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1-50 of 4,629
- Pete the Dog was born as Pal. He was known for Dr. Pyckle and Mr. Pryde (1925), Bear Shooters (1930), The First Seven Years (1930), and Dog Heaven(1930). He of course is best known for playing Spanky's dog in The Little Rascalls. He died on January 28, 1946 in Los Angeles, Californians, USA.
- Harriet Toby was born on 12 December 1929 in New York, New York, USA. She was an actress, known for La belle que voilà (1950). She died on 3 March 1952 in Nice, Alpes-Maritimes, France.
- Soundtrack
Born John Alexander in Memphis, TN, on June 9, 1929, R&B singer Johnny Ace served in the US Navy during World War II, and after his discharge he headed for New Orleans to become part of the Beale Street music scene. He performed as both a singer and pianist, and worked with the top acts of the day, including Bobby Bland and B.B. King, among others. He was signed by Duke Records in 1952 and turned out a prolific amount of records in just two years, including two #1 hits ("My Song" in 1952 and "The Clock" in 1953).
His most famous recording, "My Pledge of Love", hit #1 on the R&B charts in 1955 and even made it into the top 20 on the pop charts. The honors were posthumous, however; on Christmas night 1954 in Houston, Texas, Ace was backstage at the City Auditorium during an intermission in his show, and as a joke pulled out what he thought was an unloaded pistol, put it to his head and pulled the trigger. The gun, as it turned out, wasn't unloaded and he was killed instantly.- David Blakely was born on 17 June 1929 in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, UK. He died on 10 April 1955 in Hampstead, Camden, London, England, UK.
- Harry Agganis was born on 20 April 1929 in Lynn, Massachusetts, USA. He died on 27 June 1955 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.
- Jerry Hoyt was born on 29 January 1929 in Chicago, Illinois, United States. He died on 10 July 1955 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States.
- Cristina Trevi was born on 27 October 1929 in Mexico D.F., Mexico. She was an actress, known for Dios nos manda vivir (1954), La desconocida (1954) and Un divorcio (1953). She died on 1 July 1956 in Mexico D.F., Mexico.
- Attila Gérecz was born on 20 November 1929 in Dunakeszi, Hungary. Attila died on 7 November 1956 in Budapest, Hungary.
- Jimmy Reece was born on 17 November 1929 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA. He died on 28 September 1958 in Trenton, New Jersey, United States.
- Rolf von Maydell was born on 8 January 1929 in Lürschau, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. Rolf was a director and writer, known for Man nehme fünf Töne - Kleine Theorie der leichten Musik (1958), Lerne lachen, ohne zu klagen (1958) and Die Operette ist tot - es lebe die Operette (1958). Rolf was married to Gisela Hoeter. Rolf died on 15 November 1958 in Baden-Baden, Baden-Württemberg, Germany.
- Mike Hawthorn was born on 10 April 1929 in Mexborough, Yorkshire, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Glück und Liebe in Monaco (1959), After Hours (1958) and Formula 1 (1950). He died on 22 January 1959 in Guildford, Surrey, England, UK.
- Sona Danielová was born on 11 December 1929 in Prague, Czechoslovakia [now Czech Republic]. She was an actress, known for Distant Journey (1949), Snadný zivot (1957) and Prítel lhár (1957). She died on 31 July 1959 in Prague, Czechoslovakia [now Czech Republic].
- Cinematographer
Ján Cifra was born on 23 June 1929. Ján was a cinematographer, known for Bolo raz priatelstvo (1958), Vstup zakázán (1960) and Hastrman (1955). Ján died on 24 October 1959.- Carlos Pena Filho was born on 17 May 1929 in Recife, Pernambuco, Brazil. Carlos was a writer, known for Soneto do Desmantelo Blue (1993). Carlos died on 1 July 1960 in Recife, Pernambuco, Brazil.
- Vladimir Kosarev was born on 28 July 1929. He was an actor, known for Pikovaya dama (1960), Syn Iristona (1960) and Iskateli (1957). He died on 25 August 1960.
- Yvonne Lohn was born on 21 May 1929 in Los Angeles, California, USA. She was an actress, known for Our Gang Follies of 1936 (1935). She died on 25 September 1960 in Fresno, California, USA.
- Chula Prieto was born on 29 January 1929 in Mexico City, Mexico. She was an actress, known for El rayo de Sinaloa (La venganza de Heraclio Bernal) (1958), Tu recuerdo y yo (1953) and Gitana tenías que ser (1953). She died on 1 October 1960 in Mexico City, Mexico.
- Velma Berg was born on 30 May 1929 in Alameda, California, USA. She was an actress, known for My Heart Belongs to Daddy (1942). She died on 18 November 1961 in San Bernardino, California, USA.
- Actress
- Soundtrack
Dixie Ross was born on 9 August 1929 in Loraine, Texas, USA. She was an actress, known for Broadway Rhythm (1944). She was married to Dickie Henderson. She died on 10 July 1963.- Director
- Writer
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Vladimir Skuybin was born on 3 June 1929 in Moscow, RSFSR, USSR [now Russia]. He was a director and writer, known for Na grafskikh razvalinakh (1958), Chudotvornaya (1960) and Sud (1962). He died on 15 November 1963.- Klaus Kammer was born on 10 January 1929 in Hannover, Germany. He was an actor, known for Clavigo (1964), In der Strafkolonie (1963) and The Girl from Flanders (1956). He was married to Hilde Röhling. He died on 9 May 1964 in West Berlin, West Germany.
- Glenn Roberts made a name for himself as a high school pitcher with a blazing fastball, but he didn't truly shine until he charged through the superspeedways. Though tagged with the nickname "Fireball", Roberts went racing dirt tracks at the age of eighteen. Though his father didn't approve of this, Glenn talked his mother to sign the release form to race modified stock cars. Roberts raced the modifieds, until the joined the famed Holman-Moody team in 1956. He raced to success, and soon his winsome smile, and crewcut became the most reconized face on the NASCAR circut. Sought after for endorsements that took him all over the country. Affable, yet reserved, Roberts disliked his nickname, to his friends he was just "Glenn". At the world 600 in 1964, he, Ned Jarrett, and Junior Johnson crashed. Fireball's car landed on it's roof, and flaming gasoline filled the cockpit. Ned pulled him out of the car, and he was rushed to the hospital with burns over 80% of his body. He died weeks later from his injuries.
- David Aylmer was born on 31 March 1929 in Hampstead, London, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Sara Crewe (1951), Sara Crewe (1957) and BBC Sunday-Night Theatre (1950). He died on 20 July 1964 in Maida Vale, London, England, UK.
- Director
- Writer
- Producer
Nuno Fradique was born on 12 March 1929 in Lisbon, Portugal. He was a director and writer, known for A Lena e o Carlos (1960), Eva e Madalena (1963) and A Dama das Camélias (1962). He died on 10 December 1964.- Günther Haack was born on 20 February 1929 in Berlin, Germany. He was an actor, known for Der Hexer (1962), Zar und Zimmermann (1956) and Die Liebe und der Co-Pilot (1961). He died on 16 June 1965 in Halle, German Democratic Republic.
- Zdenek Duss was born on 24 March 1929 in Muglinov, Czechoslovakia [now Czech Republic]. He was an actor, known for Milujeme (1952), Stríbrný vítr (1956) and Tereza (1961). He died on 23 July 1965 in Brno, Czechoslovakia [now Czech Republic].
- Velimir 'Bata' Senic was born on 31 December 1929 in Belgrade, Serbia, Yugoslavia. He was an actor, known for Love and Fashion (1960). He died on 22 October 1965 in Belgrade, Serbia, Yugoslavia.
- Jimmy Davies was born on 8 August 1929 in Glendale, California, USA. He died on 11 June 1966 in Hinsdale, Illinois, USA.
- Liza Chapman appeared on television and the stage, served as a lieutenant in the Women's Army Corps from 1948 to 1952 and was reported to be the youngest commissioned officer in the corps at the time.
A veteran of television melodrama, Miss Chapman was known to daytime viewers for her portrayal of Janet Mathews on NBC's "Another World." She also appeared in two episodes of CBS's "The Secret Storm" in a minor role as Barbara Bradford.
Her husband, pianist and conductor Andrew Heath, served as chairman of the music department at Fairfield University. Both studied at Yale University from 1953 to 1955, when he was working on a master's degree in music and she was taking courses in the drama school.
Mrs. Heath, a student of Eva Le Gallienne at the White Barn in Westport in 1957, conducted story-telling hours at the Hans Christian Anderson statue in New York's Central Park early in her acting career. Her brilliance in story telling led to an invitation by the Baroness Alma Dahlerup of the Danish Arts Council for her to conduct story telling hours in New York.
She appeared in the New York production of "Lysistrata" and off Broadway in "Paris Impromptu" and a revival of "Anna Christie." A graduate of Yale Drama School, she portrayed Regina in the world premiere of Miss Le Gallienne's translation of Henrik Ibsen's "Ghosts," which was produced by Lucille Lortel at the White Barn theater. Mrs. Heath also appeared many times on the same stage with her husband, doing narratives as he played the piano. She occasionally accompanied her husband on European concert tours.
A drama student from New Haven, the then Liza Chapman first met her future husband when he gave a concert at Quinnipiac College. He was a Harvard undergraduate at the time. They continued their friendship in the summers of 1947 and 1948 at Tanglewood, Mass., where Mr. Heath was a student at the music center and Miss Chapman was director of a summer stock theatrical group. Following several years at Harvard and abroad, Mr. Heath entered the Army in 1951. He and Miss Chapman were reunited in New York where she was serving as a lieutenant in the WACs. They were married in New Haven. After release from military service, the couple spent several years studying at Yale and then settled in Westport, Connecticut.
Liza Chapman Heath was buried with military honors in Arlington National Cemetery following services in Connecticut in 1967. Andrew Heath died on February 15, 2005 in New Haven, Connecticut and is buried alongside his wife at Arlington. The couple had three sons, Dana, Duncan and David, and a daughter, Honor. - Music Department
- Composer
- Soundtrack
Joe Meek was born on 5 April 1929 in Newent, Gloucestershire, England, UK. He was a composer, known for Wristcutters: A Love Story (2006), The Rum Diary (2011) and Sing and Swing (1963). He died on 3 February 1967 in London, England, UK.- Writer
- Actor
- Soundtrack
Charles Beaumont was the pseudonym for Charles Leroy Nutt, born on Chicago's North Side on January 2 1929. He also occasionally wrote under the names Charles McNutt and E.T. Beaumont (the latter apparently based on the name of a Texas town). Tragically short-lived, Beaumont was a dynamic and imaginative author and screenwriter of macabre, cautionary tales -- frequently tinged with black humour -- blending the genres of science-fiction, fantasy and horror. With the sole exception of Rod Serling, he was the single most important creative force in the early years of The Twilight Zone (1959), responsible for many classic episodes, including "Perchance to Dream" (adapted from his original story, first published in 'Playboy' magazine in November 1958), "Printer's Devil" (from "The Devil, You Say?", his very first story, published in 'Amazing Stories', January 1951), "The Jungle" ('If' magazine, December 1954) and "In His Image" (one of the stories from his collection "Yonder", published in 1958). Much of Beaumont's early work was published in an anthology entitled "The Hunger and Other Stories", by Putnam in 1957. He also scripted or co-scripted several movies, including Roger Corman's The Premature Burial (1962), The Haunted Palace (1963) (Beaumont only took the title from the poem by Edgar Allan Poe, adapting the actual story from H.P. Lovecraft's novel "The Case of Charles Dexter Ward") and The Masque of the Red Death (1964). He also wrote an earlier script for Queen of Outer Space (1958) as a spoof, later ruefully commenting, that neither the director nor the cast seemed to have noticed that fact.
Beaumont had an extremely troubled childhood, which he later referred to as "one big Charles Addams cartoon". His mentally unstable mother at one time dressed him in girl's clothes and killed one of his pets as a form of punishment (this later inspired his short story "Miss Gentillbelle"). He was eventually farmed out to the care of five widowed aunts, who operated a boarding house and regaled young Charles with nightly tales, detailing the peculiar demise of each of their husbands. Somehow, perhaps unsurprisingly, young Charles developed his macabre sense of humour.
He first became interested in science fiction in his teens. He found school entirely boring, dropping out in the tenth grade. Then came a brief stint in the U.S. Army, but he was discharged after just three months for medical reasons (back problems). With little success, he tried his hand at acting, then sold illustrations to pulp magazines, worked as a railroad clerk in Mobile, Alabama; as an animator at MGM, even as a dishwasher. By the time he was twenty, he wrote prolifically, but remained unable to sell any of his first seventy-two stories, until the science-fiction magazine 'Amazing Stories' showed interest in "The Devil, You Say?", which was eventually published in early 1951. By the end of the decade, he had successfully segued into writing for films and television.
In 1964, at the height of his creative abilities, Beaumont was struck down by a savage illness (a combination of Pick's disease and early-onset Alzheimer's) which sadly claimed his life three years later at the age of thirty-eight.- Hanns Lothar was born on 10 April 1929 in Hannover, Germany. He was an actor, known for One, Two, Three (1961), The Buddenbrooks (1959) and The Buddenbrooks (1959). He was married to Wiemer, Gabriele, Ingrid Andree and Kari Noller. He died on 11 March 1967 in Hamburg, West Germany.
- Yvan Daniel was born on 2 December 1929 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. He died on 24 March 1967 in Laval, Québec, Canada.
- Composer
- Music Department
- Soundtrack
J.B. Lenoir was born on 5 March 1929 in Monticello, Mississippi, USA. He was a composer, known for The Accused (1988), The Soul of a Man (2003) and The Blues (2003). He died on 29 April 1967 in Champaign, Illinois, USA.- Péter Palotás was born on 27 June 1929 in Budapest, Hungary. He died on 17 May 1967 in Budapest, Hungary.
- Actor
- Transportation Department
Akmal was born on 11 November 1929 in Lahore, Pakistan. He was an actor, known for Jigri Yaar (1967), Bharia Mela (1966) and Rani Khan (1960). He was married to Firdous. He died on 11 June 1967 in Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan.- Music Department
- Composer
- Soundtrack
Bert Berns was born on 8 November 1929 in New York City, New York, USA. He was a composer, known for '71 (2014), 10 Cloverfield Lane (2016) and X-Men: First Class (2011). He was married to Ilene Holub. He died on 31 December 1967 in New York City, New York, USA.- Actor
- Director
- Writer
Barry Shawzin was born on 21 June 1929 in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France. He was an actor and director, known for The Day the Sky Fell In (1959), Duffy (1968) and The Avengers (1961). He died on 28 March 1968 in Cape Town, South Africa.- Writer
- Music Department
- Soundtrack
Martin Luther King Jr. was born on January 15, 1929, in Atlanta, Georgia. He was the son of Alberta Christine (Williams), a schoolteacher, and Martin Luther King Sr. a pastor of the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta. For Martin the civil rights movement began one summer in 1935 when he was six years old. Two of his friends did not show up to play ball with him and Martin decided to go looking for them. When he went to one of the boys' house, their mother met him at the front door and told him in a rude tone that her son would not be coming out to play with him that day or any other day because they were white and he was black. Years later, Martin admitted that those cruel words altered the direction of his life. As a teenager, Martin went through school with great distinction. He skipped ninth and 12th grades, and excelled on the violin and as as a public speaker. One evening after taking top prize in a debate tournament, he and his teacher were riding home on the bus discussing the event when the driver ordered them to give up their seats for two white passengers who had just boarded. Martin was infuriated as he recalled, "I intended to stay right in my seat and protest," but his teacher convinced him to obey the law and they stood for the remainder of the 90-mile trip. "That night will never leave my memory as long as I live. It was the angriest I had ever been in my life. Never before, or afterward, can I remember myself being so angry," he later recalled.
Martin entered Morehouse College, his father's alma mater, when he was 15 with the intention of becoming a doctor or lawyer. After graduating from Morehouse at the age of 19, he decided to enter Crozer Theological Seminary in Chester, Pennsylvania. This private nondenominational college had only 100 students at the time, and Martin was one of six black students. This was the first time that he had lived in a community that was mostly white. He won the highest class ranking and a $1,200 fellowship for graduate school. In 1951 he entered Boston University School of Theology to to pursue his Ph.D. While at Crozer Martin had attended a lecture by Howard University President Mordecai Johnson, who spoke about Mohandas K. Gandhi, India's spiritual leader whose nonviolent protests helped to free his country from British rule, and that gave Martin the basis for positive change. It was here that he met and married his wife Coretta Scott King, who was a soprano studying at the New England Conservatory of Music. In 1954 Martin accepted a call to the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama, to be its pastor. Despite Coretta's warning that it would not be safe for them in Alabama, the poorest and most racist state in the US, Martin insisted that they move there. Many local black ministers attended Martin's first sermon at the church, among them the Rev. Ralph Abernathy, who congratulated him on his speech. The two became fast friends and often discussed life in general and the challenges of desegregation in particular. Then an incident changed Martin's life forever.
On the cold winter night of December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks, a 42-year-old black seamstress who worked in a downtown Montgomery department store, boarded a bus for home and sat in the back with the other black passengers. A few stops later, she was ordered to give up her seat to a white passenger who just boarded. She repeatedly refused, prompting the driver to call the police, who arrested her. In response to Mrs. Parks' courage, the town's black leaders formed the Montgomery Improvement Association and elected Martin as its leader. The first goal of the MIA was to boycott the city's bus system until public transportation laws were changed. The strike was long, bitter and violent, but eventually the city's white merchants began to complain that their businesses were suffering because of the strike, and the city responded by filing charges against Martin. While in court to appeal the charges, he learned that the U.S. Supreme Court had affirmed the decision by the Alabama Supreme Court that the local laws requiring segregation on buses were unconstitutional. The first civil rights battle was won, but for Martin it was the first of many more difficult ones. On November 29, 1959, he offered his resignation to the members of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, as several months earlier he had been elected leader of a new organization called the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). He moved his family to Atlanta and began to establish a regional network of nonviolent organizations.
In April 1961 he coordinated the SCLC and other civil-rights organizations to take two busloads of white and black passengers through the South on a "freedom ride" for publicity reasons. In Virgina and North and South Carolina there were no incidents, but in Anniston, Alabama, the ride became a rolling horror when one bus was burned and its passengers beaten by an angry racist white mob. In Birmingham, angry mobs--with some policemen joining them--greeted the bus with more violence, which was broken up when state police intervened and stopped the chaos. The violence shook Martin and he decided to abandon the freedom rides before someone was killed, but the riders insisted they complete the ride to Montgomery, where they where greeted with more violence. In January 1963 Martin arrived in Birmingham with Ralph Abernathy to organize a freedom march aimed to end segregation. Despite an injunction issued by city authorities against the gathering, the protesters marched and were attacked by the police. Three months later another march was planned with the intent to "turn the other cheek" in response to the violence by the city's police force. As the marchers reached downtown Birmgingham, the police attacked the crowd with high-pressure fire hoses and attack dogs. This time, however, the incident was witnessed across the entire country, as many network TV crews were there and broadcasting live footage of unarmed marchers being blasted to the ground by high-pressure hoses and others being bitten and mauled by snarling attack dogs, and it sparked a national outrage.
The next day, more marchers repeated the walk and more policemen attacked with fire hoses and police dogs, leading to a total of 1,200 arrests. On the third day, Martin organized another march to the city jail. This time, when the marchers approached the police, none of them moved and some even let the marchers through to continue their march. The nonviolent strategy had worked--the strikes and boycotts were cutting deeply into the city merchants' revenues, and they called for negotiations and agreed with local black leaders to integrate lunch counters, fitting rooms, restrooms and drinking fountains within 90 days. Martin was then called for a rally in Washington, DC, near the Lincoln Memorial on August 28, 1963. Nearly 200,000 people stood in the intense heat listening to the speeches by the members and supporters of the NACCP. By the time Martin was called as the day's final speaker, the crowd was hot and tired. As he approached the podium, with his papers containing his prepared speech, he suddenly put them aside and decided to speak from the heart. He spoke of freedoms for blacks achieved and not yet achieved. He then spoke the words that echo throughout the world to this day: "I say to you today, my friends, that in spite of the difficulties and frustrations of the moment I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed. 'We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal.' I have that dream." By mid-October 1964 Martin had given 350 civil rights speeches and traveled 275,000 miles across the country and worked for 20 hours a day.
While in an Atlanta hospital after collapsing from exhaustion, his wife brought in his room a telegram notifying him that he had won the Nobel Peace Prize. On April 1, 1968, Martin traveled to Memphis, Tennessee to meet with two of his advisers, James Bevel and Jesse Jackson, to discuss organizing a march to Washington in support of a strike by Memphis' city's sanitation workers. In the late afternoon of April 4, he stepped out onto the balcony of the Lorraine Motel where he was staying to speak with Andrew Young. As he saw Jackson and waved to him for a moment, a gunshot rang through the air and Martin Luther King Jr. was hit in the neck and fell dead from a sniper's bullet. He was dead, but the struggle that he started to continue to bring peace and end the racial conflict in the USA continues to this day.- Warren Crosby was born on 22 August 1929. He was an actor, known for Tank Battalion (1958). He died on 24 April 1968 in Wilmington, Delaware, USA.
- Actor
- Soundtrack
Scotty Beckett was one of the cutest, most successful child actors of the 1930s and 1940s. His descent into a life of alcoholism, drugs, and crime remains one of the most tragic of Hollywood stories.
Born Scott Hastings Beckett on October 4, 1929, in Oakland, California, he and his family moved to Los Angeles when Scotty was 3 years old. Shortly after arriving in LA, Beckett's father was hospitalized and Scotty would frequently entertain his dad by singing songs. During one such visit, a Hollywood casting director happened to notice the cherubic youngster and told his parents he had movie potential. Scotty made his debut in Gallant Lady (1933) starring Clive Brook and Ann Harding. Scotty played a boy of three in the film, and Dickie Moore played the same character at the age of six. It was the first of several connections between the two child stars. The next year, he filled the hole vacated by Moore in Our Gang, and they later appeared in Heaven Can Wait (1943), portraying Don Ameche's character as a child. He and Moore finally appeared together in Dangerous Years (1947), which was Marilyn Monroe's screen debut.
Scotty appeared in fifteen Our Gang shorts in two years. Hal Roach noted a resemblance to Jackie Coogan and dressed Beckett accordingly, with an oversized cap and turtleneck sweater reminiscent of Coogan's outfit in The Kid (1921). He was paired with George 'Spanky' McFarland as a kind of partnership within the gang, and their sideline observations and wisecracks highlighted the series from 1934 until 1936, just as Porky and Buckwheat sparked the one-reelers from 1936 on.
After leaving Our Gang, Beckett emerged as one of the top child stars of his era, appearing in many films with the top stars of the late '30s and early '40s. Among his major credits were Dante's Inferno (1935) with Spencer Tracy, Anthony Adverse (1936) with Fredric March, The Charge of the Light Brigade (1936) with Errol Flynn, Conquest (1937) with Greta Garbo, Marie Antoinette (1938) with Norma Shearer, My Favorite Wife (1940) with Cary Grant, and Kings Row (1942) with Claude Rains.
In 1943 Scotty began attending Los Angeles High School and was named treasurer of his freshman class. He also appeared on Broadway that same year in the play "Slightly Married", receiving the only favorable notices of the production, and also played Junior in the hit radio show "The Life of Riley". Adolescence did not slow down his film career, as Scotty continued to win roles in such movies as My Reputation (1946) with Barbara Stanwyck and, most notably, The Jolson Story (1946), wherein he played the young Al Jolson.
He enrolled at USC but dropped out when he began receiving more offers from MGM, beginning with Cynthia (1947) with Elizabeth Taylor, A Date with Judy (1948), again with Taylor and Jane Powell (the future Mrs. Dickie Moore), Battleground (1949) with Van Johnson, Nancy Goes to Rio (1950), again with Powell, and The Happy Years (1950) with fellow child stars Dean Stockwell and Darryl Hickman.
At around the same time, Scotty began to gain notoriety for his nocturnal activities. Part of the young Hollywood set, Beckett was a fixture at parties and would frequently be seen with young stars like Roddy McDowall, Jane Powell, Elizabeth Taylor, and Edith Fellows. His nightlife seemed to become more of a priority than his burgeoning acting career, and it started a trend of reckless, irresponsible behaviors which plagued Beckett the rest of his life. Early success without any sacrifice often breeds a sense of entitlement and a lack of responsibility or consequence. This seems to be an overriding theme, as Beckett began making headlines most Hollywood stars try to avoid.
In 1948 he was arrested for drunk driving after he crashed into another car after attending a frat party where he had "five bourbons". Scotty tried to run from the booking office after being arrested and refused to surrender his possessions. In September of 1949, he eloped with tennis star Beverly Baker. Right from the start, Scotty showed signs that he was not ready for marriage. On their honeymoon in Acapulco, Beckett allegedly threatened to punch a pool bystander in the nose. The couple separated after 5 months of marriage, divorcing in June of 1950. Newspapers covered the divorce, citing Baker's allegations of Beckett's jealousy and controlling, abusive behavior. Scotty tried to get Baker to quit tennis and stop seeing her parents. He also warned her never to have a soft drink "with any boy or man between 6 and 60".
In 1951, Becket met actress Sunny Vickers. Shortly after they began dating , Vickers became pregnant. They married in Phoenix on June 27, 1951, and five months later Scott Hastings Beckett, Jr. was born. The bad publicity of the divorce from Baker plus the forced marriage to Vickers in the conservative 1950s immediately made Beckett a Hollywood outcast. Between 1952 and 1954, Scotty landed only two roles, in relatively minor films, You're Only Young Twice (1952) and Hot News (1953). He was beginning to get desperate.
In early 1954, Beckett landed the role of "Winky" in a low-budget sci-fi show called Rocky Jones, Space Ranger (1954), which today has become a cult classic. However, as former co-stars and ex-friends such as Elizabeth Taylor and Jane Powell emerged as bonafide film stars of the 1950s, a supporting role in a fledgling, unproven industry likely was extremely frustrating for Scotty.
In February of that year, the Cavalier Hotel in Hollywood was robbed of a little more than $130 in cash. The bandit pistol-whipped the desk clerk and disappeared with the loot, or so police thought. Passed out drunk in the basement of the hotel, armed with a gun and a knife, was Scotty Beckett. He was arrested and charged with possession of a weapon, but not with robbery because the money was not found and the clerk could not positively identify the former star as the robber.
After posting bail, Beckett, with his wife and three-year-old son, fled to Mexico. He checked into a Tampico hotel under the name of Sean Bullock, giving Carmel, California as his address. There were two bullet holes in his car that Beckett said were from a gang who tried to rob him south of Juarez.
After running out of cash and options, Scotty wrote several checks on a nonexistent bank to different merchants. After Mexican authorities tracked him to a Ciudad Victoria hotel, he attempted to sneak himself and his family out of the hotel and got into a gunfight with the Mexican police in which 20 shots were exchanged. Miraculously, no one was killed, and Scott and Sunny were eventually captured. Scott Jr. was sent back to Los Angeles.
Scotty served only four months in a Mexican jail before returning to the US in September of 1954. He surrendered to authorities for the weapons charge, pleaded guilty, and amazingly was given only three years' probation. He told newspapers he saw this as an opportunity to pick up the pieces and start over with a clean slate, but it was too little, too late. He was dropped from the Rocky Jones series and replaced with Jimmy Lydon (with whom Beckett had appeared in Cynthia (1947)). A little more than a month later, Beckett was arrested in Las Vegas, once again for bouncing a check.
Scotty re-enrolled at USC to study medicine, but when Our Gang was reissued for TV in 1955 as The Little Rascals, Beckett saw an opportunity to make a comeback in the movies. He appeared in Three for Jamie Dawn (1956) and had walk-ons in The Oklahoman (1957) with Joel McCrea, and Monkey on My Back (1957) with Cameron Mitchell. He proved he could still act and exhibit that same youthful charm, appearing perfectly at ease on camera, particularly in his small role as a Navy corpsman with the Marine Corps in Monkey on My Back (1957). But just when it seemed as though a comeback might happen, Scotty self-destructed again.
In February of 1957, he was caught at a Mexican-US border crossing trying to bring illegal drugs into the US. He said the pills were for his wife, whom he claimed had a nervous ailment. In reality, Sunny Vickers was suffering from alcoholism and had checked herself into Metropolitan State Hospital for treatment. She filed for divorce in August of 1957. After Sunny was awarded custody of Scott Jr., Beckett attempted suicide by swallowing a bottle of sleeping pills. He recovered but realized he was finished as an actor. He tried his hand at selling used cars, among other things. He still had his charm, but he could not stay out of trouble.
In April of 1959, Beckett was arrested on a charge of drunk driving. In August of that same year, he was arrested for driving drunk again, but this time he did not emerge unscathed. He smashed his '52 sedan into a tree, fracturing his skull, thigh, and hip and suffering multiple lacerations to his head. Although he was given probation and a suspended sentence, he remained crippled for the rest of his life.
In September of 1963, he was arrested for assault with a deadly weapon. Now confined to a wheelchair from the near-fatal drunk driving accident, he attempted to stab his neighbor after a dispute. Scotty's wife of two years, Margaret, a divorcée with a teenage daughter named Susan, assisted in breaking up the fight. Three days later Beckett tried to kill himself by slashing his wrists. He recovered from this second suicide attempt, but by that time Margaret had had enough and moved out, taking Susan with her. As she was moving her belongings out, Scotty tried to stop her. He hit Susan over the head with a crutch that he now used after his car accident and was again arrested. He vowed to the judge at his sentencing "never to drink again".
After that, Scotty stayed out of the headlines for a few years. In 1967 he found employment driving an ambulance, perhaps to be close to the prescription drugs to which he was addicted, perhaps to try to revive his interest in becoming a doctor, perhaps to try to forget that he had once graced the screen with Hollywood's biggest stars before his own star had plummeted to earth, or perhaps because he had run out of alternatives.
On May 8, 1968, he checked into the Royal Palms Hotel, a Hollywood nursing home, after suffering a beating in what may have been a drug deal gone wrong. Two days later, he was dead from an overdose of barbiturates; his third suicide attempt was successful. He left behind a note, a son, and some wonderful films and memories.
Leonard Maltin summed it up best when he wrote, "It was a particularly sad end for someone who, as a child, had shown so much easy charm and talent." Scotty Beckett was not the first child star casualty, and he would not be the last, but his story is certainly one of the saddest.- Music Department
- Soundtrack
As a very young child he revealed an exceptional talent for the piano and for composition, which encouraged his father, Rodolphe, to give him his first lessons. He composed Trois Études for piano at four and gave a recital of his works 25 Feb 1935 at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel, creating a sensation.In December 1936 his recital at the Salle Chopin-Pleyel was received enthusiastically by Parisian critics.
In the years that followed, Mathieu's career declined, although he continued to compose - Piano Trio (1947) and Piano Quintet, among other works. Although he did some teaching, he began in his performances to lapse into musical exhibitionism, taking part in "pianothons" which received much gaudy publicity but which deeply disappointed those who had seen in him an exceptional talent.
Mathieu, who has been referred to as "the Canadian Mozart" died impoverished and in obscurity before his 40th birthday. His works gained broad public recognition only after his death.- Actor
- Additional Crew
Jerzy Walczak was born on 26 July 1929 in Lódz, Lódzkie, Poland. He was an actor, known for Jasne Lany (1947), The Promised Land (1975) and Dancing w kwaterze Hitlera (1968). He died on 26 June 1968 in Sieradz, Lódzkie, Poland.- Composer
- Soundtrack
Joe Hinton was born on 15 November 1929 in Evansville, Indiana, USA. He was a composer, known for The Long Kiss Goodnight (1996), Black Starlet (1974) and The Runway (2010). He died on 13 August 1968 in Boston, Massachusetts, USA.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Karel Duba was born on 29 September 1929 in Písek, Czechoslovakia [now Czech Republic]. He was an actor, known for Rebelové (2001), Voyage to the End of the Universe (1963) and Pouta (1961). He died on 21 August 1968 in Ulánbator, Mongolia.- Director
- Animation Department
Frank Braxton was born on 31 March 1929. He was a director, known for The Bullwinkle Show (1959), Peabody's Improbable History (1959) and Linus the Lionhearted (1964). He died on 1 June 1969 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Roy Hamilton was born in Leesburg, Georgia, on April 16, 1929. His family moved to Jersey City, NJ, in 1943. He was an experienced gospel singer and one-time Golden Gloves boxer. He specialized in a mixture of pop, show and R&B tunes. He was signed by Columbia Records in 1953 after being discovered in a local club. He later signed with Columbia's subsidiary Epic Records. He had huge charted success with his first single "You'll Never Walk Alone". In 1955 he would have s chart-topping hit with what what would become one of the most recorded songs of all time, "Unchained Melody" (from the prison film Unchained (1955)). He also had success with "Don't Let Go" (1958), considered a rock standard (later reworked by Isaac Hayes); "You Can Have Her"; "Lips"; "A Great Romance"; "Time Marches On"; "If I Loved You" and "Hurt", among others. He appeared in the film Let's Rock (1958).- Actor
- Music Department
Vladimir Rautbart was born on 3 April 1929 in Nikolayev, Ukrainian SSR, USSR [now Mykolayiv, Ukraine]. He was an actor, known for Operation 'Y' & Other Shurik's Adventures (1965), Granatovyy braslet (1965) and Zelyonyy ogonyok (1964). He died on 26 July 1969 in Moscow, RSFSR, USSR [now Russia].- Rosemary LaBianca was born on 15 December 1929 in Mexico. She was married to Leno LaBianca and Frank Struthers. She died on 10 August 1969 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Actor
- Music Department
- Soundtrack
Bert Courtley was born on 11 September 1929 in Moston, Manchester, England, UK. He was an actor, known for All Night Long (1962), The Beatles: Penny Lane (1967) and The Cool of the Evening (1966). He was married to Kathy Stobart. He died on 13 September 1969 in Croydon, Surrey, England, UK.