with Ben Stiller and The Muppets (2011) with Amy Adams and Jason Segel.
Rooney's personal life, including his frequent trips to the altar, has proved to be just as epic as his on-screen performances. His first wife was one of the most beautiful women in Hollywood, actress Ava Gardner. Mickey permanently separated from his eighth wife Jan in June of 2012. In 2011 Rooney filed elder abuse and fraud charges against stepson Christopher Aber and Aber's wife. At Rooney's request, the Superior Court issued a restraining order against the Aber's demanding they stay 100 yards from Rooney, as well as Mickey's other son Mark Rooney and Mark's wife Charlene. Just prior, Rooney mustered the strength to break his silence and appeared before the Senate in Washington D.C. telling of his own heartbreaking story of abuse in an effort to live a peaceful, full life and help others who may be similarly suffering in silence.
Rooney requested through the Superior Court to permanently reside with his son Mark Rooney, who is a musician and Marks wife Charlene, an artist, in the Hollywood Hills. He legally separated from his eighth wife in June of 2012. Ironically, after eight failed marriages he never looked or felt better and finally found happiness and peace in the single life. Mickey, Mark and Charlene focused on health, happiness and creative endeavors and it showed. Mickey Rooney had once again landed on his feet reminding us that he was a survivor. Rooney died on April 6th 2014. He was taking his afternoon nap and never woke. One week before his death Mark and Charlene surprised him by reunited him with a long lost love, the racetrack. He was ecstatic to be back after decades and ran into his old friends Mel Brooks and Dick Van Patten.- Editor
- Sound Department
- Actor
Ronald Sinclair was born on 21 January 1924 in Dunedin, New Zealand. He was an editor and actor, known for Die Hard (1988), Spaceballs (1987) and Commando (1985). He was married to Carol Sinclair. He died on 22 November 1992 in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA.- Actress
- Writer
- Additional Crew
Shirley Temple was easily the most popular and famous child star of all time. She got her start in the movies at the age of three and soon progressed to super stardom. Shirley could do it all: act, sing and dance and all at the age of five! Fans loved her as she was bright, bouncy and cheerful in her films and they ultimately bought millions of dollars' worth of products that had her likeness on them. Dolls, phonograph records, mugs, hats, dresses, whatever it was, if it had her picture on there they bought it. Shirley was box-office champion for the consecutive years 1935-36-37-38, beating out such great grown-up stars as Clark Gable, Bing Crosby, Robert Taylor, Gary Cooper and Joan Crawford. By 1939, her popularity declined. Although she starred in some very good movies like Since You Went Away (1944) and the The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer (1947), her career was nearing its end. Later, she served as an ambassador to Ghana and Czechoslovakia. It was once guessed that she had more than 50 golden curls on her head.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Shirley Jean Rickert won a baby contest in Seattle when she was about 1-1/2 and her mother relocated the entire family to Hollywood, as she was sure she had a child star. Her first movie was How's My Baby? (1930) with Monte Collins and T. Roy Barnes. Shortly after that she went on an interview at the Hal Roach studio and became a part of the "Our Gang" series. She left the Gang to go to Darmour Studios to play Tomboy Tailor with Mickey Rooney and Billy Barty. In subsequent years she worked in more than 100 movies, mostly musicals. When they stopped making major musicals in Hollywood she became a stripper in burlesque and traveled all over the US and Canada ,playing in burlesque theaters and nightclubs. Her mother took care of her daughter while she traveled and, when her mother died, she (for some reason she never figured out) moved to Buffalo, NY - you're either born in Buffalo or you're transferred there, but you don't voluntarily move to Buffalo.- June Preston was a Hollywood child star who went on to become a distinguished opera singer and, at the tender age of 24, toured with The Metropolitan Opera "Stars of the Metropolitan Opera" tour in 1952 in the lead role of "Mimi" in La Bohème opposite Metropolitan star, Jan Peerce as Adolfo. On the same tour she also performed the lead role of "Floria Tosca" in "Tosca", opposite Tenor Walter Fredericks and Salvatore Baccaloni both of the Metropolitan Opera.
Preston was born in Glendale, California. She made her screen debut at age 4 after being spotted on the [film studio] lot and landed her first role as Mrs. Blewett's Daughter in the 1934 film "Anne of Green Gables", and went on to do various other movies including Christmas in July, Have A Heart, In Love With Life, Maytime, Second Fiddle, History Is Made at Night, and Our Gang Follies. With her increasing popularity, she then went on to sign on with major merchandising contracts for various apparel lines including June Preston Frocks, JP Fairy Tale Frocks, a June Preston doll, suites, hats, shoes and toys, paint sets, paper cut out books, and more.
Film career: June Preston had paid a visit to the studio where an executive saw her and called for an immediate screen test, which resulted in a long-term 7-year contract at RKO Film Studios and a 3 film commitment which included, "Anne of Green Gables" with the role of Mrs. Blewett's daughter, then "Have A Heart", and "In Love With Life". Seven years later she entered another 7-year contract with RKO. Preston was also loaned out to various other studios for films such as "Christmas In July", "Maytime", "Second Fiddle", "History Is Made at Night", "Happy Land", and several others.
Preston quickly gained international popularity and went on to work under contract with Paramount, MGM, Universal Studios, Warner Bros., Republic Pictures, followed by various merchandising contracts such as the "June Preston Frocks" apparel lines and a "June Preston Doll". She was considered to be one of the "Big Pay Babes" in Hollywood alongside Shirley Temple and Virginia Weidler. She was known for her Golden curls, cherub like features and charismatic nature. Preston was considered "One of the most beautiful children every seen in films."
Meglin Kiddies: June Preston was also one of the prestigious Meglin Kiddies. She joined in 1934 and was a favorite of Neil Albright, Manager/Owner of the Meglin Dance Studio in Beverly Hills and Santa Monica who signed Preston on and said, "She is expected to develop her into a brilliant child star, under The Meglin artistic training." And she did... in addition to her movie contracts, June Preston had feature parts in numerous Meglin Kiddie short films, radio shows, Our Gang Follies movies featuring Meglin Kiddies. Preston also performed at multiple Hollywood theaters singing and dancing and was a regular at the historic Wadsworth Theatre. Other child stars to come out of The Meglin Dance Studios were Judy Garland, Mickey Rooney, Shirley Temple, Virginia Grey, Jane Withers, Ann Miller, and several of the Our Gang child stars.
Merchandising: After signing with RKO, she quickly achieved international fame, the name of June Preston was trademarked on 1934 through 1950. She then signed with various manufacturers including the then famous Edward D. Schuwall Clothing Firm in New York, who established her first apparel line bearing the name "June Preston Frock" RKO Film Star by JP Loomcraft, better known now as Fruit of the Loom and "Dixie Swirl" dresses. Other manufacturers included were Edward Shuwall & Co., Blossom Infants Coat Co. Inc., H & S Sportswear, I. Schneierson & Son Co. and many more. Her apparel lines included the favored June Preston Frocks, JP Dixie Dresses, JP Sheer Frocks, and in 1944 the debut of the hugely popular JP Fairy Tale Frocks (Cinderella dresses, Alice and Wonderland dresses etc.), as well as undergarments, swimsuits, snowsuits, coats, shoes, purses, hats, gloves, and handkerchiefs all sold worldwide.
Publicity: June Preston and Shirley Temple were similar in style. Shirley Temple was one year older than June Preston and even though they were contracted to separate film studios, they both were often billed together for singing and dancing appearances to publicity autograph events for their own apparel lines and other merchandise. Despite being friends in real life the two girls were often publicized from the very beginning as "Rivals" by the studios and trade publications, which made things a little difficult for June Preston professionally.
Opera: After her film career June Preston went on to become a world famous opera singer. She was always known to have interest in the classics early on and at age 14, Preston was already memorizing opera scores while still in the movie industry. Upon leaving the movie industry Preston moved to Seattle, Washington with her parents and was discovered by maestro Gustavo Stern, a German conductor who had recently moved to Seattle. Stern was at a reception in his honor and heard June Preston singing in the background while everyone was having a good time and singing around the piano, which he was playing, and he immediately stopped and said, who has that voice! Within a week, Stern began coaching Preston from Junior High throughout her university years at the University of Washington, where he was also a professor. Within this time period, Preston performed with the Seattle Civic Light Opera Company with which Stern conducted several operettas featuring Preston in the lead role of Camille in "The Merry Widow", Marietta in "Naughty Marietta", Micaëla in "Carmen", Gianetta in "Gondoliers" "New Moon", and "Der Fledermaus". In that time Preston also performed in the Metropolitan Theater, Seattle Civic Auditorium under the baton of Gustav Stern.
At age 22, Preston was sponsored by CocaCola, McCann-Erickson, Gaseosas, Fridgidaire, and the US Embassy for Radio & TV tours in over 6 countries, Coca Cola publicized Preston as "The Golden Voice" and she was the exclusive artist for McCann-Erickson. In late 1949 Preston began her tour in North and South America performing in top Opera Houses such as, the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires which has near-perfect acoustics, Teatro Nacional de Costa Rica, Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City, Teatro Municipal in Santiago, Chile, Teatro Municipal, Rio de Janeiro, Gran Teatre del Liceu, Barcelona. As well as performing recitals for Kings, Presidents, and Diplomats. There were several US Embassy galas in honor of June Preston throughout Central and South America where she also performed as the featured guest. Preston was considered the "Established favorite in the lyric theaters in Central and South America." In 1952, she joined the cast of the Metropolitan Opera on the "Stars of the Metropolitan Opera" tour in the lead role of "Mimi" in La Bohème opposite Metropolitan star, Jan Peerce as Rodolfo and Nicola Moscona, Stefan Ballarini, Uta Graf, and the great Salvatore Baccaloni. On a separate tour Preston performed in the lead as "Floria Tosca" in "Tosca", opposite Tenor Walter Fredericks, Salvatore Baccaloni and others of the Metropolitan Opera.
In 1960 Preston returned to the US and made her debut at the St. Louis Symphony Hall as a guest star under the baton of Leopold Stokowski as the soloist in the thrilling last movement finale of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. Other guest stars included, Isaac Stern, Leonard Bernstein, Leslie Chabay and Jean Madeira. Also within this time in New York City, Preston and Maestro Edwin McArthur were working on her presentation of a new series of compositions to perform on her upcoming European Tour in in 1961.
European Tour: Preston debut at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, and thereafter touring throughout Europe performing in the most prestigious Opera Houses in Europe such as Palais Garnier, Teatro alla Scala, Parnassos Concert Hall in Athens Greece, Teatro Municipal, Lisbon Portugal, El Palacio de la Música, Barcelona Spain, Teatre del Liceu, Gran Teatre del Liceu, Teatro Nacional de São Carlos, and many more. The majority of Preston's performances were overseas. All these concerts, programs, reviews, interviews and photos can be seen on her Pinterest Board: Pinterest, June Preston Opera.
Walter Winchell was feared by many, he could make you or break you in the entertainment world, but Winchell had admiration for June Preston and followed her career early on. She was mostly performing abroad but Winchell still would find the time to drop her a line from time to time.
Walter Winchell Column: Paper: New York Mirror, 1/25/1960, page 10: "June Preston is back from the South American show-circuit ", Philladelphia Inquirer: December 20 1962: Page 24. "June Preston, American opera-lark, is getting rave notice in Europe. From an Amsterdam critic: "A smash! Every area a jewel!" June shrugged off the stallers along Broadway and is booked solid around the world..."
While on her European tour, Preston met her future husband at the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Bruxelles, Belgium where she was performing a solo recital with pianist Stranton Carter. Prior to the performance that evening, she arrived with her accompanist for rehearsal but the page turner did not arrive, then in her words, "A handsome man came up to her and offered to turn the pages." This man was Belgian soloist concert violinist Saul Hoüben. He was rehearsing earlier that day for an upcoming performance of his own and "came to her rescue". Saul Hoüben, was a favorite of Queen Elizabeth of Belgium who had been following his progress since he was a child and later presented him with an award for excellence in 1955. He was considered a child prodigy performing his first concerto at age 4. Saul Hoüben and Yehudi Menuhin became childhood friends as they both studied with Georges Enescu in Paris, France. Georges Enescu was a famous Romanian composer, violinist, conductor and teacher.
Repertoire: (Role and "Opera"): Carmen, "Carmen", Mercédès, "Carmen", Mimi, "La bohème", Floria Tosca, "Tosca", Violetta, Valéry, "La Traviata", Cio-Cio-san, "Madame Butterfly", Lulu, "Turandot, Aida, "Aida", Salome, "Salome", Berta, "The Barber of Seville", Desdemona, "Otello", Octavian Count Rofrano, "Der Rosenkavalier", Gilda, "Rigoletto", Suzel, "L'amico", Adele, "Die Fledermaus", Marguerite, "Faust", Margherita, "Mefistofele", Camille, "The Merry Widow", Cunegonde, "Candide", Countess Rosina Almaviva, "The Marriage of Figaro", Charlotte, "Werther", Clara, "Porgy and Bess".
Preston favored recitals above all, and was also particularly well known for her concert recitals ranging from Beethoven, Mozart, Bach, Brahms to Puccini, Strauss, Mahler, Schubert, Hahn, Debussy, and many more. Preston was known to have an extremely large concert recital repertoire and could perform multiple recital concerts without ever repeating the works.
Marriage: Preston married Belgian soloist concert violinist, Saul Hoüben and they had one child at which point Preston retired from touring. In 1982 Preston's husband, Saul Hoüben passed away. Preston never re-married. She performed various concert recitals for benefits and for friends, but did not want to return into the circuit.
Induction: In 1989, Preston was inducted into the WSHS Hall of Fame for her Film and Opera career. In 1994, Preston came out of retirement for a farewell concert performance in Seattle, WA where it all began, which included an aria "Lamento" specifically written for her by her long time friend Writer/Composer Martin Kalmanoff.
Death: June Preston passed away at the age 93 from complications of dementia. She is buried in Forest Lawn Memorial Park-Hollywood Hills in Los Angeles, California and survived by her Daughter, son-in-law, and her sister. - Dorothy DeBorba was born on 28 March 1925 in Los Angeles, California, USA. She was an actress, known for Love Business (1931), Dogs Is Dogs (1931) and The Stolen Jools (1931). She was married to Max Ferdinand Haberreiter. She died on 2 June 2010 in Walnut Creek, California, USA.
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Sybil Jacobson was born on November 23, 1929, in Cape Town, South Africa. By age 2 she had learned to play the piano, and she also demonstrated a remarkable talent for singing, dancing and mimicry. She moved to Great Britain as a small child, and by age 5 was singing, dancing, playing the piano or doing uncanny imitations of Maurice Chevalier in London nightclubs. She also performed on radio with her uncle, Harry Jacobson, and his popular orchestra. During a show at the Palace Theater a movie producer noticed Sybil and cast her in her first film, Barnacle Bill (1935). Warner Bros. Pictures studio head Jack L. Warner was so impressed with her performance that in 1935 he brought Sybil to Hollywood as his studio's answer to Shirley Temple. Aware of Shirley's popularity and golden curls, Warner did not allow Sybil to see Shirley's films for fear that she might copy her. Despite her obvious talent, Sybil failed to achieve the success that Warner had anticipated, and in 1938 the studio did not renew her contract. However, during her time at Warner Brothers, Sybil made ten films and caught the eye of Darryl F. Zanuck, the head of 20th Century-Fox--the studio that had Temple under contract. Zanuck cast Sybil opposite Shirley in two films, The Little Princess (1939) and The Blue Bird (1940). Sybil's role in "The Blue Bird" was her most dramatic, and her older sister and guardian, Anita Jacobson, hoped that it would boost her career. However, many of Sybil's scenes were cut from "The Blue Bird", and it would be her final film.- Director
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Sidney Lumet was a master of cinema, best known for his technical knowledge and his skill at getting first-rate performances from his actors -- and for shooting most of his films in his beloved New York. He made over 40 movies, often complex and emotional, but seldom overly sentimental. Although his politics were somewhat left-leaning and he often treated socially relevant themes in his films, Lumet didn't want to make political movies in the first place. Born on June 25, 1924, in Philadelphia, the son of actor Baruch Lumet and dancer Eugenia Wermus Lumet, he made his stage debut at age four at the Yiddish Art Theater in New York. He played many roles on Broadway in the 1930s and also in the film ...One Third of a Nation... (1939). After starting an off-Broadway acting troupe in the late 1940s, he became the director of many television shows in the 1950s. Lumet made his feature film directing debut with 12 Angry Men (1957), which won the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival and earned three Academy Award nominations. The courtroom drama, which takes place almost entirely in a jury room, is justly regarded as one of the most auspicious directorial debuts in film history. Lumet got the chance to direct Marlon Brando in The Fugitive Kind (1960), an imperfect, but powerful adaptation of Tennessee Williams' "Orpheus Descending". The first half of the 1960s was one of Lumet's most artistically successful periods. Long Day's Journey Into Night (1962), a masterful, brilliantly photographed adaptation of the Eugene O'Neill play, is one of several Lumet films about families. It earned Katharine Hepburn, Ralph Richardson, Dean Stockwell and Jason Robards deserved acting awards in Cannes and Hepburn an Oscar nomination. The alarming Cold War thriller Fail Safe (1964) unfairly suffered from comparison to Stanley Kubrick's equally great satire Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964), which was released shortly before. The Pawnbroker (1964), arguably the most outstanding of the great movies Lumet made in this phase, tells the story of a Holocaust survivor who lives in New York and can't overcome his experiences in the Nazi concentration camps. Rod Steiger's unforgettable performance in the title role earned an Academy Award nomination. Lumet's intense character study The Hill (1965) about inhumanity in a military prison camp was the first of five films he did with Sean Connery. After the overly talky but rewarding drama The Group (1966) about young upper-class women in the 1930s, and the stylish spy thriller The Deadly Affair (1967), the late 1960s turned out to be a lesser phase in Lumet's career. He had a strong comeback with the box-office hit The Anderson Tapes (1971). The Offence (1973) was commercially less successful, but artistically brilliant - with Connery in one of his most impressive performances. The terrific cop thriller Serpico (1973), the first of his films about police corruption in New York City, became one of his biggest critical and financial successes. Al Pacino's fascinating portrayal of the real-life cop Frank Serpico earned a Golden Globe and the movie earned two Academy Award nominations (it is worth noting that Lumet's feature films of the 1970s alone earned 30 Oscar nominations, winning six times). The love triangle Lovin' Molly (1974) was not always convincing in its atmospheric details, but Lumet's fine sense of emotional truth and a good Blythe Danner keep it interesting. The adaptation of Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express (1974), an exquisitely photographed murder mystery with an all-star cast, was a big success again. Lumet's complex crime thriller Dog Day Afternoon (1975), which Pauline Kael called "one of the best "New York" movies ever made", gave Al Pacino the opportunity for a breathtaking, three-dimensional portrayal of a bisexual man who tries to rob a bank to finance his lover's sex-change operation. Lumet's next masterpiece, Network (1976), was a prophetic satire on media and society. The film version of Peter Shaffer's stage play Equus (1977) about a doctor and his mentally confused patient was also powerful, not least because of the energetic acting by Richard Burton and Peter Firth. After the enjoyable musical The Wiz (1978) and the interesting but not easily accessible comedy Just Tell Me What You Want (1980), Sidney Lumet won the New York Film Critics Circle Award for his outstanding direction of Prince of the City (1981), one of his best and most typical films. It's about police corruption, but hardly a remake of Serpico (1973). Starring a powerful Treat Williams, it's an extraordinarily multi-layered film. In his highly informative book "Making Movies" (1995), Lumet describes the film in the following way: "When we try to control everything, everything winds up controlling us. Nothing is what it seems." It's also a movie about values, friendship and drug addiction and, like "Serpico", is based on a true story. In Deathtrap (1982), Lumet successfully blended suspense and black humor. The Verdict (1982) was voted the fourth greatest courtroom drama of all time by the American Film Institute in 2008. A few minor inaccuracies in legal details do not mar this study of an alcoholic lawyer (superbly embodied by Paul Newman) aiming to regain his self-respect through a malpractice case. The expertly directed movie received five Academy Award nominations. Lumet's controversial drama Daniel (1983) with Timothy Hutton, an adaptation of E.L. Doctorow's "The Book of Daniel" about two young people whose parents were executed during the McCarthy Red Scare hysteria in the 1950s for alleged espionage, is one of his underrated achievements. His later masterpiece Running on Empty (1988) has a similar theme, portraying a family which has been on the run from the FBI since the parents (played by Christine Lahti and Judd Hirsch) committed a bomb attack on a napalm laboratory in 1971 to protest the war in Vietnam. The son (played by River Phoenix in an extraordinarily moving, Oscar-nominated performance) falls in love with a girl and wishes to stay with her and study music. Naomi Foner's screenplay won the Golden Globe. Other Lumet movies of the 1980s are the melancholic comedy drama Garbo Talks (1984); the occasionally clichéd Power (1986) about election campaigns; the all too slow thriller The Morning After (1986) and the amusing gangster comedy Family Business (1989). With Q&A (1990) Lumet returned to the genre of the New York cop thriller. Nick Nolte shines in the role of a corrupt and racist detective in this multi-layered, strangely underrated film. Sadly, with the exception of Night Falls on Manhattan (1996), an imperfect but fascinating crime drama in the tradition of his own previous genre works, almost none of Lumet's works of the 1990s did quite get the attention they deserved. The crime drama A Stranger Among Us (1992) blended genres in a way that did not seem to match most viewers' expectations, but its contemplations about life arouse interest. The intelligent hospital satire Critical Care (1997) was unfairly neglected as well. The courtroom thriller Guilty as Sin (1993) was cold but intriguing. Lumet's Gloria (1999) remake seemed unnecessary, but he returned impressively with the underestimated courtroom comedy Find Me Guilty (2006) and the justly acclaimed crime thriller Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (2007). In 2005, Sidney Lumet received a well-deserved honorary Academy Award for his outstanding contribution to filmmaking. Sidney Lumet tragically died of cancer in 2011.- Actress
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Petula Clark was a star at the age of 11. She starred in British concert halls and on BBC radio singing for the troops during WWII. She was a child star in a series of British films from the end of WWII through to the early 1950s,and by 1954 was having hit records. After a move to France in 1960, having fallen for a Frenchman, she had hit records all over Europe ,and by 1966 with such hits as "Downtown" and "My Love" having topped the American charts, became a truly international star.- Actor
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Tommy Ivo was born on 18 April 1936 in Denver, Colorado, USA. He is an actor, known for Margie (1961), Ghost of Dragstrip Hollow (1959) and The Lost Volcano (1950).- Actress
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She was a child prodigy and pianist at age 10. Her first movie was There's Magic in Music (1941) aka The Hard-Boiled Canary (1941), under the name Dolly (a short version of her real name, Dolores) Loehr. She signed a long-term contract with Paramount in 1942 and had her name changed to Diana Lynn. She had good parts in The Major and the Minor (1942), The Miracle of Morgan's Creek (1943), and Our Hearts Were Young and Gay (1944). She got fewer roles as she matured; she did do My Friend Irma (1949) and My Friend Irma Goes West (1950), based on the popular radio sitcom, and Bedtime for Bonzo (1951), and had a nice career on TV. Her first marriage was from 1948 to 1954 to architect John C. Lindsay (no children); then, on December 6, 1956, she married Mortimer C. Hall, president of L.A. radio station KLAC. His mother was Dorothy Schiff, then publisher of the New York Post. She had four children with him between 1958 and 1964. They moved to New York City so he could assume a post on his mother's paper. Diana Lynn passed away on December 17, 1971, of a stroke/brain hemorrhage in Los Angeles.- Actor
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Blond, boyishly handsome Dwayne Hickman, the younger brother of Darryl Hickman, followed in his sibling's tiny footsteps as a moppet film actor himself. Born Dwayne Bernard Hickman in Los Angeles on May 18, 1934, the brothers had a younger sister as well, Deidre (born 1940). He had minor roles in such films as Captain Eddie (1945) (Darryl had a major role in this), The Secret Heart (1946), The Boy with Green Hair (1948), Mighty Joe Young (1949), The Happy Years (1950) (again with Darryl in a major role), and topped his youthful film career as "Nip Worden" in the canine movie series "Rusty", which began with The Son of Rusty (1947) and ended with Rusty's Birthday (1949).
Graduating from Cathedral High School in 1952 (Darryl graduated from the same school in 1948), Dwayne enrolled at Loyola Marymount University. He returned to Hollywood following college studies and, unlike his brother, focused strongly on television work, making appearances on such series as Public Defender (1954), The Loretta Young Show (1953), The Lone Ranger (1949), and The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet (1952). He also appeared in the Paul Newman/Joanne Woodward comedy film Rally 'Round the Flag, Boys! (1958) playing the secondary teen couple with Tuesday Weld. He grabbed major comedy attention, especially from young female baby-boomers, as Chuck, the girl-crazy nephew, in The Bob Cummings Show (1955). (Cummings became his mentor.)
Hickman then played the titular lovesick title high school teen in The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis (1959), the role for which he is best known, and in which he was reunited with Tuesday Weld as the prime object of his attention, although Weld did not remain with the series for the entirety of its run. Laying low for a few years, Hickman returned to the screen, making a strong impression in the western film Cat Ballou (1965), and then began hanging out with the young beach crowd in several AIP movies including Ski Party (1965), How to Stuff a Wild Bikini (1965), and Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine (1965), and a few slapstick comedies such as Sergeant Dead Head (1965) and Doctor, You've Got to Be Kidding! (1967). He guested on a mix of comedic and dramatic TV shows including Combat! (1962), Mod Squad (1968), Ellery Queen (1975), The Flying Nun (1967), and Kolchak: The Night Stalker (1974).
In the 1970s, Hickman began working behind the scenes as a publicist, a Las Vegas entertainment director and, most successfully, as a programming executive for CBS. He would return only occasionally to acting. He revisited his Dobie Gillis character, albeit a fully grown-up version, in such made-for-television movies as Whatever Happened to Dobie Gillis? (1977) and Bring Me the Head of Dobie Gillis (1988). In addition to guest appearances on Murder, She Wrote (1984) and Hi Honey, I'm Home (1991), he appeared in glorified cameos in High School U.S.A. (1983), had a recurring role on Clueless (1996), and was glimpsed in Cops n Roberts (1995), A Night at the Roxbury (1998), and Angels with Angles (2005). He began episodic directing chores in the 1980's, working on such episodes as "Charles in Charge", "Designing Women", "Head of the Class", "Harry and the Hendersons", and "Sister, Sister". In 1994, he published his biography, aptly titled 'Forever Dobie'.
Thrice wed, Hickman has two children -- one by his first wife, actress/model/beauty pageant winner Carol Christensen (1963-1972) who appeared a few times on "Dobie Gillis", and the other by his present wife, actress/voiceover artist Joan Roberts, to whom he has been married since 1983.- Jeanine Ann Roose was born on 24 October 1937 in Los Angeles, California, USA. She was an actress, known for It's a Wonderful Life (1946). She was married to Dr. Eugene Richard Auger and Dr. James Rudolf Silber. She died on 31 December 2021 in Los Angeles, USA.
- Larry Olsen was born on 16 May 1938 in Marshalltown, Iowa, USA. He was an actor, known for Casanova Brown (1944), Curley (1947) and Room for One More (1952). He died on 24 November 2015.
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Natalie Wood was an American actress of Russian and Ukrainian descent. She started her career as a child actress and eventually transitioned into teenage roles, young adult roles, and middle-aged roles. She drowned off Catalina Island on November 29, 1981 at age 43.
Wood was born July 20, 1938 in San Francisco to Russian immigrant parents: housewife Maria Gurdin (née Zoodiloff), known by multiple aliases including Mary, Marie and Musia, and second husband Nick Gurdin (née Zacharenko), a janitor and prop builder. Nicholas was born in Primorsky Krai, son of a chocolate-factory worker. Maria was born in Barnaul, southern Siberia to a wealthy industrialist. Natalie's maternal grandfather owned soap and candle factories.
Wood's parents had to migrate due to the Russian Civil War. Her paternal grandfather joined the anti-Bolshevik civilian forces early in the war and was killed in a street fight between Red and White Russian soldiers. This convinced the Zacharenkos to migrate to Shanghai, China, where they had relatives. Wood's paternal grandmother remarried in 1927 and moved the family to Vancouver, British Columbia. In 1933 they resettled along the U.S. West Coast. Nicholas met Wood's mother, four years his senior, while she was still married to Alexander Tatuloff, an Armenian mechanic she divorced in 1936.
Mary Tatuloff, Wood's mother, had unfulfilled ambitions of becoming a ballet dancer. She grew up in the Chinese city of Harbin and had married Alexander there in 1925. The Tatuloffs had one daughter, Ovsanna, before coming to America in 1930. After marrying Nicholas Zacharenko in 1938, five months before Wood's birth, Mary (now calling herself Marie) transferred her dream of stardom onto her second child. Marie frequently took a young Wood with her to the cinema, where she could study the films of Hollywood child stars.
Wood's parents changed the family name to Gurdin upon obtaining U.S. citizenship, and her pseudonymous mother finally settled on a permanent first name: Maria. In 1942 they bought a house in Santa Rosa, where young Natalie was noticed by members of a crew during a film shoot. She got to audition for roles as an actress, and the family moved to Los Angeles to help seek out roles for her. RKO Radio Pictures' executives William Goetz and David Lewis chose the stage name Wood for her, in reference to director Sam Wood. Natalie's younger sister Svetlana Gurdin would eventually follow an acting career as well, under the stage name Lana Wood.
Wood made her film debut in Happy Land (1943). She was only five years old, and her scene as the "Little Girl Who Drops Ice Cream Cone" lasted 15 seconds. Wood somehow attracted the interest of film director Irving Pichel who remained in contact with her family. She had few job offers over the following two years, but Pichel helped her get a screen test for a more substantial role in the romance film Tomorrow Is Forever (1946). Wood passed through an audition and won the role of Margaret Ludwig, a post-World War II German orphan. At the time, Wood was unable to "cry on cue" for a key scene, so her mother tore a butterfly to pieces in front of her, giving her a reason to cry for the scene.
Wood started appearing regularly in films following this role and soon received a contract with 20th Century Fox. Her first major role was that of Susan Walker in the Christmas film Miracle on 34th Street (1947), which was a commercial and critical hit. Wood got her first taste of fame, and afterwards Macy's invited her to appear in the store's annual Thanksgiving Day parade. Following her early success, Wood receive many more film offers. She typically appeared in family films, cast as the daughter of such stars as Fred MacMurray, Margaret Sullivan, James Stewart, Joan Blondell, and Bette Davis. Wood found herself in high demand and appeared in over twenty films as a child actress.
The California laws of the era required that until reaching adulthood, child actors had to spend at least three hours per day in the classroom. Wood received her primary education on the studio lots, receiving three hours of school lessons whenever she was working on a film. She was reportedly a "straight A student." Director Joseph L. Mankiewicz was quite impressed by Wood's intellect. After school hours ended, Wood would hurry to the set to film her scenes.
While Wood acquired the services of agents, her early career was micromanaged by her mother. An older Wood gained her first major television role in the short-lived sitcom The Pride of the Family (1953). At the age of 16, she found more success with the role of Judy in Rebel Without a Cause (1955). She played the role of a teenage girl who wears makeup and dresses up in racy clothes to attract the attention of a father who typically ignores her. The film's success helped Wood make the transition from child actress to an ingenue. She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.
Her next significant film was The Searchers (1956), a western in which she played the role of abduction victim Debbie Edwards, niece of John Wayne's character. The film was a commercial and critical hit, and has since become regarded as a masterpiece. Also in 1956, Wood graduated from Van Nuys High School. She signed a contract with Warner Brothers, where she was kept busy with several new films. To her disappointment, she was typically cast as the girlfriend of the protagonist and received roles of little depth. For a while, WB had her paired with teen heartthrob Tab Hunter. The studio was hoping that the pairing would serve as a box-office draw, but this did not work out. One of Wood's only serious roles from this period was the title character in Marjorie Morningstar (1958), as a young Jewish girl whose efforts to create her own identity and career path clash with the expectations of her family. The film was a critical success, and fit well with other films exploring the restlessness of youth in the '50s.
Wood's first major box office flop was the biographical film All the Fine Young Cannibals (1960), examining the rags to riches story of jazz musician Chet Baker without actually using his name. The film's box office earnings barely covered the production costs, and MGM recorded a loss of $1,108,000. For the first time. Wood's appeal to the audience was in doubt. With her career in decline following this failure, Wood was seen as "washed up" by many in the film community. But director Elia Kazan gave her the chance to audition for the role of the sexually-repressed Wilma Dean Loomis in his upcoming film Splendor in the Grass (1961). Kazan cast Wood as the female lead, because he found in her (in his words): a "true-blue quality with a wanton side that is held down by social pressure." Kazan is credited for producing Wood's most powerful moment as an actress. The film was a critical success, with Wood nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress.
Wood's next important film was West Side Story (1961), where she played Maria, a restless Puerto Rican girl. Wood was once again called to represent the restlessness of youth, this time in a story involving youth gangs and juvenile delinquents. The film was a great commercial success with about $44 million gross, the highest-grossing film of 1961. It was also critically acclaimed, and is still regarded as one of the best films of Wood's career. Her next film was Gypsy (1962), playing the role of burlesque entertainer and stripper Gypsy Rose Lee. Film historians credit the film as an even better role for Wood than that of Maria, with witty dialogue, a greater emotional range, and complex characterization. The film was the eighth highest-grossing release of 1962, and was well-received critically.
Wood's next significant role was that of Macy's salesclerk Angie Rossini in Love with the Proper Stranger (1963). In the film, Angie has a one-night-stand with musician Rocky Papasano, played by Steve McQueen, finds herself pregnant and desperately seeks an abortion. The film under-performed at the box office but was critically well-received. Wood received her third (and last) nomination for an Academy Award. At age 25, Wood was tied with Teresa Wright as the youngest person to score three Oscar nominations. Wood held that designation until 2013, when Jennifer Lawrence achieved her third nomination at age 23.
Wood continued her successful film career until 1966, but her health status was not as successful. She was suffering emotionally and had sought professional therapy. She paid Warner Bros. $175,000 to cancel her contract and was able to retire for a while. She also fired her entire support team: agents, managers, publicist, accountant, and attorneys. She took a three-year hiatus from acting.
Wood made her comeback in the comedy Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (1969) with the themes of sexual liberation and wife swapping. It was a box office hit. Wood decided to gamble her $750,000 fee on a percentage of the gross, earning a million dollars in profits. She chose not to capitalize on the film's success, however, and did not take another acting job for five years.
In 1970, Wood was married to the screenwriter Richard Gregson and was expecting her first child, Natasha Gregson Wagner. She went into semi-retirement to be a stay-at-home mom, appearing in only four more theatrical films before her death. These films were the mystery comedy Peeper (1975), the science fiction film Meteor (1979), the comedy The Last Married Couple in America (1980), and the posthumously-released science fiction film Brainstorm (1983).
In the late '70s, Wood found success in television roles, appearing in several made-for-TV movies and the mini-series From Here to Eternity (1979). Her project received high ratings, and she had plans to make her theatrical debut in a 1982 production of Anastasia.
On November 28, 1981, Wood joined her last husband Robert Wagner, their married friend Christopher Walken, and captain Dennis Davern on a weekend boat trip to Catalina Island. Conspicuously absent from the group was Christopher's wife, casting director Georgianne Walken. The four of them were on board the Wagners' yacht "Splendour." Earwitness Marilyn Wayne heard cries for help around 11:05 P.M. and a "man's voice slurred, and in aggravated tone, say something to the effect of, 'Oh, hold on, we're coming to get you,' and not long after, the cries for help subsided." On the morning of November 29, Wood's corpse was recovered 1 mile (1.6 kilometers) away from the boat, near small Valiant-brand inflatable dinghy beached nearby. The toxicology report revealed her blood alcohol level was at .14, over the legal limit of .10. Wood was buried on December 2 at Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles. Nine days later, the LACSD officially closed the case.- Actress
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One of the first two contract players for Walt Disney Studios, she made her debut in Song of the South (1946) as a poor white child fascinated by the stories told by Uncle Remus. She made several more films as a child star, then left film for 8 years. She returned as an ingénue in Rock, Pretty Baby! (1956), and followed that by several more films and TV episodes, retiring from Hollywood completely at the end of 1970, except for a brief cameo in Grotesque (1988).- Actor
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Born in Los Angeles almost a year after the start of Great Depression. Bob (whose nickname 'Bobs' was given to him by his father, and for legal and professional reasons he adopted professionally) is from a family of 9 siblings; 6 boys and 3 girls. He made his first on-screen appearance as a (literal) babe in arms in Life Begins (1932). Watson received the sobriquet 'cry-baby' for his ability to cry on-cue. Watson is best known as "Pee Wee" from Boys Town (1938). Later in the mid-late 60's Watson left the film industry entirely and entered the Claremont School of Theology. Later he became a Methodist minister in Burbank and La Canada. Watson retired in 1997 and passed away in 1999, succumbing to prostate cancer- At age 6, Karolyn Grimes played the role of Zuzu Bailey in the holiday film It's a Wonderful Life (1946). Her childhood film career spanned 16 movies, but she is best remembered for playing the daughter of George and Mary Bailey (James Stewart and Donna Reed). The petals from her rose symbolize the values of family, friends and life itself in the 1946 classic, and it is Zuzu who speaks the movie's most memorable line, "Every time a bell rings, an angel gets his wings." In recent years, Karolyn has carried on the spirit of It's a Wonderful Life (1946), serving as the film's most active and appealing ambassador.
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She was born of Irish ancestry as Joan Agnes Theresa Brodel, the daughter of an accountant and a pianist. She was educated at Catholic schools in Toronto, Montreal and Detroit. There were three sisters, her older siblings being Mary and Betty. Together, they made up a successful vaudeville act, the Brodel Sisters. Trained in singing, dancing and dramatics from early childhood, Joan began on stage at the age of nine. The Brodel's entry into in show biz at such a tender age had much to do with supporting their impoverished parents during the Depression years. With her sisters, Joan performed on radio and in nightclubs. The most talented of the trio, she excelled at impersonations, her repertoire including Katharine Hepburn, Greta Garbo, Jimmy Durante and Maurice Chevalier. While Mary played the saxophone and Betty the piano, Joan was a wiz on the accordion and the banjo. One night, during a performance at the Paradise Club in New York, she was singled out by an MGM talent scout and promptly signed for six months with a salary of $200 a week. Her first role of note was as Robert Taylor's young sister in the period drama Camille (1936). She did not last long at MGM, but, in 1940, was signed by Warner Brothers. Voice coaching smoothed her Midwestern accent and Joan Brodel became Joan Leslie, ostensibly 'to avoid confusion' with Warner's star comedienne Joan Blondell.
Little Joan was all but 14 years old when her movie career began in earnest. Her ability to cry on cue proved instrumental in her selection for the pivotal role of Velma, the club-footed girl helped by gangster Roy Earle (Humphrey Bogart) in High Sierra (1940). This role, by her own account, put her on the map. In between working as a photographers model, Joan flourished in A-grade productions, playing Gary Cooper's sweetheart in Sergeant York (1941) (despite a 24-years age difference), co-starring and dancing with James Cagney in Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) and featuring in the top half of the bill in the aptly named, star-studded musical extravaganza Thank Your Lucky Stars (1943). She did her bit for the war effort too, dancing with servicemen in Hollywood Canteen (1944) and being featured in the movie along with her sister Betty. By 1942, Joan had acquired a wholesome reputation as the all-American girl-next-door. Life Magazine described her as "looking every inch the schoolgirl she is" and her greatest asset being "a manner of projecting sweet innocence without seeming too sugary". Before long, however, the relationship between Joan and her studio began to sour.
By 1945, the quality of her roles had begun to deteriorate. She made a couple of so-so pictures with Robert Alda, Rhapsody in Blue (1945) (an entertaining, but highly fictionalised biopic of George Gershwin) and Cinderella Jones (1946). After appearing in Two Guys from Milwaukee (1946), Joan, demanding more mature roles, took Warner Brothers to court. Having made her point, her contract was dropped. Between 1947 and 1954, Joan freelanced, often for Poverty Row outfits like Eagle-Lion, Lippert and Republic. She became yet another fatality of Hollywood typecasting, another example of an attractive ingenue, a promising starlet and a potential major star who ended up as a low budget western lead. Still, later interviews suggested that she rather enjoyed acting in her handful of second-string westerns and they earned Joan a Golden Boot Award in 2006 for contributions to the genre. She finally had another co-starring turn, billed behind Jane Russell and Richard Egan in The Revolt of Mamie Stover (1956), thereafter restricting her appearances to the small screen. Joan has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Vine Street.
In her later private life, Joan was devoted to various Catholic charities and to raising her identical twin daughters. As Joan Caldwell, an obstetrician's widow, she founded a Chair in Gynecologic Oncology at the University of Louisville. Joan died in October 2017 at the age of 90.
She quit her acting career to raise her identical twin daughters Patrice and Ellen. Both daughters are now Doctors, teaching at universities.- Patti Brady was born on 15 May 1937 in Woodside, New York, USA. She is an actress, known for Never Say Goodbye (1946), Gasoline Alley (1951) and Corky of Gasoline Alley (1951).
- Joan Felt was born on January 18, 1931, in Elizabeth, New Jersey. Her mother was quite a famous piano player in the 1930s. Six-year-old Joan made her film debut in Walking Down Broadway (1938). She played the role of Sunny, and changed her name from Felt to Carroll. A role in Two Sisters (1938) followed, and the next year she had supporting roles in Barricade (1939) and Tower of London (1939). It wasn't until 1940 when Joan had her breakthrough. She had important parts in Anne of Windy Poplars (1940) and especially Primrose Path (1940), as Ginger Rogers' younger sister. In 1941, she won her first lead role in Obliging Young Lady (1942) as Bridget Potter, a young girl stuck in the middle of her parents' divorce case. The film costarred Ruth Warrick.
In 1942, she was the first child star from Hollywood to appear in a Broadway play.This play, "Panama Hattie", garnered Carroll national fame, and she was featured in many magazine articles and newspapers. In 1943, she won her second lead role in Petticoat Larceny (1943), in which she played Joan Mitchell, a radio star who goes undercover to get a better feel of her roles. That film reunited Joan with Warrick.
In 1944, she played Agnes, the middle sister between Judy Garland and Margaret O'Brien in Meet Me in St. Louis (1944). In 1945, she had an important supporting role in The Bells of St. Mary's (1945), which starred Bing Crosby and Ingrid Bergman. That same year she appeared in Tomorrow, the World! (1944), after which she retired. - Actress
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An English actress of stage, screen and television, sister to Hayley Mills and daughter of Sir John Mills, Juliet first came to notice in films, actually after her sister Hayley started her career. Juliet, however, was first plucked onto the screen and signing a contract with Warner Brothers and taking small roles in comedies like Nurse on Wheels (1963) and Carry on Jack (1964). It wasn't until 1966, when Juliet Mills started getting attention in her role opposite James Stewart and Maureen O'Hara in the western film The Rare Breed (1966). She continued in television in the seventies as a recurring guest star on The Love Boat (1977), Wonder Woman (1975) and Fantasy Island (1977). She got her first starring television series, Nanny and the Professor (1970), in 1970, co-starring Richard Long, the series was top-rated, but was shortly canceled after two seasons by ABC. She hit the screen again in 1974, playing the possessed "Jessica Barrett" in the Italian horror film Beyond the Door (1974) ("Beyond the Door") for Film Ventures International, but it was pulled from theaters because it resembled The Exorcist (1973), even though it was becoming a box office hit. She didn't get very many roles after that and continued in television through the eighties. She did a small part in Waxwork II: Lost in Time (1992) and then played Juliette Lewis's friendly maid in the 1999 major motion picture The Other Sister (1999), co-starring Diane Keaton and Tom Skerritt. Juliet Mills has recently been in the daytime drama (soap opera) Passions (1999), playing "Tabitha", the witch. She is married to actor Maxwell Caulfield.- Ted Donaldson was born on 20 August 1933 in New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945), The Return of Rusty (1946) and Rusty Saves a Life (1949). He died on 1 March 2023 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Anne Whitfield was born August 27, 1938 in Oxford, Mississippi, USA. She was an actress, known for White Christmas (1954), numerous TV shows and commercials, and a long radio career beginning in 1945 when she was seven. Her TV appearances include One Step Beyond, 3 Perry Masons, Rawhide, Gunsmoke, 77 Sunset Strip, Dobie Gillis, 2 Cheyennes, and a Bonanza. When she left Hollywood in 1976, she went back to college, got a degree in Mass Communications, and began a new career as a water quality educator at the state Department of Ecology. Now retired, Annie is a climate activist and a proud but worried grandmother of seven.
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Ann E. Todd was born Ann Todd Phillips on August 26, 1931, in Denver, Colorado. Both of her parents had extensive careers in music; her father, Burrill Phillips, was an accomplished composer and pianist. Ann also had one brother, Stephen, who was born in 1937 (and died in 1986). Ann was adopted and raised by her maternal grandparents; her official adopted name was Ann Todd Mayfield. Her grandparents took her to the movies often and hoped that she would one day become a child star like Shirley Temple (incidentally, she would have a small role as Temple's little sister in The Blue Bird (1940)). Ann's grandparents eventually prodded her into a career in film, and although she was not particularly interested in acting -- her childhood ambition was to be a pilot -- she excelled at it and became one of the most popular child stars of the 1930s and '40s. In the early 1940s, she added E to her professional name to avoid being mistaken for British actress Ann Todd (nevertheless, the two were and are frequently confused). Despite her success -- she appeared in some 27 films between 1939 and 1951 -- Ann quit acting in the 1950s. She married Robert Basart on January 29, 1951 in Berkely, California. In 1959, she was reunited with her parents, and following in her parents' footsteps, she pursued a career in music. Ann received a master's degree in music history from the University of California at Berkeley (UCB). She taught music history in San Francisco for three years and then served as the music librarian for UCB for 21 years. During this time, Ann also founded a publishing company, Fallen Leaf Press, and had two children, a daughter and a son. Her husband Robert died on February 7, 1993 in Berkely. As of this writing (2008), Ann is retired and living in northern California.- Twinkle Watts was born on 15 September 1933 in Tampa, Florida, USA. She was an actress, known for Corpus Christi Bandits (1945), A Guy Could Change (1946) and Lake Placid Serenade (1944). She died on 21 January 2018 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
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A promising blue-to-gray-eyed, blonde-haired child actress of the post-WWII years who had more talent than she was given credit for, little Constance Beekman "Connie" Marshall was born on April 28, 1933 in New York City. Her parents were not of show business stock, her father being a lieutenant with the Allied Military Government in Europe. She was a direct descent of this country's fourth Chief Justice, John Marshall, and was a descendant of Gerardus Beekman, the first Colonial Governor of New York.
Sensitive-looking and sad-eyed, Connie Marshall broke into the competitive side of show business quite young as a pig-tailed model for commercial newspapers and magazines. Frequently used by New York photographers, artists and caricaturists, she began her acting career a year later by happenstance. A failed screen test taken in Hollywood was, by luck, seen by 20th Century-Fox director Lloyd Bacon, who just happened to be casting the role of little Mary Osborne in the warm family comedy-drama, Sunday Dinner for a Soldier (1944). The film went on to star the future husband and wife team of Anne Baxter and John Hodiak, who first met and fell in love while shooting this picture. Director Bacon stopped looking when he came across young Connie.
Educated at the Gardner School in New York, where she appeared in a few plays, and the Fox Studio School, Connie also studied ballet and ballroom dancing. She made a strong impression in her very first film, with a natural forlorn ease as one of the Osborne children that also included up-and-coming Bobby Driscoll. With Connie's second picture Sentimental Journey (1946), she was handed her best weepy-eyed showcase. Terminally ill Julie Beck (played by Maureen O'Hara) adopts an orphan girl (played by Marshall) so Julie's husband, William (John Payne), will have someone to care for after she passes away. Connie held her own and received rave reviews.
She continued to show precocious promise in the post-war years in both sentimental drama and lightweight comedy with Dragonwyck (1946) as the daughter of Vincent Price; Home, Sweet Homicide (1946) as an amateur young sleuth who tries to solve a neighborhood murder aided by brother and sister Peggy Ann Garner and Dean Stockwell; Mother Wore Tights (1947) as the daughter of song-and-dance team Betty Grable and Dan Dailey; and the noted comedy classic, Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House (1948) as the elder daughter of the titular couple, Mr. and Mrs. Blandings (played by, respectively, Cary Grant and Myrna Loy). She would work with the silver screen's top movie stars over the years, including Gene Tierney and Joan Crawford, but once she outgrew her precociousness, her career began to fade away. She attempted TV with the short-lived series Doc Corkle (1952) and appeared as a feisty teen co-star opposite Gene Autry in his film oater Saginaw Trail (1953), but by 1954, after an unbilled part in Rogue Cop (1954), she was out of the business.
Marshall was forgotten until 2006 when -- five years after her passing -- news of her death on May 22, 2001 at age 68 from cancer became public. Although her potential was never fully utilized, she most certainly deserves a place in the Hollywood annals as one of filmdom's more talented young actors.- Actress
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Carol Coombs was born on 15 October 1935 in Toronto, Canada. She is an actress, known for It's a Wonderful Life (1946), The Man Who Returned to Life (1942) and The Mating Season (1951). She has been married to Chet Mueller since 1957. They have two children.- Additional Crew
- Actor
Don Reynolds was born on 29 May 1937 in Odell, Texas, USA. He was an actor, known for The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002) and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003). He died on 9 January 2019 in Fort Worth, Texas, USA.- His mother enrolled him in a dramatic class to overcome his self-consciousness. His gravel voice was exploited by an MGM talent scout. After his test and positive public reaction he was signed to a term contract to Our Gang. His favorite sport was bicycling. After Our Gang was over, Froggy was riding double on a motorized scooter with a friend delivering newspapers on a old three-lane highway in La Puente. Froggy was the passenger, his friend 'John Wilbrand' was driving and did a sudden U-turn into the front of a truck that hit and ended up killing Froggy who died around 6 hours later in the hospital. Froggy's friend John Wilbrand who was driving only suffered minor injuries. His older brother Tom said that he was just a normal type of kid in high school, doing well, when this accident occurred. After the gang, he did try out in some feature films, but he told his mother he wasn't interested in continuing with that. So his career in movies came to an end.
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Terry Kilburn was born on 25 November 1926 in West Ham, London, England, UK. He is an actor, known for Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939), Lolita (1962) and Bulldog Drummond Strikes Back (1947).- Producer
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- Actor
John Howard Davies was born on 9 March 1939 in Paddington, London, England, UK. He was a producer and director, known for Oliver Twist (1948), Fawlty Towers (1975) and Monty Python's Flying Circus (1969). He was married to Linda Patricia, Dale Mackenzie Tillotson and Leonie Taylor. He died on 22 August 2011 in Blewbury, Oxfordshire, England, UK.- Actor
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Spry, curly-haired, dark-complexioned child actor Tommy Cook's most famous roles happened during his nascent career in serial adventures. He came on the feature film scene auspiciously in the role of young Indian boy Little Beaver alongside western good guy 'Don 'Red' Barry' in the Adventures of Red Ryder (1940), and followed that portraying Kimbu, the young jungle boy, alongside Frances Gifford's heroine Nyoka in Jungle Girl (1941).
Born in Duluth, Minnesota on July 5, 1930, Tommy's father was stricken with Bright's disease, a kidney ailment, which forced the family (which included a sister and grandmother) to seek warmer climate. In California, his mother inspired him toward theatrics and he gained entry at the Pasadena Playhouse where he stayed for seven years. Naturally talented, radio jobs soon cropped up for the youngster.
After appearing in a couple of short films for MGM and RKO, Tommy auditioned for and won the role of Little Beaver in the 12-chapter "Red Ryder" cliffhanger at Republic. He also played the role on radio. On screen Tommy had to learn to ride a horse bareback (star Don Berry also had to learn to ride). While these first two roles were prominent parts that could have insured youthful stardom, it didn't. Tommy continued in films in both highly visible and unbilled parts. The former included active roles in Good Luck, Mr. Yates (1943); Hi, Buddy (1943); as Kimba, the Leopard Boy in Tarzan and the Leopard Woman (1946) with Johnny Weissmuller and Brenda Joyce; a Filipino in American Guerrilla in the Philippines (1950) starring Tyrone Power; and played lead delinquents in the films The Vicious Years (1950), for which he won a Photoplay Award for "Outstanding Performance," and in the sub-par propaganda film Teen-Age Crime Wave (1955).
More or less typed in exotic parts, his characters' names were usually dead giveaways -- Paco, Salim, Ponca, Mario, Chito, Pablo, Little Elk and Keoga among them. His transition from child to adult actor was rocky and eventually his career dissipated. A brawny, good-looking man, his short stature may have figured into the problem.
Tommy's days as a standout junior tennis player on the Southern California circuit eventually led to an entirely new existence in mid-life as a respected organizer (emcee/producer/director) of celebrity gala/charity events. He also created stories that led to the feature films Rollercoaster (1977) and Players (1979), the latter a love story with his beloved tennis serving as a background. Tommy has two children.- Actor
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Born in Los Angeles California on December 18, 1936, to Jeanie Dickson and Bill Gray, Gary would go on to work in such well-known films as Randolph Scott's Return of the Bad Men (1948), and the Loretta Young / William Holden / Robert Mitchum film, Rachel and the Stranger (1948). Bill Gray was a business manager for many celebrities in the film industry, and Gary''s career began as a result of two of his Dad's clients; Bert Wheeler (of Wheeler and Woolsey fame) and Jack Benny, who both recommended putting Gary in pictures, which Bill did. Gary Gray made his film debut in A Woman's Face (1941), with Joan Crawford. Following quickly with Sun Valley Serenade (1941), in which he portrayed a war orphan. His big break came when he landed the role of young Johnny in RKO's big-budget western, Return of the Bad Men (1948).
Before this hit was released, Gary beat out Bobby Driscoll for the part of young Davey, in the frontier epic, Rachel and the Stranger (1948).
In 1950, he played the son of Nancy Reagan and James Whitmore, in the classic, The Next Voice You Hear... (1950). His performance in that film led to a contract at MGM, where he starred with the original Lassie in the Technicolor The Painted Hills (1951).
After completing the latter, he spent more time attending school. Gary graduated from Van Nuys High, and went on to attended Valley College, where he majored in theater arts. Throughout the fifties, Gary continued to work, doing mainly television, guesting on many series.
Gary's fondness for the West, beginning with the film's he worked in, also gave him a love of horses, which he owned horses.
Gary returned to film, as a now young man, and appeared in the Universal-International western, Wild Heritage (1958). His last film was the cult western, Terror at Black Falls (1962), with House Peters Jr., and Peter Mamakos.
In 1960, Gary started a swimming pool maintenance and repair business. On January 28, of the following year, Gary married Jean Charlene Bean. They had 4 daughters and 19 grandchildren. For the last twenty-five years of his 38 years in the swimming pool industry, he worked for 2 of the major international manufacturers of equipment as territory, regional, and national sales manager.
Gary was a sought-after speaker, and educator for the National Spa and Pool Institute, as well as by the Independent Pool and Spa Service Association.
Gary retired in July,1999, and over the years, Gary had amassed many copies of his films and television appearances, as well as stills, posters, and lobby cards. Around this time, Garry had begun being guest at film festivals throughout the US. He enjoyed visiting with fans, and told many stories from his career.
In addition to spending time with his family, he enjoyed time on the golf course
Garry Gray died of cancer in 2006.- Actor
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Bobby Driscoll was a natural-born actor. Discovered by chance at the age of five-and-a-half in a barber shop in Altadena, CA. and then convincing in anything he ever undertook on the movie screen and on television throughout his career spanning 17 years (1943-1960). Includes such notable movie screen appearances as The Fighting Sullivans (1944), Song of the South (1946), So Dear to My Heart (1948), and The Window (1949), which was not only the sleeper of 1949 but even earned him his Academy Award in March 1950 as the outstanding juvenile actor of 1949. For his role as Jim Hawkins in Walt Disney's Treasure Island (1950), he eventually received his Hollywood Star on 1560 Vine Street, and in 1954 he was chosen in a nation-wide poll for a Milky Way Gold Star Award (for his work on TV and radio). But all the more tragic, then, was his fruitless struggle to find a place in a pitiless adolescent world after severe acne had stalled his acting career at 16. When his face was no longer charming and his voice not smooth enough to be used for voice-over jobs, his last big movie hit was the voice of animated Peter Pan (1953), for which he was also the live-action model. When his contract with the Disney studios was prematurely terminated shortly after the release of Peter Pan (1953) in late March 1953, his mother additionally took him from the talent-supporting Hollywood Professional School, which he attended by then. On his new School, the public Westwood University High School, on which he graduated in 1955, all of a sudden his former stardom became more burden than advantage. He successfully continued acting on TV until 1957 and even managed to get two final screen roles; in The Scarlet Coat (1955) and opposite of Mark Damon and Connie Stevens in The Party Crashers (1958). His life became more and more a roller coaster ride that included several encounters with the law and his eventual sentencing as a drug addict in October 1961. Released in early 1962, rehabilitated and eager to make a comeback, Bobby was ignored by the very industry that once had raised and nurtured him, because of his record as a convict and former drug addict. First famous... now infamous. Hoping to revive his career on the stage after his parole had expired in 1964, he eventually traveled to New York, only to learn that his reputation had preceded him, and no one wanted to hire him there, either. After a final appearance in Piero Heliczer's Underground short Dirt (1965) in 1965 and a short art-period at Andy Warhol's so-called Factory, he disappeared into the underground, thoroughly dispirited, funds depleted. On March 30, 1968, two playing children found his dead body in an abandoned East Village tenement. Believed to be an unclaimed and homeless person, he was buried in an unmarked pauper's grave on Hart Island, where he remains.- Actress
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Teresa Brewer made her debut on "The Major Bowes Amateur Hour" radio program in 1936 and toured with the show until 1943. She made her first recording in 1949 and her first big record was "Music! Music! Music!" It debuted on 4 February 1950 and was Number 1 on the Top 10 charts for four weeks.- Actress
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Beverly Simmons was born on 17 July 1938 in Alamosa, Colorado, USA. She was an actress, known for Little Miss Big (1946), Buck Privates Come Home (1947) and Cuban Pete (1946). She died on 3 February 2003 in Springfield, Lane County, Oregon, USA.- Actress
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Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor was considered one of the last, if not the last, major star to have come out of the old Hollywood studio system. She was known internationally for her beauty, especially for her violet eyes, with which she captured audiences early in her youth and kept the world hooked with ever after.
Taylor was born on February 27, 1932 in London, England. Although she was born an English subject, her parents, Sara Taylor (née Sara Viola Warmbrodt) and Francis Taylor, were Americans, art dealers from St. Louis, Missouri. Her father had moved to London to set up a gallery prior to Elizabeth's birth. Her mother had been an actress on the stage, but gave up that vocation when she married. Elizabeth lived in London until the age of seven, when the family left for the US when the clouds of war began brewing in Europe in 1939. They sailed without her father, who stayed behind to wrap up the loose ends of the art business.
The family relocated to Los Angeles, where Mrs. Taylor's own family had moved. Mr. Taylor followed not long afterward. A family friend noticed the strikingly beautiful little Elizabeth and suggested that she be taken for a screen test. Her test impressed executives at Universal Pictures enough to sign her to a contract. Her first foray onto the screen was in There's One Born Every Minute (1942), released when she was ten. Universal dropped her contract after that one film, but Elizabeth was soon picked up by MGM.
The first production she made with that studio was Lassie Come Home (1943), and on the strength of that one film, MGM signed her for a full year. She had minuscule parts in her next two films, The White Cliffs of Dover (1944) and Jane Eyre (1943) (the former made while she was on loan to 20th Century-Fox). Then came the picture that made Elizabeth a star: MGM's National Velvet (1944). She played Velvet Brown opposite Mickey Rooney. The film was a smash hit, grossing over $4 million. Elizabeth now had a long-term contract with MGM and was its top child star. She made no films in 1945, but returned in 1946 in Courage of Lassie (1946), another success. In 1947, when she was 15, she starred in Life with Father (1947) with such heavyweights as William Powell, Irene Dunne and Zasu Pitts, which was one of the biggest box office hits of the year. She also co-starred in the ensemble film Little Women (1949), which was also a box office huge success.
Throughout the 1950s, Elizabeth appeared in film after film with mostly good results, starting with her role in the George Stevens film A Place in the Sun (1951), co-starring her good friend Montgomery Clift. The following year, she co-starred in Ivanhoe (1952), one of the biggest box office hits of the year. Her busiest year was 1954. She had a supporting role in the box office flop Beau Brummell (1954), but later that year starred in the hits The Last Time I Saw Paris (1954) and Elephant Walk (1954). She was 22 now, and even at that young age was considered one of the world's great beauties. In 1955 she appeared in the hit Giant (1956) with James Dean.
Sadly, Dean never saw the release of the film, as he died in a car accident in 1955. The next year saw Elizabeth co-star with Montgomery Clift in Raintree County (1957), an overblown epic made, partially, in Kentucky. Critics called it dry as dust. In addition, Clift was seriously injured during the film, with Taylor helping save his life. Despite the film's shortcomings and off-camera tragedy, Elizabeth was nominated for an Academy Award for her portrayal of Southern belle Susanna Drake. However, on Oscar night the honor went to Joanne Woodward for The Three Faces of Eve (1957).
In 1958 Elizabeth starred as Maggie Pollitt in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958). The film received rave reviews from the critics and Elizabeth was nominated again for an Academy Award for best actress, but this time she lost to Susan Hayward in I Want to Live! (1958). She was still a hot commodity in the film world, though. In 1959 she appeared in another mega-hit and received yet another Oscar nomination for Suddenly, Last Summer (1959). Once again, however, she lost out, this time to Simone Signoret for Room at the Top (1958). Her Oscar drought ended in 1960 when she brought home the coveted statue for her performance in BUtterfield 8 (1960) as Gloria Wandrous, a call girl who is involved with a married man. Some critics blasted the movie but they couldn't ignore her performance. There were no more films for Elizabeth for three years. She left MGM after her contract ran out, but would do projects for the studio later down the road. In 1963 she starred in Cleopatra (1963), which was one of the most expensive productions up to that time--as was her salary, a whopping $1,000,000. The film took years to complete, due in part to a serious illness during which she nearly died.
This was the film where she met her future and fifth husband, Richard Burton (the previous four were Conrad Hilton, Michael Wilding, Mike Todd--who died in a plane crash--and Eddie Fisher). Her next films, The V.I.P.s (1963) and The Sandpiper (1965), were lackluster at best. Elizabeth was to return to fine form, however, with the role of Martha in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966). Her performance as the loudmouthed, shrewish, unkempt, yet still alluring Martha was easily her finest to date. For this she would win her second Oscar and one that was more than well-deserved. The following year, she and Burton co-starred in The Taming of The Shrew (1967), again giving winning performances. However, her films afterward were box office failures, including Reflections in a Golden Eye (1967), The Comedians (1967), Boom! (1968) (again co-starring with Burton), Secret Ceremony (1968), The Only Game in Town (1970), X, Y & Zee (1972), Hammersmith Is Out (1972) (with Burton again), Ash Wednesday (1973), Night Watch (1973), The Driver's Seat (1974), The Blue Bird (1976) (considered by many to be her worst), A Little Night Music (1977), and Winter Kills (1979) (a controversial film which was never given a full release and in which she only had a small role). She later appeared in some movies, both theatrical and made-for-television, and a number of television programs. In February 1997, Elizabeth entered the hospital for the removal of a brain tumor. The operation was successful. As for her private life, she divorced Burton in 1974, only to remarry him in 1975 and divorce him, permanently, in 1976. She had two more husbands, U.S. Senator John Warner and construction worker Larry Fortensky, whom she met in rehab.
In 1959, Taylor converted to Judaism, and continued to identify herself as Jewish throughout her life, being active in Jewish causes. Upon the death of her friend, actor Rock Hudson, in 1985, she began her crusade on behalf of AIDS sufferers. In the 1990s, she also developed a successful series of scents. In her later years, her acting career was relegated to the occasional TV-movie or TV guest appearance.
Elizabeth Taylor died on March 23, 2011 in Los Angeles, from congestive heart failure. Her final resting place is Forest Lawn Memorial Park, in Glendale, California.- Actress
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Gloria Jean Schoonover was born on April 14, 1926 in Buffalo, New York and she and her family moved to Scranton, Pennsylvania shortly afterward. Her father owned a music store; her mother, who had been a circus bareback rider, took care of Gloria and her three siblings.
Gloria's singing ability was discovered when she was little; by 5 she was singing in the Scranton area. At 12 she was taken to an audition by Universal director Joe Pasternak, who was looking for a new child singer to replace studio icon Deanna Durbin, who was being steered into ingenue and young-adult roles. Although hundreds of Shirley-Temple-perfect girls competed, natural-looking Gloria was chosen and she and her mother headed to Hollywood.
In 1939 Gloria made her first film, "The Under-Pup", which made her an instant hit with moviegoers. Happy with their young coloratura soprano, Universal cast her in "If I Had My Way," which co-starred Bing Crosby. Next came "A Little Bit of Heaven," which many consider her best film; then a co-starring role with W.C. Fields in "Never Give a Sucker an Even Break," her most-seen film.
At this point in 1941, Gloria was at the pinnacle of her career, yet her star wasn't soaring. She had outgrown her Little Miss Fixit roles, as Durbin had a few years earlier, but Durbin was in command of the older-girl roles for the better pictures. Unsure what to do with Jean, Universal moved her to the "Hepcat" movies, which appealed to the teenagers of that day. "What's Cooking", "Get Hep to Love", "When Johnny Comes Marching Home", and "It Comes Up Love," were all shot in 1942 and "Mr. Big," and "Moonlight in Vermont" followed in 1943; all were stock B-films. Like many Universal stars, Gloria had a few seconds onscreen in the war-effort picture "Follow the Boys" in 1944. After that came the rather good "Pardon My Rhythm" with Mel Torme, who became a close friend. Then in "Ghost Catchers" she was teamed with popular comedians Ole Olsen and Chic Johnson. The forgettable "Reckless Age" was next; its main distinction was as the first in which Gloria played a more mature role.
Gloria was to star in one of four episodes of Julien Duvivier's "Flesh and Fantasy," alongside such stars as Edward G. Robinson, Charles Boyer, and Barbara Stanwyck. But the movie was found to be too long and Gloria's segment was cut out. Some additional footage was added and the result was "Destiny." Gloria's performance won rave reviews, but the actual movie met with only modest success. Gloria followed this with three more Universal films: "I'll Remember April," "River Gang," and "Easy to Look At."
At this point, on bad advice from her agent, Gloria decided to go on tour instead of renewing her Universal contract. The tour underperformed and she returned to Hollywood in 1947, but she found herself in negligible demand. Groucho Marx gave her a minor role in his film "Copacabana"; this appearance ultimately landed her four more: in "I Surrender, Dear," "Manhattan Angel," "An Old-Fashioned Girl," and "There's a Girl in My Heart."
As the 1950s began, Gloria made several singing shorts that aired during television's early days. Other than that and a few guest appearances on TV series, her acting career was virtually finished. She appeared in 1955's forgettable "Air Strike" and worked in a couple of film that were never released. Jerry Lewis found her working as a restaurant hostess and gave her a part in his movie "The Ladies' Man," which was meant to relaunch her career, but her scenes didn't make the final cut. Shortly after, she was briefly married and had a son; at that point she virtually retired from the screen and went to work for the cosmetics firm Redken until 1993, when she retired.
Gloria was reintroduced to a limelight of sorts by the magic of eBay, where her movies, some of which are in the public domain, were being sold. With her sister Bonnie's help (she handled the computer end of things, as Gloria didn't do "Windows") she got onto eBay and sold copies of the movies she appeared in, as well as signed photographs of herself (old publicity shots). Spurred by the popularity of these, she published her autobiography, "Gloria Jean: A Little Bit of Heaven" in 2005.
After her sister Bonnie's death in 2007, Gloria moved to Hawaii to live with her son and his family.- Actress
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Jo Ann Marlowe was born Jo Ann Mares in Schuyler, NE in 1936 to Edward and Theora Mares.
Jo Ann was discovered on a family vacation in Hollywood at age 4 by a Warner Brothers director in a restaurant. The family relocated to California and Jo Ann took the stage name Jo Ann Marlowe.
Jo Ann acted for the next 10 years in 29 motion pictures including Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) which won an Oscar for James Cagney. Jo Ann played the role of 6 year old Josie Cohan. She is best known as the younger daughter, Kay, in Mildred Pierce (1945) with Joan Crawford and Ann Blyth.
Jo Ann left acting and went on to law school at Loyola University in Los Angeles and became a lawyer.
On September 10, 1960 she married John F. Dunne in California. The couple had a daughter, Kimberly who was born in 1963. The couple divorced in April 1968 in Los Angeles.
Jo Ann was a Chief Trial Lawyer for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Los Angeles until she suffered injuries in an accident in the late 1960's. Jo Ann was left in a coma until her death more than 22 years later when she died at her mother Theora Mares' home in Los Angeles.
Her mother Theora survived her until February 2011 when she passed away at age 96.
Jo Ann and her parents are buried at San Fernando Mission cemetery.- Actress
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Dawn Bender was born on 21 February 1935 in Glendale, California, USA. She is an actress, known for Teenagers from Outer Space (1959), The Actress (1953) and The Life of Riley (1953). She is married to Emmett Jacobs. She was previously married to Warren Vanders and Jerry Anderson.- Actress Peggy Ann Garner was born Feb. 3, 1932, in Canton, Ohio. Her father was an English-born attorney, William H. Garner, who served as a U.S. Army officer during World War II. Virginia, her determined mother, got Peggy into summer stock and modeling before she was six. Estranged from her husband, Virginia moved with her daughter to Hollywood a year later. Peggy was cast in several films before gaining fame as Francie Nolan in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945). After years of separation and estrangement, her parents were divorced in 1947. Peggy, who had a falling out with her mother, went to court to have her father appointed as her guardian.
By the time she reached 20, she had moved from Hollywood to New York to try her talents on Broadway. She spent much of the 1950s living and working in New York, studying with the Actors Studio. She appeared on stage with Dorothy Gish in The Man in 1950, A Royal Family in 1951 and Home is the Hero in 1954. She also was in the road company of Bus Stop in 1955. She received Harvard's Hasty Pudding Award for Woman of the Year in 1956.
Her film career began to fade as she grew older, but she did stage and television work as well as a few other films, never recapturing her childhood fame. Even while earning her living as a real estate broker in the 1960s and as a fleet automobile sales manager during the 1970s, she dreamed of a return to the screen.
She was married and divorced three times. Her second husband was actor Albert Salmi, by whom she had a daughter, Catherine who died shortly after her mother Peggy's untimely death from cancer. Peggy's mother Virginia outlived both her only child and only grandchild. - A child actress who showed heart-warming potential in the 1940s, child actress Sharyn Moffett (born Patricia Sharyn Moffett) was a cute presence in a number of sentimental tales. Closer to young Margaret O'Brien than Shirley Temple in type and demeanor, Sharyn was born on September 12, 1936 in Alameda, California to a show business family. Her mother was a dancer (billed as Gladyce Roberts) and her father, Bob Moffett, a singer and film bit player who once performed in burlesque shows and barbershop quartets. A younger brother, Gregory Moffett also went on to appear in films as a child actor.
Sharyn's parents, who met doing theater in Hollywood, left show business to raise their two children. The family eventually moved to Anaheim, California. They practically pushed her into a career from infancy with little results until the age of 8 when she won her first role, the lead in the animal movie My Pal Wolf (1944). From then on she added tyke charm and caring to a number of warm, sentimental tales that also featured animals, including A Boy, a Girl and a Dog (1946) and Rusty Leads the Way (1948). Her best role was a strong, dramatic part in her fourth film, Child of Divorce (1946) in which she was the focal point.
She had a central roles in Banjo (1947), Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House (1948) and in The Judge Steps Out (1948), which had brother Gregory making his film debut in an uncredited role. By her awkward teens, however, Sharyn's career had run out of steam and she departed after her second lead role opposite Margaret O'Brien in the slight summer camp tale Her First Romance (1951).
Sharyn eventually married and moved to Pennsylvania where she and her husband became Episcopalian ministers. Devoted to her spiritual work, she once was the national president of the "Big Sisters" organization. - Actor
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After Larry's first retirement, he worked at Arabian-American Oil Company refinery in Saudi Arabia for Fluor Daniel. Later, Larry was tasked to spearhead the implementation of the Telecommunications infrastructure for a Shell refinery in Rayong, Thailand, also at the employ of Fluor Daniel.
Then he remained in Thailand in true retirement.- Marjorie Ann Mutchie was born on 3 June 1939 in Los Angeles, California, USA. She is an actress, known for Blondie's Big Moment (1947), Footlight Glamour (1943) and Blondie's Lucky Day (1946).
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Anthony Newley was born in Hackney, London, England, to Frances Grace Newley and George Kirby, a shipping clerk. He was attracted to acting, after seeing an ad for a child actor in a Fleet Street window. He attended the Italia Conti Stage School from the age of 14 and, two years later, played the Artful Dodger in David Lean's film, Oliver Twist (1948). Newley was called up to the Army for his National Service and, by the late 1950s, had a hit song Idol on Parade (1959), while in the movie of the same name. He married his first wife, Tiller Girl Ann Lynn in 1956 but it was a rocky marriage and they divorced in 1963. He was in the pop charts seven times in 1960, twice at Number One with "Why?" and "Do You Mind?" written by Lionel Bart. In 1961, he collaborated with Leslie Bricusse on the hit stage show, Stop the World: I Want to Get Off (1966). After long runs in London and on Broadway, it was made into a film, starring Millicent Martin, with the hit song "What Kind of Fool Am I?". In 1963, he married Rank starlet Joan Collins. She described him at the time as "A half-Jewish Cockney git" and herself as a "half-Jewish princess from Bayswater via Sunset Boulevard". Newley's film career thrived, most notably with acting roles in Doctor Dolittle (1967) and The Cockleshell Heroes (1955), and as a writer and composer. His partnership with Bricusse continued with "The Roar of the Greasepaint: The Smell of the Crowd" and many other Oscar, Grammy and Ivor Novello award-winning collaborations. They had hit songs such as "The Candy Man" and "Goldfinger". His marriage to Joan Collins broke up in 1971. He had two of his four children with her. Tony was married a third time, to former air hostess Dareth Rich, only to divorce again. He once said "My only regret is that, in a show business career, you can have no private life". Alone and facing a battle against cancer, Newley moved in with his mother Gracie - now in her 90s - at her home in Esher, Surrey. The stage performances continued but were nothing to match his heyday. His last TV appearance was in "The Lakes" in February 1999. Anthony Newley died in April of that year.