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- Music Department
- Composer
- Soundtrack
Learining all about music and instruments Von Weber moved around Germany changing his teachers once in a while. In 1813 he became "Kapellmeister" in Prague and in 1816 music director of the "Deutsche Oper" in Dresden. There he supported German operas instead of the Italian ones which were very popular at his time - nevertheless his masterpiece "Der Freischuetz" was played for the first time in Berlin which was known to be more liberal. Was in London for a concert when he crontracted and died because of a disease.- Writer
- Soundtrack
Paul Siraudin was born on 18 December 1812 in Paris, France. He was a writer, known for Airs de France (1955), Lika mot lika (1906) and L'affaire du courrier de Lyon (1923). He died on 8 September 1883 in Enghien-les-Bains, France.- Alexandre Chatrian was born on 18 December 1826 in Abreschviller, Moselle, France. He was a writer, known for The Bells (1918), Polish Jew (1931) and The Death-Bell (1917). He died on 3 September 1890 in Villemomble, Seine-Saint-Denis, France.
- Writer
- Additional Crew
- Soundtrack
Viktor Rydberg was born on 18 December 1828 in Jönköping, Jönköpings län, Sweden. He was a writer, known for The Wind Is My Lover (1949), Gentlemen (2014) and Noll tolerans (1999). He was married to Susen Emilia Hasselblad. He died on 21 September 1895 in Djursholm, Stockholms län, Sweden.- Music Department
- Soundtrack
Born in New York City in 1861, pianist/composer Edward MacDowell formally studied music at an early age. He went to Paris, France, at age 15 and attended the world-famous Conservatoire. Two years later he left France and traveled to Germany, where he studied at the Frankfurt Conservatory. He found his niche there, and three years later he was appointed head piano instructor at the Darmstadt Conservatory, where he began his composing career. He worked with famed composer Franz Liszt, who was impressed with his work and encouraged him to continue composing. His compositions met with success in Europe, and he returned to the US in 1884, where he married Harriet Nevins, who had been one of his pupils in Germany. They returned to Germany shortly thereafter, living in Wiesbaden until 1888, when they went back to the US and settled in Boston, Massachusetts. He began to teach music privately, and performed works of his own and other musicians' all over the city.
In 1896 he was offered the job of head of the new Music Department at Columbia University in New York, and he accepted. There he began an orchestra and a chorus, but when he attempted to make the musical arts part of the academic curriculum, he ran into strong opposition from the more conservative academics, who argued that serious music students did not study at American universities but traveled to Europe for study, as he did. He was not able to overcome those faculty objections, and, exasperated, he resigned from his position and took to his farm in Peterborough, New Hampshire. Although he continued to compose music, he rarely made public appearances after that incident. He died in New York City on January 23, 1908.- Born on December 18, 1863, the eldest son of Archduke Karl-Ludwig von Habsburg and his wife, Princess Annunziata di Borbone, Franz Ferdinand was third in line to the thrown of the Austro-Hungarian Empire upon his birth. After his cousin Crown Prince Rudolf committed suicide in 1889 and his father died in 1896, Franz Ferdinand became the heir of his aging uncle Emperor Franz Josef. He eloped with Countess Sophie Chotek in 1900, but this marriage was considered unequal and they were forced to renounce rights of rank and succession for their three children. A radical reformist, Franz Ferdinand had a number of new ideas he planned to implement when he became Emperor, one of them giving Slavs an equal voice in the empire. After the annexation of Bosnia by Austria, he decided to go on a tour of his new province in 1914 in hopes of fostering good will with his new subjects. A Serbian terrorist group called The Black Hand sent three of its members to murder Franz Ferdinand and his wife as they visited Sarajevo. Their first assassination attempt, throwing a bomb at the Archduke's car, failed, though a number of bystanders were wounded. The assassins almost gave up their plans, and one of them, Gavrilo Princip, wandered off down the street. Meanwhile, the Archduke and Archduchess decided to visit the wounded in the hospital, but their driver took a wrong turn and they ended up on the same street as Princip. Seizing his chance, Princip stepped forward and fired several times into the car, fatally wounding both Franz Ferdinand and Sophie. They were raced to the governor's mansion where they were pronounced dead. Not only did this act of violence orphan their three young children, it also set off a series of events that led directly to World War I.
- Hector Hugh Munro was born on 18 December 1870 in Akyab, Burma [now Myanmar]. He was a writer, known for Great Ghost Tales (1961), Tales of the Unexpected (1979) and The Addends. He died on 13 November 1916 in Beaumont-Hamel, Somme, France.
- Margaret Gordon was born on 18 December 1876 in Brooklyn, New York, USA. She was an actress, known for Our Friends the Hayseeds (1917). She died on 9 May 1920 in New York, New York, USA.
- Actor
- Director
Ralph Delmore was born on 18 December 1853 in New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor and director, known for The Conquest of Canaan (1916), The Cynic (1914) and The Stolen Heart (1913). He was married to Gertrude Daws (actress 1874-1916) and Angy Griffith (actress 1857-1888). He died on 21 November 1923 in New York City, New York, USA.- Nathan Bay Scott was born on 18 December 1842 in Guernsey County, Ohio, USA. He died on 2 January 1924.
- Lionel Monckton was born on 18 December 1861 in London, England, UK. He was married to Gertie Millar. He died on 15 February 1924 in London, England, UK.
- Imre Pethes was born on 18 December 1864 in Jászárokszállás, Hungary. He was an actor, known for A síron túl (1923), A szentjóbi erdö titka (1917) and Christoph Columbus (1923). He was married to Etel Kocsis. He died on 14 November 1924 in Budapest, Hungary.
- Director
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
- Writer
Max Gold was born on 18 December 1898 in New York City, New York, USA. He was a director and assistant director, known for Officer of the Day (1926), Hello Lafayette (1927) and Neptune's Stepdaughter (1925). He was married to Rosa Lee Mayer. He died on 2 January 1930 in Santa Monica, California, USA.- Anders Randolf was born Anders Randrup in Denmark 1870.
His parents were Matthius Randrup and Kristine Jensen. He had a number of siblings - two of which were sisters Kirstine Randrup born in 1884 and Jensine Marie Randrup born 1880. He grew up on Old Rybjergaard farm, living with an Aunt rather than his parents. Her name was Marie (Randrup) and she was married to Anders Kristian Jensen.
Anders moved to the USA around 1890-1893. When Anders first got to the USA he went to live with an Aunt in Denver. When she died a short time later he moved to Chicago and entered the army. He became an officer and taught fencing. In 1912 he moved to New York and started working for movie studio Vitagraph.
He got married in the United States. His wife was Dorthea Amdersine Jorgensen (b. 1890) and she was from Denmark. They had one daughter Karen Kristine Randolf (1917-1989). After his death in 1930 there was a grand funeral in Hollywood. A short time later his wife and daughter moved back to Denmark.
In 1942 his daughter had one son who was named Peter Michael Mogens Randolf. (Father unclear but her son was given the Randolf surname)) His Grandson Peter married (Kirsten) and they had a son named Anders Peter Randolf II, born July 26,1973. His grandson died in 1991. - Max Pallenberg was born on 18 December 1877 in Vienna, Austria-Hungary [now Austria]. He was an actor, known for The Upright Sinner (1931), Kapellmeister Pflegekind (1915) and Max und seine zwei Frauen (1915). He was married to Fritzi Massary and Betty Franke. He died on 26 June 1934 in near Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic.
- William 'Stage' Boyd was born on 18 December 1889 in New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for The Lost City (1935), The Midnight Warning (1932) and The Spoilers (1930). He was married to Clara Joel and Margaret Christiansen. He died on 20 March 1935 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Carl Austin Weiss was born on 18 December 1905 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA. He was married to Yvonne Pavy. He died on 8 September 1935 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA.
- Margit T. Halmi was born on 18 December 1876 in Budapest, Hungary. She was an actress, known for A skorpió I. (1918), A föld embere (1917) and A kuruzsló (1917). She was married to Frigyes Tanay. She died on 3 December 1936 in Budapest, Hungary.
- Producer
- Director
- Writer
Madeline Brandeis was born on 18 December 1897 in San Francisco, California, USA. She was a producer and director, known for The Star Prince (1918), Not One to Spare (1924) and Maud Muller (1924). She was married to Dr. Joseph A. Sampson and E. John Brandeis. She died on 28 June 1937 in Gallup, New Mexico, USA.- Florence Court was born on 18 December 1893 in Buffalo, New York, USA. She was an actress, known for The Fatal Hour (1920). She died on 25 July 1937 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Angelo Musco was born on 18 December 1871 in Catania, Sicily, Italy. He was an actor, known for L'eredità dello zio (1934), The Money King (1936) and God's Will Be Done (1936). He died on 6 October 1937 in Milan, Lombardy, Italy.
- H.A. Saintsbury was born on 18 December 1867 in Chelsea, London, England, UK. He was an actor, known for The Valley of Fear (1916). He was married to Florence Alice Bridget. He died on 19 June 1939 in London, England, UK.
- Additional Crew
- Art Department
Paul Klee was born on December 18, 1879, in Munchenbuchsee, near Berne, Switzerland. His father, named Hans Klee, was a music teacher. Young Klee started lessons in music and art at the age of 7. He studied art at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich. There his teacher was Franz von Stuck, who also taught Wassily Kandinsky. After graduation in 1901, Klee traveled to Italy and then back to Switzerland. He lived in Bern until 1906, then settled in Munich. There he joined Wassily Kandinsky, Franz Marc, and other avant-garde artists, and became associated with the art movement Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider). In Munich Klee married Bavarian pianist Lily Stumpf; they had on son.
Klee was impressed by the quality of the light in Mediterranian countries. After his first visits to Italy, he also visited Tunisia in 1914, and Egypt in 1928. These visits greatly influenced Klee's painting making color central to his art. He developed his own style in a loose association with Expressionism, Cubism, and Surrealism. Klee used a combination of oil paint with watercolor and ink in his works. He sometimes included music notation, hieroglyphs, and other ornamental elements in his compositions. From 1921-1931 Klee maintained close association with Wassily Kandinsky and had a teaching position at Bauhaus. Later he taught at the Dusseldorf Academy of Art. Klee and other avant-garde artists were denounced by the Nazis as "degenerate art" in 1933. His home in Dessau was searched by police and by Nazi paratroopers and Klee was fired from teaching position. He fled to Switzerland the same year. Soon Klee started loosing his eyesight and was later diagnosed with scleroderma. He died on June 29, 1940, in Muralto-Locarno, Switzerland.
Paul Klee was one of the most lyrical and whimsical artists of his time. He produced more than eight thousand works of art. Half of his heritage was saved from being liquidated under the Washington Convention, over four thousand works now belong to Paul Klee Centre in Berne, Switzerland. A painting by Paul Klee was recently sold for $7,500,000 at an auction.- Actor
- Director
- Writer
Sidney Bracey was born on 18 December 1877 in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. He was an actor and director, known for The Monster Walks (1932), The Million Dollar Mystery (1914) and Show People (1928). He was married to Evelyn Foshay. He died on 5 August 1942 in Hollywood, California, USA.- Actor
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
- Director
Cliff Saum was born on 18 December 1882 in Columbus, Ohio, USA. He was an actor and assistant director, known for Kaiser's Finish (1918), Fashion Madness (1928) and The Tigress (1927). He died on 5 March 1943 in Glendale, California, USA.- Will Armstrong was born on 18 December 1868 in Peoria, Illinois, USA. He was an actor, known for A Boy of the Streets (1927), Clancy's Kosher Wedding (1927) and Red Fork Range (1931). He was married to Maudie Smith (performer) and Clara L. Darrow. He died on 29 July 1943 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Sound Department
H. Lynge was born on 18 December 1891 in Denmark. H. is known for En søndag på Amager (1941), En mand af betydning (1941) and Alle mand paa dæk (1942). H. died on 6 October 1944 in Denmark.- Hilda Fredriksen was born on 18 December 1873 in Kristiania, Norway. She was an actress, known for Madame Visits Oslo (1927), Syv dager for Elisabeth (1927) and Baldevins bryllup (1926). She died on 30 January 1945 in Oslo, Norway.
- Edith Joan Lyttelton, who wrote under the pseudonym G. B. Lancaster, was at one time New Zealand's most successful author. She was born at Clyne Vale, a sheep station not far from Campbell Town in Tasmania, a daughter of Westcote McNab Lyttleton and Emily Wood. Around 1879 her father, who had managed Clyne Vale, moved his family to New Zealand after assuming management of Rokeby, a sheep station south of Christchurch.
Lyttleton's writing career began by submitting short stories to the New Zealand Illustrated Magazine. Because of her mother's view that it was unbecoming of women to be writers, she published these stories under the pseudonym Keron Hale. Later, after her real identity was revealed, she adopted the name, G. B. Lancaster, a character from her first successful story. She was the most prolific of the New Zealand contributors to The Australian and the Bulletin, by the time of her move to England in 1909, they had published at least sixty of her short stories.
Her first success, "The Law-Bringers", was published in 1913, she would go on to author 11 novels and over 250 short stories and other works. Amongst her more popular were "Pageant" (1933), which topped the best-seller chart in America for six months, "Promenade" (1938) and "Grand Parade" (1943). Her stories usually revolved around the legacy of imperialism and were set in colonial Australia, New Zealand or Canada.
During World War I she did volunteer work for the Red Cross in London and had assisted Dominion soldiers while they were on leave there. She also wrote several patriotic articles that appeared in newspapers of many allied nations.
Edith Joan Lyttleton died on 10 March, 1945 at London, after many months of declining health. - Actor
- Writer
- Soundtrack
Orson Welles once called beloved French character star Raimu (né Jules Auguste Cesar Muraire) "the greatest actor who ever lived." It is hard to argue the compliment of one genius to another.
The jowly, cigar-chomping comedian was born in Toulon, France on December 17, 1883 of very humble means, his father making ends meet as an upholsterer. Raimu began his stage career at age 16 as a music hall extra imitating famous French comic idols. Using the stage name of Raimut (he later dropped the "t"), he eventually gained a following in dance halls, cafe concerts, nightclubs and pubs as an entertainer but cemented his reputation on the Parisian comedy stages. Around this time, he also began to appear in minor roles in silent film shorts (1911-1917), but nothing much came from them and he left the screen.
Continuing to thrive on the live stage, Raimu's serious intentions as an actor were solidified with the 1929 stage production of the Marcel Pagnol play "Marius," which told story of a wanderlust sailor, his wife Fanny and father César. Raimu transferred the role of César brilliantly to the film trilogy Marius (1931), Fanny (1932) and César (1936) all co-starring Pierre Fresnay as Marius and Orane Demazis as Fanny. He went on to work with Pagnol quite frequently.
Closely identifying himself with the iron-willed working class, Raimu swayed quite effectively from humor to great pathos in characters that reminded one in looks and flavor of a grubby, weary-looking Honoré de Balzac. Immortalized in Pagnol's trilogy, arguably celebrated as the greatest series ever put together, Raimu continued to charm in primarily 1930's social comedies. His star role with leads in Le blanc et le noir (1931), La petite chocolatière (1932), Mam'zelle Nitouche (1931), Théodore et Cie (1933), the title roles in Charlemagne (1933) and Tartarin de Tarascon (1934), The King (1936), Let's Make a Dream (1936), Confessions of a Newlywed (1937), Heroes of the Marne (1938), Monsieur Brotonneau (1939) and Noix de coco (1939). For his superb work in both Julien Duvivier's Life Dances On (1937) and Pagnol's The Baker's Wife (1938), he won the National Board of Review award.
Along the way Raimu worked with a host of legendary directors including Marc Allégret, Henri Decoin, Alexander Esway and Sacha Guitry. His film popularity continued to soar into the war years with roles in Pagnol's The Well-Digger's Daughter (1940), as well as The Man Who Seeks the Truth (1940), Strangers in the House (1942), Midnight in Paris (1942), Little Nothings (1941), The Heart of a Nation (1943) and the title role in Balzac's Le colonel Chabert (1943). He also returned to the theatre in such productions as "The Bourgeois Gentleman" and "The Imaginary Invalid."
Raimu returned to filming following the war with Hoboes in Paradise (1946) co-starring Fernandel. In March of 1946, while shooting his next post-war film The Eternal Husband (1946), he was involved in a car accident that would require some surgery. The 62-year-old actor died of a heart attack on September 20th following an allergic reaction to anesthesia while on the table for a minor leg operation. The outpouring of grief felt by his native country was monumental.
Survived by wife (from 1936) Esther Metayer (1905-1977) and daughter, Paulette Brun (1925-1992). Raimu was laid to rest in a cemetery in the town where he was born. In 1961, the French government placed his image on an honorary postage stamp.- Actor
- Additional Crew
Everett Sullivan was born on 18 December 1885 in Chico, California, USA. He was an actor, known for The Burglars' Picnic (1916), Help! Help! (1915) and The Spot on the Rug (1932). He was married to Elizabeth M. Cooper. He died on 22 October 1946 in Los Angeles County, California, USA.- Born in Madrid from Eloísa Carrere Moreno, a single mother of 29 who died a month after giving birth, and Senén Canido Pardo. The father, a lawyer with political ambitions, disowned him, perhaps to avoid complications in his career. However, when he died he bequeathed most of his library to his natural son, as well as a large sum of money. Motherless a month after his birth, Carrere was entrusted to her grandmother, with whom he remained until his father later changed his mind and wanted to take him.
His first vocation was painting; then he became interested in the theater, which led him to enroll at the school of declamation Workers Instructional Center, where classes were given to the poor. At school he became fond of billiards, where he met the zarzuela's composer Federico Chueca. His grandmother fell ill and his father helped on him putting Carrere as a clerk in the Court of Auditors.
Carrere published his first verses in the weekly 'Wasp' and 'The Spark' and frequented the literary circles. He made friendship with the painter Julio Romero de Torres. In 1902 he published his first book, 'Romantic'. Under the influence of the French damn poets (especially, Verlaine, whose 'Saturnian Poems' translated and published in 1928), he was fascinated by the bohemian life.
He was married in 1906 with Milagros Saenz de Miera. In the same year, his friendship with the publisher and bookseller Gregorio Pueyo led him to prepare an anthology of modernist poetry, which was published with the title 'The court poets' anthology of modern rhymes, and in the prologue defended the new aesthetic passion and his mentor, Rubén Darío. In 1908 he wrote the poem that would give him an unprecedented popularity, "The Muse of the stream," included in his second collection of poems, 'The Death Knight', and which reflected his bohemian and decadent life conception. In 1907 he began publishing in magazines short novels on the Madrid underworld of the time: 'The brotherhood of the pirouette', 'The sadness of the brothel', 'The conquest of the Puerta del Sol', 'A terrible man', 'The destination clown','The Sixth Sense'or 'An Unlikely crime'.
Accompanied by other Bohemians, like Pedro Barrantes, Alejandro Sawa, Ciro Bayo and Pedro Luis de Gálvez he took the messy topical nightlife. Between 1910 and 1912 he collaborated with the journal 'Socialist Life', perhaps led by his sympathy for the oppressed. Between 1919 and 1922 his complete works were published. In 1922 it appeared 'Sacrifice', a novel set in the wars in Morocco. Very popular poet, the love of gambling and extravagance forced him to find a source of supplementary income in the theater. However, the economy did not stabilize until 1929, when his father died leaving him a substantial inheritance which he would not know administer. By then, he had become a monarchist and anti-Republican. Between 1935 and 1936 he collaborated on 'Information', an ultra-conservative publication financed by the banker Juan March. After the Civil War, he worked in the newspaper 'Madrid', gaining back some notoriety. Attached to Franco's regime, died on April 30, 1947. Like other authors who meant the dictatorship for, his work fell into oblivion after being rediscovered in the late twentieth century, coinciding with renewed interest for bohemian fantasy literature. Both his novel 'The tower of the seven hunchbacked' (1924) and its film adaptation are considered classics of the genre.
He was appointed official chronicler of the Villa de Madrid on November 11, 1943. - Blonde and utterly beautiful, Mary Nolan had the requisite figure and prettiness to rise up fast in the Hollywood ranks. Her downfall, however, would be just as fast and not at all pretty.
She was born Mary Imogene Robertson in 1905 and began her show-business career as a teenage model. Showman Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. took a gander at her--and her gorgeous gams--and signed up the young beauty for his "Follies" shows. A Jazz-Age baby and party girl by nature, Mary (who was using the moniker Imogene Wilson) had already earned the somewhat dubious nickname of "Bubbles" while working in New York, but she made the fatal career mistake of involving herself with a married Ziegfeld comedian and stirring up a major sex scandal. Frank Tinney was a top headliner married to musical comedy star Edna Davenport at the time. Mary's relationship with Tinney became quite abusive and the tabloids exposed the affair after Mary was seriously hospitalized during one of their many arguments. As a third-party husband-stealer, Mary received no comfort at all despite her injuries, and was summarily fired by Ziegfeld.
Forced to flee to Germany to avoid the negative attention, Mary starred in a few films there under the new moniker Imogene Robertson. She weathered the storm for almost two years in Europe before returning unobtrusively to Hollywood films in 1927 under another new stage name--Mary Nolan.
She proved a capable if not exceptional leading lady, pacing herself well in such films as West of Zanzibar (1928) with Lon Chaney, Desert Nights (1929)--one of John Gilbert's last vehicles--and Outside the Law (1930), a gangster flick opposite Edward G. Robinson. She even appeared top-billed in a few minor efforts, including Shanghai Lady (1929) and Young Desire (1930), but Docks of San Francisco (1932) would prove to be her last film appearance.
Troubled over her sudden and inexplicable reversal of fortune, she unfortunately let her self-destructive tendencies kick in again. Broke and despondent, she suffered several nervous breakdowns and her health declined due to acute malnutrition and a variety of physical ailments. She turned to heroin, and it spelled the end.
Little was heard from her until 1948, when she died of cardiac arrest and liver problems. She was only 45 years old. Mary became just one more Hollywood tragedy -- an incredible beauty whose life turned absolutely beastly. - Marie Wright was born on 18 December 1861 in Woolwich, London, England, UK. She was an actress, known for Silver Top (1938), A Cup of Kindness (1934) and Quinneys (1919). She was married to Nelson Barry. She died on 1 May 1949 in Hendon, Middlesex, England, UK.
- Jenõ Szigeti was born on 18 December 1890 in Debrecen, Hungary. He was an actor, known for Mámi (1937), Hyppolit a lakáj (1931) and Hotel Kikelet (1937). He died on 12 December 1949 in Budapest, Hungary.
- Cinematographer
Lee Bartholomew was born on 18 December 1877 in the USA. Lee was a cinematographer, known for The Hopes of Blind Alley (1914), The Forbidden Room (1914) and A Small Town Girl (1915). Lee died on 2 October 1950 in St. Louis, Missouri, USA.- Animation Department
- Art Department
Fred Brunish was born on 18 December 1902 in New York, USA. Fred is known for The Overture to 'William Tell' (1947), The Woody Woodpecker Show (1957) and Scrappy Birthday (1949). Fred died on 28 June 1952 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Music Department
- Actor
- Soundtrack
Legendary composer ("Down South Camp Meeting"), pianist, conductor, accompanist and arranger, educated at Atlanta University. He came to New York in 1920, was pianist with the W.C. Handy orchestra, and then joined Black Swan Records. He toured as accompanist to Ethel Waters, and led his own band in night clubs and theaters and made many records. His arranging duties included the orchestras of Isham Jones, the Dorsey Brothers, and Benny Goodman. He joined the Goodman band as pianist in 1939 and re-formed the orchestra in 1944, then began arranging in 1946. He composed the stage score for "The Jazz Train" (Bop City, New York), and also led the orchestra, and later his own sextet (from 1950). Joining ASCAP in 1948, his other popular-song and instrumental compositions include "Stampede", "It's Wearing Me Down", "No, Baby, No", "Wrapping It Up'', and "Bumble Bee Stomp".- Actor
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Harry Haskins was born on 18 December 1870 in New York, New York, USA. He was an actor and assistant director, known for Risky Business (1926), Forbidden Paths (1917) and Jules of the Strong Heart (1918). He died on 7 February 1953 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Additional Crew
Joseph Stalin (a code name meaning "Man of Steel") was born Iosif (Joseph) Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili in 1878 in Gori, Georgia, the Transcaucasian part of the Russian Empire. His father was a cobbler named Vissarion Dzhugashvili, a drunkard who beat him badly and frequently and left the family when Joseph was young. His mother, Ekaterina Gheladze, supported herself and her son (her other three children died young and Jopseph was effectively an only child) by taking in washing. She managed, despite great hardship, to send Joseph to school and then on to Tiflis Orthodox Theological Seminary in Tbilisi, hoping he would become a priest. However, after three years of studies he was expelled in 1899, for not attending an exam and for propagating communist ideas and the books of Karl Marx.
Since 1898, Stalin became active in the Communist underground as the organizer of a powerful gang involved in a series of armed robberies. After robbing several banks in southern Russia, Stalin delivered the stolen money to Vladimir Lenin to finance the Communist Party. Stalin's gang was also involved in the murders of its political opponents; Stalin himself was arrested seven times, repeatedly imprisoned, and twice exiled to Siberia between 1902 and 1913. During those years he changed his name twice and became more closely identified with revolutionary Marxism. He escaped many times from prison and was shuttling money between Lenin and other communists in hiding, where his intimacy with Lenin and Bukharin grew, as did his dissatisfaction with fellow Communist leader Lev Trotskiy. In 1912 he was co-opted on to the illegal Communist Central Committee. At that time he wrote propaganda articles, and later edited the Communist paper, "Pravda" (Truth). As Lenin's apprentice he joined the Communist majority (Bolsheviks), and was responsible for the consolidation of several secret communist cells into a larger ring. Stalin's Communist ring in St. Petersburg and across Russia played the leading role in the Russian Revolution of 1917. After the revolution the Bolsheviks Communists grabbed the power, then Communists murdered the Tsar and the Russian royal family. Stalin and Lenin took over the Tsar's palaces and used the main one in Kremlin as their private residence.
Lenin appointed Stalin the People's Commissar for Nationalities in the first Soviet government and a member of the Communist Politburo, thus giving him unlimited power. Stalin led the "Reds" against anti-Communist forces known as the "Whites" and also in the war with Poland. He also organized "Red Terror" in Tsaritsin (later renamed Stalingrad). With his appointment as General Secretary to the Party Central Committee in 1922, a post he held for the next 30 years, until his death, he consolidated the power that would ensure his control of the country after Lenin's death in 1924. He also took, or gave himself, other key positions that enabled him to amass total power in the Party and Soviet government.
Stalin was known for his piercing eyes and terrifying stare, which he used to cow his opponents into submission during private discussions. In 1927 Stalin requested medical help for his insomnia, anger and severe anxiety disorder. His doctors diagnosed him as having "typical clinical paranoia" and recommended medical treatment. Instead, Stalin became angry and summoned his secret service agents. The next day the chief psychiatrist, Dr. Bekhterev, and his assistants died of poisoning. In addition, before the doctors' diagnosis about Stalin's mental condition could become known, he ordered the executions of intellectuals, resulting in the murders of hundreds of thousands of doctors, professors, writers, and others.
Stalin's policy of amassing dictatorial power under the guise of building "socialism in the country" resulted in brutal extermination of all real and perceived anti-Communist opposition. His purges of the Soviet military brought about the execution of tens of thousands of army officers, many of them experienced combat veterans of the Revolution, the Civil War, the Polish campaigns and other military operations (this decimation of the Russian officer corps would result in the Soviet Union's initial defeats at the hands of Nazi invaders at the beginning of World War II). He also isolated and disgraced his political rivals, notably Trotsky. Stalin's economic policies of strict centralized planning (i.e., the "five-year plans") resulted in the near ruination of the Soviet economy and mass famines in many areas of the Soviet Union, notably in Central Russia and the Ukraine. Popular resistance to Stalin's policies, such as nationalization of private lands and collective farming, by independent farmers ("kulaks"), brought about brutal retaliation, in which millions of kulaks were either forced off their land or executed outright. Altogether Stalin's economic and political policies resulted in the deaths of up to 10 million peasants during 1926-1934. Between 1934 and 1939 he organized and led massive purge (known as "The Great Terror") of the party, government, armed forces and intelligentsia, in which millions of so-called "enemies of the Soviet people" were imprisoned, exiled or executed. In the late 1930s, Stalin sent some Red Army forces and material to support the Spanish Republican government in its fight against the rebels led by Gen. Francisco Franco and aided by troops and material from Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy.
Stalin made the Non-Aggression Pact with Adolf Hitler in 1939, which bought the Soviet Union two years' respite from involvement in World War 2. After the German invasion in 1941, the USSR became a member of the Grand Alliance and Stalin, as war leader, assumed the title of Generalissimus. He had no formal military training and scorned the advice of his senior officers, due to suspicion and his rising paranoia, actions that resulted in horrific losses to the Russian military in both men and material (not to mention civilian losses). He rejected military plans made by such experienced officers as Marshal Georgi Zhukov, and insisted they be replaced by his own plans, which led to even more horrific losses. Towards the end of WWII he took part in the conferences of Teheran, Yalta and Potsdam with Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, Harry S. Truman and Clement Attlee. The agreements reached in those conferences resulted in Soviet military and political control over the liberated countries of postwar Castern and Central Europe.
From 1945 until his death Stalin resumed his repressive measures at home, resulting in censorship of the arts, literature and cinema, forced exiles of hundreds of thousands and the executions of intellectuals and other potential "enemies of the state". At that time he conducted foreign policies that contributed to the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the West. Stalin had little interest in family life, although he was married twice and had several mistresses. His first wife (Ekaterina Svanidze, married c. 1904) died three years after their marriage and left a son, Jacob (also known as Yacov), an officer in the Russian army during World War II who was captured by the Nazis and died in a POW camp (his father refused German offers to exchange him for captured German officers). His second wife (Nadezhda Alliluyeva, married 1919) attempted to moderate his politics, but she died by suicide, leaving a daughter, Svetlana Alliluyeva, and an alcoholic son, Vasili Stalin, who later died in exile. Increasingly paranoid, Stalin launched attacks on such intellectuals as Osip Mandelstam, Vsevolod Meyerhold, Anna Akhmatova, Dmitri Shostakovich, Sergei Prokofiev, Boris Pasternak, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and many other cultural luminaries. Stalin personally intervened in the fate of "counterrevolutionary" Yiddish writers and changed their sentences from exile to execution. Thirteen of them were executed by the Soviet secret police; their leader, Perets Markish, was executed in the typical KGB manner by a single gunshot to the head on August 12, 1952, in Moscow.
Stalin died suddenly on March 5, 1953, under somewhat mysterious circumstances, after announcing his intention to arrest Jewish doctors, whom he believed were plotting to kill him. The "official" cause of death was announced as brain hemorrhage. Stalin's apprentice, Georgi Malenkov, took the power, but was soon ousted by Nikita Khrushchev. Three years after death, Stalin was posthumously denounced by Nikita Khrushchev at the 20th Party Congress in 1956 for crimes against the Party and for building a "cult of personality." In 1961 Stalin's body was removed from Lenin's Mausoleum, where it had been displayed since his death, and buried near the Kremlin wall. In 1964 Leonid Brezhnev dismissed Khrushchev and brought back some of Stalin's hard-line policies. After 1986 Mikhail Gorbachev initiated a series of liberal political reforms known as "glasnost" and "perstroika", and many of Stalin's victims were posthumously rehabilitated, and the whole phenomenon of "Stalinism" was officially condemned by the Russian authorities.- Producer
- Additional Crew
George K. Spoor was born on 18 December 1871 in Highland Park, Illinois, USA. He was a producer, known for A Pair of Sixes (1918), Men Who Have Made Love to Me (1918) and The Truant Soul (1916). He was married to Ada May Thompson. He died on 24 November 1953 in Chicago, Illinois, USA.- Edwin H. Armstrong was born on 18 December 1890 in New York City, New York, USA. He was married to Esther Marion MacInnis. He died on 1 February 1954 in New York City, New York, USA.
- Producer
Stephen Ames was born on 18 December 1897 in New York City, New York, USA. He was a producer, known for Tycoon (1947), The Spanish Main (1945) and The Man with a Cloak (1951). He was married to Raquel Torres and Adrienne Ames. He died on 22 April 1954 in Malibu, California, USA.- Marie Spiljar was born on 18 December 1891 in Amsterdam, Noord-Holland, Netherlands. She was an actress, known for Fate's Plaything (1920), As God Made Her (1920) and De kroon der schande (1918). She died on 8 May 1954 in Amsterdam, Noord-Holland, Netherlands.
- Theodore Burt was born on 18 December 1874 in Brooklyn, New York, USA. He was a writer, known for The Commanding Officer (1915). He was married to Laura Helen de Gumoens. He died on 18 November 1954 in New York, New York, USA.
- José Rafael Pocaterra was born on 18 December 1889 in Valencia, Carabobo, Venezuela. He was a writer, known for Panchito Mandefua (1985) and La casa de los Abila (1981). He died on 18 April 1955 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
- Hüseyin Sadettin Arel was born on 18 December 1880 in Constantinople, Ottoman Empire [now Istanbul, Turkey]. He was a composer, known for Istanbul sokaklarinda (1931). He died on 6 May 1955 in Istanbul, Turkey.
- Mrs. Knute Rockne was born on 18 December 1891 in the USA. She was a writer, known for Knute Rockne All American (1940). She was married to Knute Rockne. She died on 2 June 1956 in the USA.
- Costume Designer
Gordon Conway was born on 18 December 1894 in Cleburne, Texas, USA. She was a costume designer, known for Rome Express (1932), The Good Companions (1933) and High Treason (1929). She died on 9 June 1956 in Fredericksburg, Virginia, USA.- Cinematographer
- Camera and Electrical Department
John MacBurnie was born on 18 December 1892 in New York City, New York, USA. He was a cinematographer, known for Captain America (1944), Daredevils of the Clouds (1948) and Zombies of the Stratosphere (1952). He died on 24 September 1956 in Los Angeles, California, USA.