TCM Remembers 1997 in Chronological Order
by thitipiew | created - 02 Dec 2022 | updated - 02 Dec 2022 | Public
1. Ronald Howard
Actor | Come September
The British actor Ronald Howard was born in Norwood, London, England, in 1918. He and his younger sister Leslie Ruth Howard were raised by their mother Ruth Evelyn Martin and their father, the renowned actor Leslie Howard. After college, Howard became a newspaper reporter for a while but decided to...
Actor - died 19 December 1996
2. Jack Nance
Actor | Eraserhead
Born in Boston of Irish ancestry and raised in Dallas, Jack Nance traveled throughout the country doing children's theater. For eight years, he performed with the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco. Later, he became involved with avant-garde theater. He first met David Lynch in the ...
Actor (my revision) - died 30 December 1996
3. Jesse White
Actor | It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
Lovable, laid-back Jesse White made acting seem fun and easy. He was born Jesse Marc Weidenfeld in Buffalo, New York, and was raised in Akron, Ohio. He made his first amateur appearance on the local stage at age 15. Before breaking into professional theater in the 1940s, he held many different jobs...
Actor - died 9 January 1997
4. Sheldon Leonard
Producer | Make Room for Daddy
Sheldon Leonard was born in New York City's lower Manhattan, the son of Jewish parents. He studied acting at Syracuse University and, after graduating, landed a job on Wall Street. Following the Wall Street crash of 1929, he found himself unemployed and resolved to become a professional actor on ...
Actor - died 10 January 1997
5. Diana Lewis
Actress | It's a Gift
Diana Lewis was born on September 18, 1919 in Asbury Park, New Jersey. Her parents were vaudeville performers. The family moved to Hollywood and Diana, her sister Maxine, and her brother J.C. all went into show business. Diana made her film debut in the comedy It's a Gift (1934). At the age of ...
Actress - died 18 January 1997
6. Polly Ann Young
Actress | Port of Hate
Polly Ann Young was born on October 25, 1908 in Denver, Colorado, USA. She was an actress, known for Port of Hate (1939), Turnabout (1940) and The Man from Utah (1934). She was married to Carter Hermann. She died on January 21, 1997 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
Actress - died 21 January 1997
7. Marjorie Reynolds
Actress | The Time of Their Lives
Bright, vivacious Marjorie Reynolds (née Goodspeed) was born in Idaho on August 12, 1917 to a homemaker and a doctor and raised in Los Angeles. She made her film debut at age 6, then "retired" after only a few years to pursue a regular education.
She returned in the mid-1930s as a teenager and began...
Actress - died 1 February 1997
8. Don Porter
Actor | She-Wolf of London
Don Porter was born on September 24, 1912 in Miami, Oklahoma, USA. He was an actor and director, known for She-Wolf of London (1946), Night Monster (1942) and Danger Woman (1946). He was married to Peggy Converse. He died on February 11, 1997 in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA.
Actor - died 11 February 1997
9. Fred Zinnemann
Director | A Man for All Seasons
Initially grew up wanting to be a violinist, but while at the University of Vienna decided to study law. While doing so, he became increasingly interested in American film and decided that was what he wanted to do. He became involved in European filmaking for a short time before going to America to...
Director - died 14 March 1997
10. Jean Louis
Costume_designer | From Here to Eternity
This Hollywood costume designer is best known for his creation of the strapless black gown worn by Rita Hayworth in Gilda (1946). He also designed the gowns worn by Loretta Young during her swirling entrances in her "Loretta Young Show" on TV during the 50's and 60's. (Decades later, he and Miss ...
Costume Designer - died 20 April 1997
11. Pat Paulsen
Actor | The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour
Pat Paulsen was a comedian specializing in satire who thrived on television in the late 1960s. The highlight of his career came in the watershed year 1968 when - emulating Gracie Allen''s quixotic 1940 Presidential bid as the Surprise Party candidate - he launched his own campaign for the U.S. ...
Comedian - died 24 April 1997
12. Gabriel Figueroa
Cinematographer | La perla
Gabriel Figueroa was born on April 24, 1907 in Mexico City, Distrito Federal, Mexico. He was a cinematographer, known for The Pearl (1947), The Young and the Damned (1950) and Maria Candelaria (1944). He died on April 27, 1997 in Mexico City, Distrito Federal, Mexico.
Cinematographer - died 27 April 1997
13. Sydney Guilaroff
Make_up_department | North by Northwest
Sydney Guilaroff was born on November 2, 1907 in London, England, UK. He was an actor, known for North by Northwest (1959), The Time Machine (1960) and An American in Paris (1951). He died on May 28, 1997 in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA.
Hair Stylist - died 28 May 1997
14. Richard Jaeckel
Actor | Starman
Stocky tough-guy character actor Richard Jaeckel was one of Hollywood's most prolific supporting stars. Born in Long Island, New York, on October 10, 1926, Jaeckel's family moved to Los Angeles when he was still in his teens. After graduation from Hollywood High School, Jaeckel was discovered by a ...
Actor - died 14 June 1997
15. Rosina Lawrence
Actress | Way Out West
This gorgeous green-eyed blonde was born in Canada to British parents and spent her early childhood attending schools in Canada, England, Boston and Los Angeles (where her father worked as a stage carpenter and set designer). She studied ballet for four years and tap dancing for another at the ...
Actress - died 23 June 1997
16. Brian Keith
Actor | The Parent Trap
Son of character actor Robert Keith and stage actress Helena Shipman. He grew up on the road with his parents while they toured in plays. First appeared at age 3 in film Pied Piper Malone (1924) with his father. Began acting in radio programs and on stage before World War II. Joined the Marines and ...
Actor - died 24 June 1997
17. Jacques-Yves Cousteau
Producer | Le monde du silence
Jacques-Yves Cousteau was born on June 11, 1910, in Saint-André-de-Cubzac (Gironde) in France. He entered the naval academy in 1930, was graduated and became a gunnery officer. Then, while he was training to be a pilot, a serious car accident ended his aviation career. In order to rehabilitate his ...
Director - died 25 June 1997
18. William Hickey
Actor | National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation
Son of Edward & Nora Hickey. Best known as the ancient Mafia don in Prizzi's Honor (1985), Hickey had a long, distinguished career in film, television, and the stage. Began career as a child actor on the variety stage. Made Broadway debut as walk-on in George Bernard Shaw's "Saint Joan" (1951 ...
Actor (my revision) - died 29 June 1997
19. Robert Mitchum
Actor | Out of the Past
Robert Mitchum was an underrated American leading man of enormous ability, who sublimated his talents beneath an air of disinterest. He was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, to Ann Harriet (Gunderson), a Norwegian immigrant, and James Thomas Mitchum, a shipyard/railroad worker. His father died in a ...
Actor - died 1 July 1997
20. James Stewart
Actor | Vertigo
James Maitland Stewart was born on May 20, 1908, in Indiana, Pennsylvania, to Elizabeth Ruth (Johnson) and Alexander Maitland Stewart, who owned a hardware store. He was of Scottish, Ulster-Scots, and some English descent. Stewart was educated at a local prep school, Mercersburg Academy, where he ...
Actor - died 2 July 1997
21. Sally Blane
Actress | Forbidden Company
Although this lovely, light brown-haired leading lady would wind up better known as one of Loretta Young's two elder acting sisters, Sally Blane nevertheless enjoyed a lively albeit modest "B" film career during the late 1920s and 1930s. The resemblance to her "A"-level sister was very strong -- ...
Actress - died 27 August 1997
22. Burgess Meredith
Actor | Clash of the Titans
One of the truly great and gifted performers of the century, who often suffered lesser roles, Burgess Meredith was born in 1907 in Cleveland, Ohio. He was educated in Amherst College in Massachusetts, before joining Eva Le Gallienne's Student Repertory stage company in 1929. By 1934 he was a star ...
Actor - died 9 September 1997
23. Red Skelton
Writer | The Red Skelton Show
The son of a former circus clown turned grocer and a cleaning woman, Red Skelton was introduced to show business at the age of seven by Ed Wynn, at a vaudeville show in Vincennes. At age 10, he left home to travel with a medicine show through the Midwest, and joined the vaudeville circuit at age 15....
Comedian - died 17 September 1997
24. Dorothy Kingsley
Writer | Seven Brides for Seven Brothers
The daughter of silent-screen star Alma Hanlon and Broadway writer/press agent Walter Kingsley, Dorothy Kingsley began her career as an uncredited gag writer for the Bob Hope Radio Show and, later, the Edgar Bergen Radio Show. Producer Arthur Freed put her under contract to MGM; her first ...
Screenwriter - died 26 September 1997
25. David Gill
Producer | American Masters
David Gill was born on June 9, 1928 in Territory of New Guinea [now Papua New Guinea]. He was a producer and director, known for American Masters (1985), Unknown Chaplin (1983) and Buster Keaton: A Hard Act to Follow (1987). He was married to Pauline Wadsworth. He died on September 28, 1997 in ...
Film Historian - died 28 September 1997
26. Samuel Fuller
Writer | Shock Corridor
At age 17, Samuel Fuller was the youngest reporter ever to be in charge of the events section of the New York Journal. After having participated in the European battle theater in World War II, he directed some minor action productions for which he mostly wrote the scripts himself and which he also ...
Director - died 30 October 1997
27. Saul Chaplin
Music_department | West Side Story
Composer, songwriter ("Bei Mir Bist Du Schon," "Until the Real Thing Comes Along," "Anniversary Song"), pianist, conductor, arranger, author and producer, educated at the NYU School of Commerce. As a young man, he joined an orchestra as pianist, and Sammy Cahn was in that orchestra as a violinist. ...
Music Arranger - died 15 November 1997
28. Stubby Kaye
Actor | Guys and Dolls
Sunny, lovable tenor Stubby Kaye with his butterball frame kept his real name a secret for his entire career. He was born Bernard Kotzin in New York and started off in the world of entertainment in 1939 after winning a radio contest. Touring as a comedian in vaudeville for over a decade, he also ...
Actor - died 14 December 1997
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