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- Music Artist
- Actor
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Bing Crosby was born Harry Lillis Crosby, Jr. in Tacoma, Washington, the fourth of seven children of Catherine (Harrigan) and Harry Lincoln Crosby, a brewery bookkeeper. He was of English and Irish descent. Crosby studied law at Gonzaga University in Spokane but was more interested in playing the drums and singing with a local band. Bing and the band's piano player, Al Rinker, left Spokane for Los Angeles in 1925. In the early 1930s Bing's brother Everett sent a record of Bing singing "I Surrender, Dear" to the president of CBS. His live performances from New York were carried over the national radio network for 20 consecutive weeks in 1932. His radio success led Paramount Pictures to include him in The Big Broadcast (1932), a film featuring radio favorites. His songs about not needing a bundle of money to make life happy was the right message for the decade of the Great Depression. His relaxed, low-key style carried over into the series of "Road" comedies he made with pal Bob Hope. He won the best actor Oscar for playing an easygoing priest in Going My Way (1944). He showed that he was indeed an actor as well as a performer when he played an alcoholic actor down on his luck opposite Grace Kelly in The Country Girl (1954). Playing golf was what he liked to do best. He died at age 74 playing golf at a course outside Madrid, Spain, after completing a tour of England that had included a sold-out engagement at the London Palladium.- Actress
- Soundtrack
One of the brightest film stars to grace the screen was born Emilie Claudette Chauchoin on September 13, 1903, in Saint Mandé, France where her father owned a bakery at 57, rue de la République (now Avenue Général de Gaulle). The family moved to the United States when she was three. As Claudette grew up, she wanted nothing more than to play to Broadway audiences (in those days, any actress or actor worth their salt went for Broadway, not Hollywood). After her formal education ended, she enrolled in the Art Students League, where she paid for her dramatic training by working in a dress shop. She made her Broadway debut in 1923 in the stage production of "The Wild Wescotts". It was during this event that she adopted the name Claudette Colbert.
When the Great Depression shut down most of the theaters, Claudette decided to make a go of it in films. Her first film was called For the Love of Mike (1927). Unfortunately, it was a box-office disaster. She wasn't real keen on the film industry, but with an extreme scarcity in theatrical roles, she had no choice but to remain. In 1929 she starred as Joyce Roamer in The Lady Lies (1929). The film was a success and later that year she had another hit entitled The Hole in the Wall (1929). In 1930 she starred opposite Fredric March in Manslaughter (1930), which was a remake of the silent version of eight years earlier. A year after that Claudette was again paired in a film with March, Honor Among Lovers (1931). It fared well at the box-office, probably only because it was the kind of film that catered to women who enjoyed magazine fiction romantic stories. In 1932 Claudette played the evil Poppeia in Cecil B. DeMille's last great work, The Sign of the Cross (1932), and once again was cast with March. Later the same year she was paired with Jimmy Durante in The Phantom President (1932). By now Claudette's name symbolized good movies and she, along with March, pulled crowds into the theaters with the acclaimed Tonight Is Ours (1933).
The next year started a little on the slow side with the release of Four Frightened People (1934), where Claudette and her co-stars were at odds with the dreaded bubonic plague on board a ship. However, the next two films were real gems for this young actress. First up, Claudette was charming and radiant in Cecil B. DeMille's spectacular Cleopatra (1934). It wasn't one of DeMille's finest by any means, but it was a financial success and showcased Claudette as never before. However, it was as Ellie Andrews, in the now famous It Happened One Night (1934), that ensured she would be forever immortalized. Paired with Clark Gable, the madcap comedy was a mega-hit all across the country. It also resulted in Claudette being nominated for and winning the Oscar that year for Best Actress. IN 1935 she was nominated again for Private Worlds (1935), where she played Dr. Jane Everest, on the staff at a mental institution. The performance was exquisite. Films such as The Gilded Lily (1935), Drums Along the Mohawk (1939) and No Time for Love (1943) kept fans coming to the theaters and the movie moguls happy. Claudette was a sure drawing card for virtually any film she was in. In 1944 she starred as Anne Hilton in Since You Went Away (1944). Again, although she didn't win, Claudette picked up her third nomination for Best Actress.
By the late 1940s and early 1950s she was not only seen on the screen but the infant medium of television, where she appeared in a number of programs. However, her drawing power was fading somewhat as new stars replaced the older ones. In 1955 she filmed the western Texas Lady (1955) and wasn't seen on the screen again until Parrish (1961). It was her final silver screen performance. Her final appearance before the cameras was in a TV movie, The Two Mrs. Grenvilles (1987). She did, however, remain on the stage where she had returned in 1956, her first love. After a series of strokes, Claudette divided her time between New York and Barbados. On July 30, 1996, Claudette died in Speightstown, Barbados. She was 92.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Gruff, burly American character actor. Born in 1903 in Benkelman, Nebraska (confirmed by Social Security records; sources stating 1905 or Denver, Colorado are in error.) Bond grew up in Denver, the son of a lumberyard worker. He attended the University of Southern California, where he got work as an extra through a football teammate who would become both his best friend and one of cinema's biggest stars: John Wayne. Director John Ford promoted Bond from extra to supporting player in the film Salute (1929), and became another fast friend. An arrogant man of little tact, yet fun-loving in the extreme, Bond was either loved or hated by all who knew him. His face and personality fit perfectly into almost any type of film, and he appeared in hundreds of pictures in his more than 30-year career, in both bit parts and major supporting roles. In the films of Wayne and Ford, particularly, he was nearly always present. Among his most memorable roles are John L. Sullivan in Gentleman Jim (1942), Det. Tom Polhaus in The Maltese Falcon (1941) and the Rev. Capt. Samuel Johnson Clayton The Searchers (1956). An ardent but anti-intellectual patriot, he was perhaps the most vehement proponent, among the Hollywood community, of blacklisting in the witch hunts of the 1950s, and he served as a most unforgiving president of the ultra-right-wing Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals. In the mid-'50s he gained his greatest fame as the star of TV's Wagon Train (1957). During its production, Bond traveled to Dallas, Texas, to attend a football game and died there in his hotel room of a massive heart attack.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Although this pint-sized actor started out in films often in innocuous college-student roles in mid-30s rah-rahs, playing alongside the likes of a pretty Gloria Stuart or a young, pre-"Oz" Judy Garland, casting directors would soon enough discover his flair for portraying intense neurotics or spineless double-dealers. Thus was he graduated from the innocuous to the noxious. In Warners' They Won't Forget (1937), for example, he plays the role of a student whose social engagement with a young Lana Turner, debuting here in a featured role, seems to have been broken by her whereas, possibly unbeknownst to him, she has quite mysteriously been murdered. Cook becomes so enraged, venting such venom, that the movie audience can only look upon him as a prime suspect in Lana's demise. In Universal's Phantom Lady (1944), he portrays a nightclub-orchestra drummer who, under the intoxicating influence of some substance or other, encounters Ella Raines during an afternoon's band practice. Thoroughly taken with her slinky allure, he enacts a drum-solo piece that is of such crescendo, and played with such innuendo, as to suggest - glaringly - nothing except his own fantasized sexual journey from cymbal foreplay through bass-drum climax.- Writer
- Director
- Additional Crew
Tokyo-born Yasujiro Ozu was a movie buff from childhood, often playing hooky from school in order to see Hollywood movies in his local theatre. In 1923 he landed a job as a camera assistant at Shochiku Studios in Tokyo. Three years later, he was made an assistant director and directed his first film the next year, Zange no yaiba (1927). Ozu made thirty-five silent films, and a trilogy of youth comedies with serious overtones he turned out in the late 1920s and early 1930s placed him in the front ranks of Japanese directors. He made his first sound film in 1936, The Only Son (1936), but was drafted into the Japanese Army the next year, being posted to China for two years and then to Singapore when World War II started. Shortly before the war ended he was captured by British forces and spent six months in a P.O.W. facility. At war's end he went back to Shochiku, and his experiences during the war resulted in his making more serious, thoughtful films at a much slower pace than he had previously. His most famous film, Tokyo Story (1953), is generally considered by critics and film buffs alike to be his "masterpiece" and is regarded by many as not only one of Ozu's best films but one of the best films ever made. He also turned out such classics of Japanese film as The Flavor of Green Tea Over Rice (1952), Floating Weeds (1959) and An Autumn Afternoon (1962).
Ozu, who never married and lived with his mother all his life, died of cancer in 1963, two years after she passed.- Actor
- Soundtrack
British character actor of wry charm, equally at home in amused or strait-laced characters. A native of Bourton-on-the-Water in Gloucestershire, he attended Marlborough College and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts. His stage debut came in 1922, and by 1925 he was a busy London actor. He married actress Blanche Glynne (real name: Blanche Hope Aitken) and in 1932 toured South Africa in plays. Alleged to have been spotted by George Cukor during a performance in Aldritch, Hyde-White (with or without Cukor's help) made his film debut in 1934. He often appeared under the name Hyde White in these early films. He continued to act upon the stage, playing opposite Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh in "Caesar and Cleopatra" and "Antony and Cleopatra" in 1951. With scores of films to his credit, he will always be remembered for one, My Fair Lady (1964), in which he played Colonel Pickering. Active into his ninth decade, Hyde-White died six days before his 88th birthday. He was survived by his second wife, Ethel, and three children.- Actor
- Soundtrack
At the age of seven, he and his family moved to Oregon. After studying at the University of Oregon, he followed in his father's footsteps and became a dentist, graduating from North Pacific Dental College. From 1929 to 1937, he practiced oral surgery in Eugene, Oregon. He then moved his practice to Altadena, CA. There he joined the Pasadena Community Playhouse, eventually giving up dentistry at the age of 36 to become an actor. He made his film debut in 1939. His chubby face and gravelly voice were featured in over 100 films, but he is perhaps best known for TV roles in Hopalong Cassidy (1952), Judge Roy Bean (1955), Petticoat Junction (1963), and Cade's County (1971).- Actor
- Producer
- Writer
Comedian Bob Hope was born Leslie Townes Hope in Eltham, London, England, the fifth of seven sons of Avis (Townes), light opera singer, and William Henry Hope, a stonemason from Weston-super-Mare, Somerset. His maternal grandmother was Welsh. Hope moved to Bristol before emigrating with his parents to the USA in 1908. After some years onstage as a dancer and comedian, he made his first film appearance in The Big Broadcast of 1938 (1938) singing "Thanks for the Memory", which became his signature tune.
In partnership with Bing Crosby and Dorothy Lamour, he appeared in the highly successful "Road to ..." comedies (1940-52), and in many others until the early 1970s. During World War II and the Korean and Vietnam wars he spent much time entertaining the troops in the field. For these activities and for his continued contributions to the industry he received five honorary Academy Awards.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Dean Jagger was born in Lima, Ohio, on November 7, 1903. He dropped out of high school twice before finally graduating from Wabash College. Working first as a school teacher, he soon became interested in acting and enrolled at Chicago's "Lyceum Art Conservatory". Mr. Jagger made his first movie and only silent film, The Woman from Hell (1929) in 1929, starring Mary Astor. During 1929 he also appeared in the film Handcuffed (1929). He quickly found his niche as a character actor and the highlight of his career was winning an Oscar for "Best Supporting Actor," in the 1949 movie Twelve O'Clock High (1949). Dean played Principal Albert Vane on TV for the 1963-1964 season of Mr. Novak (1963). Dean Jagger died in Santa Monica, California, on February 5, 1991.- Tor Johnson was a big man, with a big heart, who was born October 19, 1903, in Sweden.
Most of his adult life, he was a professional wrestler. Tor started appearing (uncredited, or in bit parts) in movies as early as 1934. He was in 31 movies, usually as "Weightlifter" or "Strongman."
Later, he got larger roles with character names. Tor was in the Bing Crosby - Bob Hope movie Road to Rio (1947) as Samson; and had a part in Abbott and Costello in the Foreign Legion (1950) as Abou Ben.
Contrary to how it was depicted in the semi-documentary "Ed Wood," that Ed approached Tor and asked him if he ever fancied the notion of becoming an actor (and starting his film career), Ed worked with Tor towards the end of his movie career. Ed Wood got Tor to portray Lobo in Bride of the Monster (1955). After appearing in 3 other movies, Ed Wood cast Tor in Plan 9 from Outer Space (1957).
Then Ed had Tor reprise his role of Lobo for Night of the Ghouls (1959) -- in that movie, Paul Marco (Kelton the Cop) had a full load in the prop gun he fired at Tor where sparks hit Tor's arms, which by reflex hit Paul, knocking him unconscious in real life; Tor felt bad about that, but everybody knew it was just a case of the big guy not knowing his own strength.
A friend and cohort of Ed's (and also a writer, director and producer in his own right), was Anthony Cardoza. Ed lived in an apartment on Yucca Street (nicknamed "Yucca Flats"), and in 1961, Anthony cast Tor Johnson in a starring role in his low budget movie The Beast of Yucca Flats (1961). This movie was filmed silent, had dubbed-in sound effects, voiced-over narration, and killed off Tor's movie career once and for all (for which Tor was paid only $300). However, Tor had somewhat of a TV career in the 1960s, appearing on "You Bet Your Life" with Groucho Marx, several appearances on "The Red Skelton Show," and even doing a number of TV commercials.
Costars spoke fondly of Tor, remembering, "Tor had such warmth! He was so cooperative-- just a lovely man. As you know, he was a former wrestler ... he would go and have drinks with his opponents after a wrestling match." And, he lived large. Friends spoke of his gracious wife Greta who made great Swedish dinners, along with desserts consisting of her homemade ice cream with strawberries, bananas, coconut and whipped cream.
Little wonder his son, Karl, grew up to be big and strong, and became a Lieutenant with the San Fernando Police Department. And, some friends would chuckle as they recalled that, as big as he was, Tor drove a midget foreign car which was "not much bigger than he was."
Tor Johnson died on May 12, 1971, in San Fernando, CA, due to a heart ailment; he was 67. - Actor
- Additional Crew
- Soundtrack
A tall, distinguished-looking English character actor with aristocratic bearing and a precisely modulated voice, Alan William Napier-Clavering was born in Kings Norton, Worcestershire, England. A cousin of the former British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, he studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (graduating in 1925) and spent his formative years as an actor with Oxford Repertory and, from 1924, on the London stage. During the 1930s, he found his niche in Shakespearean roles. His characterisation of Menenius in a 1954 Boston revival of "Coriolanus" was described in the Christian Science Monitor (January 23, 1954) as imbued with "benevolent distinction and with some of the comic quality of the part". However, by that time, Napier had largely forsaken the stage for the screen.
In 1939, Alan Napier immigrated to America and, in the course of nearly five decades, appeared in film and on television as noblemen, manservants and doctors. His gaunt, suave, sometimes bespectacled characters could be kindly or nefarious. He gave good support in the supernatural thriller The Uninvited (1944) and lent gravitas to his role of Cicero in Julius Caesar (1953). Baby boomer TV audiences will remember him fondly as Bruce Wayne's ever reliable, and very English, butler Alfred Pennyworth in Batman (1966), starring Adam West. Napier's second wife, Aileen Dickens Bouchier Hawksley (nicknamed "Gypsy"), was a great-granddaughter of Charles Dickens. Alan Napier died at age 85 of pneumonia in Santa Monica, California on August 8, 1988.- Actress
- Soundtrack
As a child she studied at Seattle's Cornish School. Still in her early twenties, after several years of stock work in New York, she joined Eva Le Gallienne's Civic Repertory Theater where she won critical praise for her title role in "Alice in Wonderland." She came to Hollywood in 1934 under contract with Warners, debuting in Happiness Ahead (1934). She co-starred with Paul Muni in The Story of Louis Pasteur (1936) and played in many small roles, both in films - e.g., the phony U.N. ambassador's wife in North by Northwest (1959) - and television: The Twilight Zone (1959), Gunsmoke (1955), and Perry Mason (1957) in the fifties and sixties. She died at Manhattan's Florence Nightingale Nursing Home, aged 94.- John Williams was a tall, urbane Anglo-American actor best known for his role as Chief Inspector Hubbard in Dial M for Murder (1954), a role he played on Broadway, in Alfred Hitchcock's classic 1954 film, and on television in 1958. Playing Hubbard on the Great White Way brought him the 1953 Tony Award as Best Featured Actor in a Play. "Dial M for Murder" was the 27th Broadway play he had appeared in since making his New York debut in "The Fake" in 1924, which he had originally appeared in back in his native England.
Williams was born on April 15, 1903 in Buckinghamshire and attended Lancing College. He first trod the boards as a teenager in a 1916 production of Peter Pan (1924). He moved to America in the mid-1920s and was a busy and constantly employed stage actor for 30 years. After "Dial M for Murder" in the 1953-54 season, though, he appeared in only four more Broadway plays between 1955 and 1970 as he focused on movies and television.
In addition to "Dial M for Murder", he appeared in Hitchcock's The Paradine Case (1947) and in To Catch a Thief (1955) and in 10 episodes of the TV series Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955). For Billy Wilder, he appeared in Sabrina (1954) and Witness for the Prosecution (1957). Beginning in the 1960s, most of his work was in television, including a nine-episode stint on Family Affair (1966) taking over Sebastian Cabot's duties as Brian Keith's butler when Cabot was waylaid by health problems.
He retired in the late '70s, his last acting gig being an appearance on Battlestar Galactica (1978) in 1979. He was known by many in the last phase of his career for his work on one of the first TV infomercials, when he served as the pitchman for a classical music record collection called "120 Music Masterpieces."
John Williams died on May 5, 1983 in La Jolla, California from an aneurysm. He was 80 years old. - Actor
- Stunts
- Additional Crew
Frank McGrath was born on 2 February 1903 in Mound City, Missouri, USA. He was an actor, known for The Reluctant Astronaut (1967), Wagon Train (1957) and Tammy and the Millionaire (1967). He was married to Libby Quay Buschlen. He died on 13 May 1967 in Hollywood, California, USA.- Director
- Additional Crew
- Music Department
Born Lester Anthony Minnelli in Chicago on February 28 1903, his father Vincent was a musical conductor of the Minnelli Brothers' Tent Theater. Wanting to pursue an artistic career, Minelli worked in the costume department of the Chicago Theater, then on Broadway during the depression as a set designer and costumer, adopting a Latinized version of his father's first name when he was hired as an art-director by Radio City Music Hall. The fall of 1935 saw his directorial debut for a Franz Schubert revue, At Home Abroad. The show was the first of three, in the best Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. spirit, before receiving Arthur Freed's offer to work at MGM. This was his second try at Hollywood -- a short unsuccessful contract at Paramount led nowhere. He stayed at MGM for the next 26 years. After working on numerous Mickey Rooney/Judy Garland vehicles, usually directed by Busby Berkeley, Arthur Freed gave him his first directorial assignment on Cabin in the Sky (1943), a risky screen project with an all-black cast. This was followed by the ambitious period piece Meet Me in St. Louis (1944) whose star Judy Garland he married in 1945. Employing first-class MGM technicians, Minnelli went on directing musicals -- The Band Wagon (1953) - as well as melodramas -- Some Came Running (1958) - and urban comedies like Designing Woman (1957), occasionally even working on two films simultaneously. Minnelli is one of the few directors for whom Technicolor seems to have been invented. Many of his films included in every one of his movies features a dream sequence.- Actor
- Writer
- Additional Crew
Jerome "Curly" Howard, the rotund, bald Stooge with the high voice was the most popular member of The Three Stooges. His first stage experience was as a comedic conductor for the Orville Knapp Band in 1928. Curly joined The Three Stooges in 1932, replacing his brother Shemp Howard. He made more than 100 film appearances with the team before a massive stroke on the set of Half-Wits Holiday (1947) forced him to retire. He recuperated enough to appear in Hold That Lion! (1947) and hoped to eventually return to the team. But another series of strokes deteriorated his health until he died at the age of 48.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Dorothy Mackaill was 11 when her parents separated; she then lived with her father. A rebellious teenager, Dorothy -- who had long wanted a career in the theater -- ran away to London and finally persuaded her father to pay for her board and lessons. Her first job was in the chorus; she then traveled to Paris, where she met a Broadway choreographer, who got her a job with the Ziegfeld Follies in New York. At the Follies, Dorothy became friends with ones of its stars, Marion Davies.
By 1921 Dorothy was making movies, but she didn't become a star for three years until The Man Who Came Back (1924). Other successful films included Chickie (1925), Joanna (1925), and The Dancer of Paris (1926). Her career continued into the beginning the sound era, and her silent film The Barker (1928) was reshot as a part-talkie. The industry was in upheaval during that transitional period, and First National didn't renew Dorothy's contract when it expired in 1931. As a free agent, she made some good films at Columbia (Love Affair (1932)), Paramount (No Man of Her Own (1932)), and MGM (The Chief (1933)), but overall her career was idling. The following year brought few prospects, and she wound up making a trio of quickies for the independent market, a particularly poor example being Cheaters (1934) for low-rent Liberty Pictures. Her last part was in Bulldog Drummond at Bay (1937). With that, Dorothy retired from pictures and took care of her invalid mother.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Dolores Costello was once known as the Goddess of the Silent Screen but is probably best remembered today as Drew Barrymore's grandmother. She was born in 1905 to actors Maurice Costello and Mae Costello. Her father began his film career in 1908 and soon became the most popular matinée idol of his day. He gave Dolores and her sister Helene Costello their screen debuts in 1911. Dolores appeared in numerous pictures throughout the 1910s and the early 1920s, mostly with her father and sister. She later appeared on the New York stage with her sister in "George White Scandals of 1924." They were then signed by Warner Bros. where Dolores met future husband John Barrymore.
Barrymore soon made Dolores his costar in The Sea Beast (1926). During their lengthy kissing scene Dolores fainted in John's arms. They married in 1928 despite the misgivings of her mother, who would die the following year at age 45. They had two children, DeDe in 1931 and John Drew Barrymore in 1932. Dolores took time off from her movie career in the early 1930s to raise her young children. Her sister Helene and her new husband, actor Lowell Sherman, successfully convinced Dolores to divorce Barrymore in 1935, mainly because of his excessive drinking.
After the divorce Dolores returned to acting, appearing in several big-budget pictures, and her career seemed to be back on track. Her physical appearance, however, was greatly damaged from the harsh studio makeup used in the early years. The skin on her cheeks was in the process of deteriorating, forcing her into early retirement. She lived in semi-seclusion on her Southern California avocado farm, Fallbrook Ranch, where much of the memorabilia and papers from both the Barrymore and Costello family were destroyed in a flood.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Millard Mitchell was born to American parents in Havana, Cuba. He was a popular stage and radio actor in the 1930's in New York, where he also filmed his first cinema appearances (industrial short features). His first Hollywood role was in Mr. and Mrs. North (1942). After World War II, Mitchell acted in a several movies, often cast as sardonic, yet stolid characters. He was in the highest-grossing movie of 1953, Anthony Mann Western, The Naked Spur (1953), adding his unique style playing an old prospector who falls in with James Stewart. He received top billing in 1952's My Six Convicts (1952), but fans of movie musicals most admired his screen role as movie mogul 'R. F. Simpson' in the classic film Singin' in the Rain (1952). A heavy smoker, Millard died too young - lung cancer ended his life at the age of 50.- Veteran character actress Anne Revere became another in the long line of talented artists whose careers would crash under the weight of the "Red Scare" hysteria that tore through Hollywood in the 1940s and 1950s. Born in Manhattan and a direct descendant of Revolutionary War figure Paul Revere, Anne graduated from Wellesley College, then trained for the stage at the American Laboratory Theatre.
She made her Broadway bow in 1931 with "The Great Barrington" and her film debut in a version of another Broadway play, Double Door (1934). Returning to Broadway after receiving no other film offers, she would not make another movie until 1940...then she stayed. She went on to epitomize the warm, wise and invariably stoic mother to a number of great "golden age" stars, her understated power and intensity capturing the hearts of critics and war-torn audiences alike. Her plain, freckled, careworn looks appeared equally at home on the frontier or in a tenement setting. Anne was nominated three times for an Oscar for her strong, matriarchal figures -- as Jennifer Jones' mother in The Song of Bernadette (1943), Elizabeth Taylor's in National Velvet (1944) and Gregory Peck's in Gentleman's Agreement (1947), winning the Oscar on her second try for National Velvet (1944).
A versatile talent, she extended her range to include a number of brittle, neurotic and even crazy ladies. This all ended abruptly in 1951 when her name appeared as one of 300 on the infamous "Hollywood blacklist". She had just completed a major role as Montgomery Clift's Salvation Army mom in A Place in the Sun (1951). She stood on her Fifth Amendment rights before the Communist-obsessed House Un-American Activities Committee and, as a result, her part in that film was reduced to a glorified cameo. She did not appear in another film for nearly 20 years (a starring role in a new TV series was also taken from her).
In the interim, she and husband Samuel Rosen, a stage actor, writer and director, ran an acting school in Los Angeles before relocating to New York, where she managed to find employment in stock productions and under the Broadway lights. She received the Tony Award during the 1960-1961 season for her fine portrayal of a spinster sister in Lillian Hellman's "Toys in the Attic," a part that went to British actress Wendy Hiller when it transferred to film. TV jobs began coming her way again in the mid-1960s, and by 1970 she was working sporadically on such daytime soaps as Search for Tomorrow (1951) and Ryan's Hope (1975). She appeared briefly in Tell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon (1970) starring Liza Minnelli, and then earned a showier part in Birch Interval (1976).
Anne passed away after contracting pneumonia at age 87 and was survived by a sister. She had no children. Although a victim of "Cold War" paranoia, she always persevered, showing the same kind of grit and courage that embodied her gallery of characters on film. - Katherine Squire was born on 9 March 1903 in Defiance, Ohio, USA. She was an actress, known for When Harry Met Sally... (1989), The Story on Page One (1959) and Studs Lonigan (1960). She was married to George Mitchell and Byron McGrath. She died on 29 March 1995 in Lake Hill, New York, USA.
- Actress
- Additional Crew
- Soundtrack
Una Merkel began her movie career as stand-in for Lillian Gish in the movie The Wind (1928). After that, she performed on Broadway before she returned to movies for the D.W. Griffith film Abraham Lincoln (1930). In her early years, before gaining a few pounds, she looked like Lillian Gish, but after Abraham Lincoln (1930) her comic potential was discovered. She mostly played supporting roles as the heroine's no-nonsense friend, but with her broad Southern accent and her peroxide blond hair, she gave one of her best performances as a wisecracking but not-so-bright chorus girl in 42nd Street (1933). Perhaps she is best remembered for her hair-pulling fight with Marlene Dietrich in Destry Rides Again (1939). In 1962, she was nominated for the Academy Award as best supporting actress in Summer and Smoke (1961).- Actor
- Stunts
- Soundtrack
Popular American star of silent and early sound westerns and serials. Raised in Michigan, he went through a number of strenuous jobs (sailor, boxer, lumberjack, coal miner, etc.) before landing in Los Angeles and getting work as a movie extra and stuntman. His good looks and athletic physique (he was a champion weightlifter) led to an offer to play the lead in a series of silent westerns, which he filmed under the stage name Bill Burns. In 1925, FBO signed him and changed his name to Tom Tyler. He became one of the studio's most popular action stars and initially made a smooth transition into talking pictures, for which he worked hard to lose his natural Lithuanian accent. As the '30s progressed, however, he began to face stiff competition in the arena of B-westerns and started taking supporting roles in larger-budget pictures, such as Stagecoach (1939) and Gone with the Wind (1939). In 1941, he took on perhaps his most famous role as the eponymous hero of Adventures of Captain Marvel (1941). This serial and several others brought him new fame, but within three years of playing Captain Marvel, Tyler's career was almost ended when his health failed. Rheumatoid arthritis crippled him and he was reduced to occasional minor supporting roles, often for John Ford, for whom he had worked in a number of films prior to his illness. During the last part of his career 1948-54, though reportedly in poor health, he appeared in supporting roles in over 35 films and TV series, including TV episodes of "The Lone Ranger", "The Cisco Kid", "The Range Rider", "Gene Autry", "Cowboy G-Men", and "Dick Tracy". He also co-starred with Tom Keene in an unsold TV pilot, "Crossroad Avengers" (1953), written and directed by Ed Wood. He eventually returned to live with his sister in the Detroit area and died there of heart failure at the age of 50 in 1954.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Tall (6'2"), burly, and reliable character actor Gene Roth was born Eugene Oliver Edgar Stutenroth on January 8, 1903 in Redfield, South Dakota. He was the youngest of three sons born to German father Eugene Stutenroth and Swedish mother Anna Christina Olsen. Roth and his two brothers were raised by their mother after their father abandoned them when Gene was only two years old. Gene graduated from West High School in Minneapolis in 1920. He began his acting career doing uncredited bit roles in silent pictures in the early 1920's. Moreover, Roth worked as a movie theater manager and built and installed pipe organs before his acting career took off in the 1940's following his arrival in Hollywood, California in 1943.
Often cast as threatening heavies (he's perhaps best known for his portrayals of bad guys in many 1940's comedy shorts he did with The Three Stooges), scruffy working class types, and rough-around-the-edges law officers (he played initially skeptical small town sheriffs in the 1950's creature feature classics Attack of the Giant Leeches (1959) and The Spider (1958)), Gene worked profusely in both films and television alike in a career that spanned a little over two decades. After retiring from acting in the early 1970's, Roth worked part time as a liquor counterman at a drug store and was an active participant in the nostalgia convention circuit. He was married four times and was the father of three children. Gene's life came to a tragic untimely end at age 73 when he was struck and killed by a hit-and-run driver while crossing the street in Los Angeles, California on July 19, 1976.- Actress
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British-born actress who appeared in both British and American films, but who found her greatest success in Hollywood second leads. After a variety of jobs, including nurse, chorus girl and milkmaid, Barnes entered vaudeville. She appeared in more than a score of short comedies with comedian Stanley Lupino before making her feature bow in 1931. Two years later she achieved prominence as one of the half-dozen wives of the King in The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933). The following year she moved to Hollywood and began a career as the smart-aleck pal of the lead or as the angry "other woman." Barnes also played numerous leading roles, but spent most of the 1930s and 40s in strong supporting parts. In 1940 she married football star (and later producer) M.J. Frankovich and after the war, they moved to Italy and appeared in several films there and elsewhere in Europe. She retired from films in 1954, but returned for a few roles in the late 60s and early 70s. She worked busily with numerous charities until her death in 1998.- Actor
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The apocryphal biography of Fernand Contandin tells the invention of his artistic name Fernandel by his sister-in-law ("Voici le Fernand d'elles"). At the beginning of the thirties he became a typical actor of the comedy genre: popular, common, likable and with a concealed grain of drama. Marc Allégret was the director of his first successful film La meilleure bobonne (1931). He tried to work as director twice during World War II but was unsuccessful.- Actress
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Nancy Carroll was born Ann Veronica Lahiff on November 19, 1903 in New York City. Nancy was the youngest of seven children. At the age of sixteen she dropped out of high school to work as a stenographer. Then she began performing in local talent competitions. She was a gifted dancer and appeared in several Broadway musicals. In 1925 she married writer Jack Kirkland and had a daughter named Patricia. Nancy made her film debut in the 1927 comedy Ladies Must Dress and was offered a contract with Paramount. She starred in a string of successful talkies including The Shopworn Angel, Laughter, and Close Harmony. With her red hair and big smile she quickly became one of Hollywood's most popular actresses. Her marriage to Jack ended in 1930. That same year she was nominated for Academy Award for her role in Devil's Holiday. After a brief affair with Joseph P. Kennedy she married Francis Bolton Mallory, a Life magazine editor in 1931. By this time she was receiving more fan mail than any other star! Unfortunately she had developed a reputation for being difficult and often complained about the parts she was given.
Paramount released her from her contract in 1933. Nancy continued to make movies but she was no longer an A-list star. She costarred with George Murphy in the dramas Jealousy and After The Dance. In 1935 she divorced her husband after four years of marriage. Unhappy with the way her career was going she decided to quit making movies. Her final film was the 1938 comedy There Goes My Heart. She returned to the stage starring in the Broadway show For Heaven's Sake Mother. During the 1950s she made guest appearances on numerous television shows. She also costarred with her daughter, Patricia Kirkland, in the series The Egg And I. Nancy married international businessman C.H. "Jappe" Groen in 1953. The couple split their time between Mexico and Indonesia. At the age of fifty-nine Nancy was cast in the play Never Too Late. It was a success and she toured with the show for two years. On the evening August 6, 1965 she didn't show up for her performance. Tragically she was found dead in her New York apartment. Nancy had died of an aneurysm at the age of sixty-one. She was buried with her parents at Calvary Cemetery in Queens, New York.- Actor
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Edgar Bergen was born on 16 February 1903 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for Fun and Fancy Free (1947), The Muppet Movie (1979) and Letter of Introduction (1938). He was married to Frances Bergen. He died on 30 September 1978 in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA.- Actor
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"America's Joyboy," beefy, plump-faced comedian Jack Oakie, was one of the funniest top and second banana jokesters of stage, radio and especially film's "Golden Age." He would accomplish so much despite the fact that he was "functionally deaf" throughout his career and performed primarily with the aid of lip reading or vibrations.
The stories vary on how he became deaf -- scarlet fever at age 9, a Wall Street building explosion where he worked -- but, whatever the case, it seems a minor miracle that he managed to become a performing success not only for his famous "triple take" comedy but also for his work in Broadway and Hollywood musicals, which could not have been an easy task! A slapstick inspiration to future comedians like Jackie Gleason, Oakie's lightweight foolery and participation in films was pretty much standard cornball with a lot of mugging to boot, but then he surprised audiences by topping it all off in the hands of the legendary Charles Chaplin with a scene-stealing Oscar-nominated support role in a political satire masterpiece.
Jack was born Lewis Delaney Offield in Sedalia, Missouri on November 12, 1903, the son of a grain dealer (who died while Jack was quite young) and a teacher of psychology (Mary Evelyn Oakie Offield). His family moved to moved to Muskogee, Oklahoma. He was raised at times with his grandmother in Kansas City, Missouri, and made extra money there as a paperboy for The Kansas City Star.
Moving eventually to New York, Jack first worked as a runner for a brokerage firm on Wall Street, and nearly lost his life when a nearby Wall Street building was bombed on September 16, 1920. Interested in comedy and mime by this point, he began building up confidence on the amateur stage and giving himself a new name, Jack Oakie, which was comprised of the first character he ever played on stage and his mother's maiden name.
Jack took his first professional curtain call on Broadway in 1923 as a chorus boy in George M. Cohan's production of "Little Nellie Kelly." From there he found employment in a number of comedies, as well as musicals throughout the mid to late 1920s, including "Sharlee" (1923), the revues "Innocent Eyes" (1924) and "Artists and Models" (1925), and the musical "Peggy-Ann" in 1926. He also appeared in a couple of unbilled film parts in 1923 and 1924.
Films came calling toward the end of the silent era in 1927, and he relocated to Los Angeles where he made several non-talkies on his arrival, including Finders Keepers (1928) starring Laura La Plante and John Harron (Bobby's little brother) and directed by Wesley Ruggles; Clara Bow's The Fleet's In (1928); and the western Sin Town (1929). With the advent of sound, Oakie was signed, with the help of director Ruggles, to a contract by Paramount and appeared in his first talkie, the Ruth Chatterton/Fredric March starrer The Dummy (1929). Jack went on to support Wallace Beery in Chinatown Nights (1929); Dorothy Mackaill in Hard to Get (1929); Betty Compson and John Harron in Street Girl (1929); and Nancy Carroll in the musical Sweetie (1929). Settling in, he never returned to the Broadway stage.
Jack finally shared top billing with Evelyn Brent in the comedy film Fast Company (1929) as Elmer Kane, a character based on the George M. Cohan Broadway show "Elmer the Great." This led to top billing in the film version of the Broadway hit musical Hit the Deck (1929), as well as the early talking comedy vehicles The Social Lion (1930), The Sap from Syracuse (1930), Let's Go Native (1930), Sea Legs (1930), The Gang Buster (1931), June Moon (1931), Dude Ranch (1931), Once in a Lifetime (1932), Madison Square Garden (1932), Uptown New York (1932), Sitting Pretty (1933) and Shoot the Works (1934). Occasional dramas came his way with Dancers in the Dark (1932) co-starring Miriam Hopkins and Sky Bride (1932) co-starring Richard Arlen.
Throughout the 1930s, the 30-year-old plus actor appeared in a host of light college-themed comedies and was lovingly dubbed "The World's Oldest Freshman" while adding to the humor of such films as College Humor (1933), College Rhythm (1934) and Collegiate (1935). Elsewhere, in Too Much Harmony (1933), his mother Evelyn was featured as his mother, and he played Tweedledum to Roscoe Karns' Tweedledee in the all-star version of Alice in Wonderland (1933).
Oakie's contract ended with Paramount in 1934 and he continued as a freelancing agent until an RKO contract came his way a couple of years later. Starting to now gain a bit in girth, Oakie went back into support roles in musicals, adventures and comedies. Among the better known films were Call of the Wild (1935) with Clark Gable and Loretta Young; Colleen (1936) with Dick Powell and Ruby Keeler; The Toast of New York (1937) with Edward Arnold and Frances Farmer; Tin Pan Alley (1940) with Alice Faye and Betty Grable and Iceland (1942) with Sonja Henie and John Payne.
In the late 1930s, Jack traveled to Europe for some work and suffered a huge career setback when he returned to Hollywood and found himself unwanted. The draught lasted nearly two years until a major comeback thanks to Charles Chaplin. While such film highlights must include Million Dollar Legs (1932), King of Burlesque (1936), The Affairs of Annabel (1938) and Rise and Shine (1941), Oakie will in all probability be best remembered for his lip-smacking parody of Benito Mussolini ("Il Duce")in Chaplin's classic The Great Dictator (1940). As Benzino Napaloni, the dictator of the fictional country of Bacteria, Jack earned his only Oscar nomination in the "Supporting Actor" category. Throughout his lead career, he worked with a quality number of diverse leading ladies on film from Carole Lombard to Lily Pons.
Oakie also found work on radio, hosting his own show, "Jack Oakie's College," between 1936 and 1938. His deafness did not affect the output of his work, and, as a pro, seldom were there problems in accommodating his disability. Director Jules Dassin, in fact, once made it a point to state that Oakie never caused any delays in the filming of his film noir Thieves' Highway (1949).
Into the 1950s and 1960s, his career slowed down quite a bit, primarily due to his disability. He appeared to good advantage in the films The Rat Race (1960) and Lover Come Back (1961) and with TV comedy and drama on such popular shows as "The Real McCoys," "Daniel Boone," "Bonanza" and, his last, "Night Gallery" in 1972.
Jack Oakie was married twice. His first marriage (1936-1945) was to Venita Varden, who perished in the 1948 air crash of United Airlines Flight 624 at Mount Carmel, Pennsylvania. Oakie's second marriage was to actress Victoria Horne in 1950; they moved to an estate in Northridge and lived there until his death. The USC School of Cinematic Arts continues its durable ties with Hollywood history in the form of The Jack Oakie and Victoria Horne Oakie Charitable Foundation, which provides scholarships.
The comic actor died on January 23, 1978, in Los Angeles, California at the age of 74 from an aortic aneurysm. His remains were interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park, in the Los Angeles area.- Actor
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The son of a Greek immigrant father (merchant) and an English mother, George Coulouris was educated at England's Manchester Grammar School. As an actor he was quite adept at playing villains, particularly wealthy businessmen, but he was just as suitable at playing nobler roles. A member of Orson Welles' famed Mercury Theater players, he appeared in such films as Citizen Kane (1941), For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943), Papillon (1973) and Murder on the Orient Express (1974). The film that established him as an interesting and reliable heavy, with his massive shoulders and hooded eyes, was Watch on the Rhine (1943).
Coulouris studied with Elsie Fogerty at London's Central School of Speech and Drama. His London stage debut came in 1925 with "Henry V" at the Old Vic. He was soon playing the Yank at the first British staging of Eugene O'Neill's "The Hairy Ape". By 1929 he had reached Broadway, via a modern dress version of "Measure for Measure". His role as Tallant in "The Late Christopher Bean" took him to Hollywood in 1933 for MGM's film of the play. The next milestone in his burgeoning career occurred when he was playing in "Ten Million Ghosts" and met Orson Welles. They got on well and Coulouris joined Welles' Mercury Theatre, playing Mark Antony in the famous modern dress production of "Julius Caesar" (1937). When Welles went to Hollywood to make "Citizen Kane", Coulouris climbed into movie history in the part of Walter Parks Thatcher, the Kane family's crotchety lawyer and business manager. By that time his future as a cinema actor was assured and he went on to play character parts in a long string of Hollywood productions throughout the 1940s. At the end of the 1940s Coulouris returned to England, joining the Bristol Old Vic where he was notable as Tartuffe, transferring to London. In the '50s and '60s he remained a stalwart stage actor in spite of his movie reputation. He liked nothing better than to grapple with Henrik Ibsen, George Bernard Shaw, August Strindberg, Molière or William Shakespeare. During these years he tackled Dr. Stockman in Ibsen's "An Enemy of the People", Patrick Flynn in Sean O'Casey's "The Plough and the Stars", the father in Jean-Paul Sartre's "Altona", Edgar in Strindberg's "The Dance of Death" and Big Daddy in Tennessee Williams' "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof". All of these are parts to swell a scene and Coulouris had the flourish to fill them, sometimes to overflowing, always compellingly. In Britain his film parts tended towards the mundane, though he rose to the occasion as the native Babalatchi in Carol Reed's Outcast of the Islands (1951) and seized rare chances to play comedy in Doctor in the House (1954), Doctor at Sea (1955) and the Frankie Howerd vehicle The Runaway Bus (1954). Towards the end of his life he tried his hand at writing and produced some charming memoirs describing his early life in Manchester and his early stage experiences. A vivid excerpt was published in the Guardian newspaper in February 1986 and the memoirs are available in full on the official website maintained by his son.- Prolific, sharp-featured American character actor of somewhat skeletal and dishevelled appearance, accentuated later in his career by thinning hair and a scraggly goatee. A former theology student, Brocco began his career playing leading roles in stock theatre. He subsequently honed his craft touring France, Italy, Spain and Switzerland, before returning to the U.S. in 1947, eventually joining the Federal Theater Group. On films from as early as 1932, he was at his most effective portraying eccentrics, scientists, small-time crooks, alcoholics, or nervous, downtrodden little men. His particular forte lay in the genre of science-fiction, where he graced the small screen on numerous occasions as assorted victims (The Outer Limits (1963), The Time Tunnel (1966), The Invaders (1967)) or aliens (Lost in Space (1965), Star Trek (1966), The Twilight Zone (1959)). His occasional film appearances include a dementia patent in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) and a rare starring role in the black comedy Homebodies (1974), late in his career. As a liberal-minded individual, Brocco was briefly blacklisted during the McCarthy era, but this did not prove detrimental to his career in the long run.
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Ona Munson was born Owena Elizabeth Wolcott on June 16, 1903 in Portland, Oregon. She took singing and dancing lessons when she was a child. At the age of fourteen, Ona moved to New York City with her mother. She began her career performing in vaudeville. In 1919 she made her Broadway debut in George White's Scandals. She appeared in several hit Broadway shows including No, No, Nanette and Hold Everything. Ona married stage actor Edward Buzzell in 1926. She went to Hollywood in 1930 to make the comedy Going Wild (1930). Soon after, she divorced her husband and started dating director Ernst Lubitsch. She starred in The Hot Heiress (1931) with Ben Lyon and in Broadminded (1931) with Joe E. Brown. Ona returned to Broadway in 1933 for a production of Hold Your Horses. While appearing in the show Ghosts she had a brief romance with actress Alla Nazimova. She also had relationships with Greta Garbo, Tallulah Bankhead, and director Dorothy Arzner. In 1939 she was cast as Belle Watling, a Southern madam, in Gone with the Wind (1939). The movie was a huge success but Ona ended up being typecast in similar roles. She got rave reviews playing a madam again in the film The Shanghai Gesture (1941).
Ona had a passionate love affair with playwright Mercedes de Acosta. She said they shared "the deepest spiritual moment that life brings". Worried about being outed as a lesbian she ended the romance and married Stewart McDonald, a loan administrator, in 1941. Their marriage was an arrangement since Stewart was also gay. During World War 2 she was chosen to be "Hollywood's official hostess" and acted as a godmother to hundreds of soldiers. She made some movies at Warner Brothers but her career stalled. Her final film was the thriller The Red House (1947). Ona divorced Stewart and married French painter Eugene Berman in 1950. This was another lavender marriage to a gay man. The couple moved to an apartment in The Belnord on Manhattan's Upper West Side. During the early 1950s Ona appeared in a few television shows. Unfortunately she was plagued by health problems and became very depressed. On February 1955 she committed suicide by taking an overdose of sleeping pills. She was fifty-one years old. Ona left a note that said "This is the only way I know to be free again ... Please don't follow me." She is buried at Ferncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale, New York.- Hollywood leading lady in B-movies, and supporting actress in big budget films. Although remembered for her portrayal of "Mme. Zola" in The Life of Emile Zola (1937), she is most memorable for her chilling-yet-beauteous performance as Dracula's Daughter (1936). She had another memorable role in director Tod Browning's Miracles for Sale (1939).
- Chubby Johnson was born Charles Rutledge Johnson on August 13, 1903, in Terre Haute, Indiana. He made a living as a journalist and did not become a movie actor until he was in his 40s, making his debut in the Randolph Scott oater Abilene Town (1946) in support of Scott, Ann Dvorak and Edgar Buchanan. He continued to practice his craft as a member of the press, serving as a radio announcer as well as pounding the keys as a columnist, until he was nearly 50. Chubby appeared in the Errol Flynn horse opera Rocky Mountain (1950) as part of an army of quirky character actors, including Guinn 'Big Boy' Williams and Slim Pickens. Chubby then quit the Fourth Estate for a Hollywood career.
When Republic Pictures sought a replacement for Eddy Waller to play sidekick to B-movie cowboy star Allan Lane in the Rocky Lane series, Chubby filled in for most of 1951-52. He also starred in the TV series Sky King (1951) as ranch foreman Jim Bell. The low-budget series, a spin-off from a five-year-old radio show in which individual episodes were made for approximately $9,000 each, ran on NBC from Sept 16, 1951, until Oct 26, 1952. The series was then picked up by ABC, which ran the same NBC episodes from November 8, 1952, until September 12, 1954. A season of new episodes was aired in 1955.
Chubby freelanced as a character actor after these stints on the TV, appearing in support of James Stewart in the Anthony Mann classic Bend of the River (1952), and in their The Far Country (1954), which also featured character actor par excellence Walter Brennan, the movies' first triple-Oscar threat. Chubby then went on to appear in support of Doris Day in Calamity Jane (1953), Audie Murphy in Gunsmoke (1953), Ronald Reagan in Law and Order (1953), Barbara Stanwyck and Ronnie again in Cattle Queen of Montana (1954) and James Cagney in Tribute to a Bad Man (1956), one of the legend's rare forays into the western.
Other stars Chubby supported were Richard Chamberlain and Claude Rains in Twilight of Honor (1963), the 1963 courtroom drama that won the ill-fated Nick Adams a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination; James Garner in Support Your Local Sheriff! (1969); and Burt Reynolds in his audacious debut as a big-screen star as the eponymous Sam Whiskey (1969). He also appeared uncredited in the classic High Noon (1952).
After appearing as a regular in the short-lived series Frontier Doctor (1956), Chubby appeared as Concho on another TV western, Temple Houston (1963), which starred Jeffrey Hunter. He also guested on many other TV westerns, including Bonanza (1959), Gunsmoke (1955) and The Rifleman (1958).
Chubby continued to appear in films until 1969, with Sam Whiskey (1969) serving as the nightcap to his career. He died on Halloween Day 1974 from complications from a leg infection. - Actress
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Sultry, sleepy-eyed Argentine brunette Mona Maris was born Rosa Emma Mona Maria Marta Capdevielle, of Spanish-French parentage. Her well-to-do background ensured a quality education with an emphasis on foreign languages. Mona mastered three of them, but, alas, English was not among them. This mattered little early on, as her career began in silent films in 1925, first in England and France, then with Universum AG in Germany. Moving to the U.S. in 1929, she was signed by Fox to co-star opposite Warner Baxter in two above-average westerns: Romance of the Rio Grande (1929) and the The Arizona Kid (1930) (in which she was rather overshadowed by a young Carole Lombard). In fairness, neither film gave her much to do, except be ornamental. In 'Arizona Kid', she was also unwisely permitted to sing, which was not her forte. Combined with her rather strained command of English, it was somewhat inevitable that she would find herself relegated to acting in a string of Spanish-language versions of American films.
Mona Maris is remembered today less for her sojourn in Hollywood, than for her on-screen chemistry with legendary singer Carlos Gardel in the musical drama Cuesta abajo (1934). Filmed in Argentina, it co-starred Mona as a femme fatale and proved to be her defining screen role. She auditioned for the part via telephone from the Paramount lot (having just completed shooting of Kiss and Make-Up (1934)) for French-born director Louis J. Gasnier, winning out over fellow candidates Raquel Torres and Rosita Montenegro. "Cuesta abajo" was well-received upon its release in the U.S., becoming the most successful Spanish-language film up to that time. Following Gardel's untimely death in 1935, Mona absented herself from the screen for six years.
She returned to Hollywood again in the early 40's, free-lancing for most of the majors, in films like The Falcon in Mexico (1944) and Tampico (1944). Even though, her English was now fluent, she remained mostly typecast as south-of-the-border senoritas. After an uncredited bit in the Bob Hope comedy Monsieur Beaucaire (1946), her career wound down with a third-billed part in a third rate swashbuckler for Republic, The Avengers (1950). Shortly after that, she called it a day and in 1960 retired to Lima, Peru, with her second husband, Dutch millionaire Herman Rick.- Actor
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Leonid Kinskey, originally from St. Petersburg, Russia, performed across Europe and much of Latin America before his arrival in the United States. By 1932 he landed a small role as a radical in Ernst Lubitsch's comedy, Trouble in Paradise (1932). The next year he played an agitator in Duck Soup (1933). He went on to play small parts, nearly always foreigners and often comedic, in over sixty films, including Genflou in Les Misérables (1935), the snake charmer in the well-known scene from The Lives of a Bengal Lancer (1935), an Arab in The Garden of Allah (1936), Ivan in The Big Broadcast of 1938 (1938), and Pierre in That Night in Rio (1941). His final film role was Dominiwski in The Man with the Golden Arm (1955). Kinskey's most famous role was as Sascha, the humorous bartender at Rick's Cafe Americaine, in Casablanca (1942). The part had originally been given to Leon Mostovoy; Kinskey replaced him because (1) he was funnier than Mostovoy, and (2) by his own testimony, he was a drinking buddy of the star Humphrey Bogart. His contract guaranteed him two weeks at $750 a week. He died on 8 September 1998, in Fountain Hills, Arizona, aged 95.- Actor
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A minor prototype of the "Runyon-esque" character for more than three decades, Polish-born actor George E. Stone (né Gerschon Lichtenstein, on May 18, 1903) was, in actuality, a close friend of writer Damon Runyan and would play scores of colorful "dees, dem and dos" cronies throughout the 1920s, '30s, and '40s. With great names such as Johnnie the Shiek, Boots Burnett, Ice Box Hamilton, Wires Kagel, Ropes McGonigle, Society Max, and Toothpick Charlie, Stone delighted audiences in scores of crimers for decades.
A vaudeville and Broadway hoofer in the interim, the runt-sized Stone (5'3") finally scored in his first "grownup" part as the Sewer Rat in the silent drama 7th Heaven (1927) starring the once-popular romantic pair Charles Farrell and (Academy Award winner) Janet Gaynor. As "Georgie" sounded too child-like, he began billing himself as "George E. Stone." From there he was featured in a number of "tough guy" potboilers, particularly for Warner Bros. So typed was he as a henchman or thug, that he found few films outside the genre. His gunsels often possessed a yellow streak and could be both broadly comic or threatening in nature, with more than a few of them ending up on a morgue slab before film's end, including his Earl Williams on The Front Page (1931) and Otero in the classic gangster flick Little Caesar (1931).
Included in George's many films were a number of Oscar-quality pictures , including The Racket (1928), Cimarron (1931), Five Star Final (1931), 42nd Street (1933), Viva Villa! (1934), Anthony Adverse (1936), North West Mounted Police (1940), Pickup on South Street (1953), The Robe (1953), Broken Lance (1954), The Man with the Golden Arm (1955), Guys and Dolls (1955), Some Came Running (1958), Some Like It Hot (1959), Pocketful of Miracles (1961). Arguably, Stone's most popular, if not prolific, role was when he replaced Charles Wagenheim as The Runt in the second of the "Boston Blackie" film series, Confessions of Boston Blackie (1941) that starred Chester Morris as the title detective. The series lasted eight years.
Suffering from failing eyesight in later years, George was virtually blind by the late 1950s but, thanks to friends, managed to secure sporadic film and TV work. From 1958 on, Stone could be glimpsed in a recurring role on the popular courtroom series Perry Mason (1957) as a court clerk. Married to second wife Marjorie Ramey in 1946, 64-year-old George died following a stroke on May 26, 1967 in Woodland Hills, California, and was survived by two sisters.- Actor
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English-born Reginald Gardiner, graduate of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, became an established revue and musical star on the London stage in the 1930's. His first foray into the film business was in the Alfred Hitchcock-directed The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog (1927). However, it was in Hollywood where his career really took off. At the prompting of Beatrice Lillie he departed England for America in 1935. After appearing in two of her shows he delighted Broadway audiences in "An Evening with Beatrice Lillie and Reginald Gardiner", performing a series of clever impersonations of such inanimate items as lighthouses and wallpaper.
In 1936, he appeared in his first Hollywood film, Born to Dance (1936) (starring Eleanor Powell and James Stewart), Gardiner playing a traffic cop with symphonic delusions. His instant popularity resulted in further film offers and he soon found himself in constant demand to impersonate butlers and "silly ass" upper-crust English twits. With his suave attire, thin moustache and obtuse mannerisms, he took to playing those caricatures with obvious glee. He enlivened many a film with his comic presence, most notably A Damsel in Distress (1937), The Man Who Came to Dinner (1941) (his character "Beverly Carlton" brilliantly lampooning Noël Coward) and Cluny Brown (1946). In later years, Gardiner became a regular on television as co-star of The Phyllis Diller Show (1966), and, in 1964, he returned to the stage to play Alfred P. Doolittle at the New York City Centre (the role made famous by Stanley Holloway in My Fair Lady) . John Canaday, reviewing for the New York Times, described his character as a "wonderful, boozy, abominable, bug-ridden and altogether reprehensible charmer, a kind of defrocked Boy Scout, whose love for everybody is exceeded only by his propensity for chicanery and self-indulgence".
Gardiner was also celebrated for his classic monologue, simply called 'Trains'. It so impressed King George VI that he summoned the actor to Buckingham Palace for a special performance. 'Trains' was recorded by Decca and has since become a collector's item.- Director
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Norman Foster was born on 13 December 1903 in Richmond, Indiana, USA. He was a director and actor, known for The Loretta Young Show (1953), I Cover Chinatown (1936) and Mr. Moto's Last Warning (1938). He was married to Sally Blane and Claudette Colbert. He died on 7 July 1976 in Santa Monica, California, USA.- Actress
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She was the third daughter of Daniel and Anne MacDonald, younger sister to Blossom (MGM's character actress Marie Blake), whom she followed to New York and a chorus job in 1920. She was busy in a string of musical productions. In 1928 Paramount tested and rejected her, but a year later Ernst Lubitsch saw her test and picked her to play opposite Maurice Chevalier in The Love Parade (1929). Musicals went into decline and Paramount dropped her in 1931; her next pictures with Chevalier went nowhere. She went to Europe where she met Irving Thalberg and his wife Norma Shearer (whom she loaned both her hairdresser and chauffeur). She got the lead in Thalberg's property The Merry Widow (1934), and her next MGM vehicle, Naughty Marietta (1935) brought her together with Nelson Eddy. For her next project she insisted Clark Gable should co-star. He at first refused - "I just sit there while she sings. None of that stuff for me." - the movie, of course, was San Francisco (1936). During World War II she often did USO shows. She hoped to enter grand opera; she did take lessons and gave concert recitals. Her last public appearance, singing "Ah, Sweet Mystery of Life", was at the funeral of Louis B. Mayer. She suffered heart ailments and, after an arterial transplant in 1963, died of a heart attack in Houston in 1965. Emotionally tearful, but polite crowds listened to a recording of "Ah, Sweet Mystery" at her Forest Lawn funeral, which was attended by Hollywood celebrities ranging from Mary Pickford and Charles (Buddy) Rogers to Nelson Eddy, Irene Dunne, and Ronald Reagan.- Actor
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Stuart Erwin was an American actor who often worked as a voice actor in radio and animation. He was once nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.
Erwin was born in Squaw Valley, Fresno County, California in 1903. Squaw Valley is a census-designated place, the location of a post office which has operated on-and-off since 1879. It is located 30 miles (48 kilometers) to the east of the county seat, Fresno. Despite the similarity in names, it has no connection to the Squaw Valley Ski Resort, which is located in Placer County, California.
Erwin attended school at Porterville High School in Porterville, California. Porterville was at the time a local center for the mining industry, primarily known for the extraction of magnetite from nearby mines. Erwin latter attended the University of California. He started performing on stage as an actor while still a college student. During the 1920s, Erwin mainly appeared on repertory theatre in Los Angeles.
In 1928, Erwin made his film debut in the biographical film "Mother Knows Best." The film was largely based on the life of actress and singer Elsie Janis (1889-1956), and depicted her relationship with the stage mother who managed her career since childhood. The film was mainly notable as the first "talkie" (sound film) produced by the film studio Fox Film (1915-1935), using the Movietone sound system.
Erwin regularly appeared in theatrical films during the late 1920s and early 1930s, but was infrequently cast on major roles. His first memorable role was that of oil-industry businessman and radio-station owner Leslie McWhinney in the musical comedy "The Big Broadcast" (1932). In the film, McWhinney is both the employer and a close friend to singer Bing Crosby (1903-1977). The film was Crosby's first starring role as an actor, and he depicted a fictionalized version of himself.
Erwin gained a starring role in the comedy film "Palooka" (1934), an adaptation of the popular comic strip "Joe Palooka" (1930-1984) by cartoonist Ham Fisher (1900-1955). Erwin was cast in the role of Joe Palooka himself. Palooka was depicted as a professional boxer, but with a kind heart, a hero's instinct to protect others, and rather limited intelligence. In the film, the role of the middle-aged Knobby Walsh, Palooka's Irish-born manager and the mastermind behind his rise to fame, was played by Jimmy Durante (1893-1980).
In 1936, Erwin starred as hillbilly Amos Dodd in the comedy "Pigskin Parade." In the film, Amos is an uneducated farmer from Arkansas who has an amazing talent for American football, so he gets recruited as a college football player by a Texas-based university. The role met with critical praise, and Erwin was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. However, the Award for that year was won by rival actor Walter Brennan (1894-1974).
In radio, Erwin had a recurring role in "Phone Again Finnegan" (1946), and played multiple roles in the anthology series "Lux Radio Theatre" (1934-1955), "Cavalcade of America" (1935-1953), and "The United States Steel Hour" (1943-1953).
From 1950 to 1955, Erwin starred in the television sitcom "The Stu Erwin Show." The series lasted for a total of 130 episodes, and cast Erwin in the role of a high-school principal who was also the father of high-spirited teens. After the sitcom ended, Erwin frequently appeared as a guest star on other television shows.
In 1963, Erwin played the role of football coach Wilson in the science-fiction comedy film "Son of Flubber," The film was a commercial success, earning about $22 million at the North American box office. It was the seventh-most commercially successful film of 1963, being outperformed by "Cleopatra" (first), "How the West Was Won" (second), "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" (third), 'Tom Jones" (fourth), "Irma la Douce" (fifth), and "The Sword in the Stone" (sixth). "Son of Flubber" itself outperformed the horror film "The Birds" (eighth), the spy film "Dr. No" (ninth), and the drama film "The V.I.P.s" (tenth).
In 1964, Erwin played the role of Police Chief Loomis in another science-fiction comedy film, "The Misadventures of Merlin Jones." This film earned only $4 million at the box office but was considered successful enough to receive a sequel, "The Monkey's Uncle" (1965). Erwin was not asked to appear in the sequel. "The Misadventures of Merlin Jones" was Erwin's last film role.
From 1965 to 1967, Erwin was limited to playing guest star roles in various television series, such as "Gunsmoke," "Bonanza," and "Lassie." In December 1967, Erwin suffered a myocardial infarction (heart attack) and died in Beverly Hills. He was 64. He was survived by his wife June Collyer (1906-1968), who died of pneumonia in March 1968.
The bodies of both Erwin and Collyer were cremated. Their ashes were interred at the Chapel of the Pines Crematory, in Los Angeles.- John Gallaudet was born on 23 August 1903 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. He was an actor, known for In Cold Blood (1967), Side Street (1949) and Murder Is News (1937). He was married to Constance Helen MacKenzie and Wynne Gibson. He died on 5 November 1983 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Rex Bell was born on 16 October 1903 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. He was an actor, known for Broadway to Cheyenne (1932), Lucky Larrigan (1932) and Rainbow Ranch (1933). He was married to Clara Bow. He died on 4 July 1962 in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA.
- American character actor. Raised in New York City and Cincinnati, Ohio, Beddoe was the son of a professor at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music who happened also to be the world-famous Welsh tenor, Dan Beddoe. Although Don Beddoe intended a career in journalism, he took an interest in theatre and became involved first with amateur companies and then with professional theatre troupes. He debuted on Broadway in 1929 and kept up a decade-long career on the stage. Although said to have made some minor appearances in silent films, Beddoe made his real transfer to film work in 1938. He appeared in a wide range of supporting roles in literally scores of films, often as either a fast-talking reporter or as a mousey sort. He became one of the most readily familiar faces in Hollywood movies, despite remaining almost unknown by name outside the industry. Following service in the Army Air Corps during the Second World War, he continued to work steadily in small roles, complementing them with television work. Despite advancing (and very ripe old) age, he remained quite active, supplementing his acting work with a second career in real estate. He died in 1991.
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Hardie Albright's parents had a traveling vaudeville act, in which he made his stage debut at the age of six. He studied drama at Carnegie Tech and was a member of Eva Le Gallienne's repertory theater. He appeared in many Broadway plays before making his film debut in 1931. Appearing in over 50 films, Albright retired from acting in 1948 and took a position as a drama instructor at UCLA, where he authored several books on acting and directing.- Actor
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The actor and Broadway director Luther Adler was born into a Yiddish theatrical dynasty. One of the six children born to Jacob P. and Sara Adler, he made his debut in the world in New York City, originally billed as Lutha J. Adler. His full siblings Charles, Jay, Julia, and Stella (the famous acting teacher) as well as his half-siblings Celia and Abram Adler all appeared on Broadway, and his father Jacob, the biggest star of the Yiddish-language theater, was considered one of the great American actors.
The Yiddish theater was an important cultural venue in the days when the millions of Jewish immigrants in the greater metropolitan New York area spoke Yiddish as their first (and sometimes only) language. People who trained and appeared in the Yiddish theater were instrumental in the development of the modern American theater and film, and some, including Sidney Lumet, are still active in the 21st century. It was in this cultural milieu that Luther and his siblings got their grounding in acting and the theater.
Jacob Adler owned and operated his own stage in New York's Lower East Side, and Luther began appearing in the family productions at the age of five with the Adler production of "Schmendrick." He made his official debut as an actor at the age of 13 at his father's theater and his Broadway debut at the the age of 18. Billed as Lutha Adler, he appeared in the Provincetown Players' production of Theodore Drieser's "The Hand of the Potter" in December 1921 at the Provincetown Playhouse,
Adler's first Broadway hit was "Humoresque" in 1923, and he appeared regularly in top productions throughout the '20s, including "Street Scene" (1929) and "Red Dust" (1929). Along with his sister 'Stella Adler", Luther Adler was one of the original members of the Group Theatre acting company, which was formed in 1931 by Harold Clurman (his future brother-in-law), Cheryl Crawford, and Lee Strasberg. Others who would make their bones in the company were Elia Kazan, Julius "John" Garfield, Howard Da Silva, Franchot Tone, John Randolph, Will Geer, Clifford Odets and Lee J. Cobb.
The Group Theatre was dedicated to bringing realism to the American stage and was instrumental in introducing the Stanislavsky technique into American acting. Most members were leftists if not communists, and the collective wanted to produce plays dealing with social issues. For the Groupe Theatre, Adler appeared in "Night Over Taos" (1932), "Success Story" (1933), "Alien Corn" (1933) and two seminal works of the American stage written by Odets: "Awake and Sing!" (1935) and "Golden Boy" (1937). He played opposite leading ladies Katharine Cornell in "Alien Corn" (1933), his sister Stella in "Gold Eagle Guy "(1934), "Awake and Sing!" and "Paradise Lost" (both 1935), and Frances Farmer in "Golden Boy" (1937).
His appearance as the urban ethnic boxer Joe Bonaparte in Odets' "Golden Boy" arguably was his greatest role, but when the film was made in 1939, he was passed over for the improbably cast Wlliam Holden, a white-bread WASP. Although Adler appeared in many motion pictures, his reputation would remain primarily that of a stage actor.
Adler became a director on Broadway in 1942, though his first staging, "They Should Have Stayed in Bed", was a flop, lasting but 11 performances. He next directed Ben Hecht's pro-Israel propaganda play "A Flag is Born" in 1946, starring the great Paul Muni, a graduate of the Yiddish theater, and newcomer Marlon Brando, an Irish-American born-Protestant who had been trained by his sister Stella. The play, which raised money for Jewsh refugees from the Holocaust seeking sanctuary in Palestine, was a hit, running for 120 performances. He also directed "Angel Street" (1955) and "A View from the Bridge" (1960). He last appeared on Broadway as a replacement in the long running "Fiddler on the Roof."
Adler made his movie debut in Lancer Spy (1937), but he never became a star in that medium. His best roles like "Golden Boy" and "Humoresque" were taken by other actors, including Group Theatre alumnus John Garfield. He had memorable supporting turns in the noir classic D.O.A. (1949), in Joseph Losey's remake of M (1951), in Paul Muni's last film The Last Angry Man (1959), in the Holocaust drama The Man in the Glass Booth (1975), and as Paul Newman's mobster uncle in Absence of Malice (1981). He also worked frequently on television.
From 1938 until 1947, Adler was married to the actress Sylvia Sidney. They had one child, a son, Jacob. Luther Adler died in Kutztown, Pennsylvania on December 8, 1984. He was 81 years old.- Born the son of an Opium Agent in Bengal, Eric Blair was educated in England (Eton 1921). The joined the British Imperial Police in Burma, serving until 1927. He then travelled around England and Europe, doing various odd jobs to support his writing. By 1935 he had adopted the 'pen-name' of 'George Orwell' and had written his first novels. He married in 1936. In 1937, he and his wife fought against the Fascists in the Spanish Civil War. He produced some 3000 pages of essays and newspaper articles as well as several books and programs for the BBC.
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George J. Lewis was born on 10 December 1903 in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico. He was an actor, known for Zorro's Black Whip (1944), Radar Patrol vs. Spy King (1949) and Malice in the Palace (1949). He was married to Mary Louise Lohman. He died on 8 December 1995 in Rancho Santa Fe, California, USA.- Actress
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Fredi Washington was a pioneering African-American actress whose fair skin and green eyes often were impediments to her showing her extraordinary acting skills. Her talent was often overlooked because of people's obsession with her race and color. In the few films in which she acted her enormous talent as an actress couldn't be hidden.
Her first film performance was with Duke Ellington in a musical short, Black and Tan (1929), as a dancer. In Hollywood she was urged to "pass" for fully white by studio heads, who said they would make her a bigger star than Norma Shearer, Joan Crawford, Constance Bennett and Greta Garbo. Fredi refused. Her best-known role was as the original Peola, in the controversial film Imitation of Life (1934). She appeared with Paul Robeson in The Emperor Jones (1933) and in a few other films with her skin darkened. Her best work was on the stage, notably in "Mamba's Daughters" with Ethel Waters. Fredi never made it to the top like her contemporaries Waters, Josephine Baker, and Nina Mae McKinney because she didn't look "black" enough. But Fredi had what it took, as is more than evident in the few films that she did do.
Her best work was as an activist. She was the head of the Negro Actors Guild, helping black performers get a fair chance in the entertainment industry. Hopefully, people who discover her work today will see her beauty and talent shine through and look beyond her skin color, unlike most people of her time.- Actor
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The accordion maestro provided nearly two decades of squeaky-clean music and family entertainment on TV every Saturday night between 1955 and 1971 on prime-time, and for another 11 years in syndication. His trademarks included his "A uh-one, a uh-two" intro and a perpetual bubble machine.