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- Luella Forepaugh was born on 10 November 1857 in Knights Ferry, California, USA. Luella was a writer, known for Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1912) and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1908). Luella was married to George F. Fish. Luella died on 28 February 1959 in San Carlos, San Mateo County, California, USA.
- Director
- Cinematographer
- Producer
Along with his better-known French counterpart Georges Méliès George Albert Smith was one of the first filmmakers to explore fictional and fantastic themes, often using surprisingly sophisticated special effects. His background was ideal--an established portrait photographer, he also had a long-standing interest in show business, running a tourist attraction in his native Brighton featuring a fortune teller. His films were among the first to feature such innovations as superimposition (Smith patented a double-exposure system in 1897), close-ups and scene transitions involving wipes and focus pulls. He also patented Kinemacolor--the world's first commercial cinema color system--in 1906, which was extremely successful for a time, despite the special equipment required to project it- Allan Aynesworth was born on 14 April 1864 in Camberley, Surrey, England, UK. He was an actor, known for The Iron Duke (1934), Love, Life & Laughter (1934) and Brewster's Millions (1935). He was married to Edith Margaret Liddell. He died on 21 August 1959 in Camberley, Surrey, England, UK.
- Lillian Castle was born on 4 July 1864 in Missouri, USA. She was an actress, known for Lightning Triggers (1935). She died on 24 April 1959 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Georgiana Carhart was born on 17 May 1865 in Baltimore, Maryland, USA. She was married to Carrington Elliot Carhart. She died on 2 March 1959 in New York City, New York, USA.
- Laurence Housman was born on 18 July 1865 in Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, England, UK. Laurence was a writer, known for Prunella (1918), Folio (1955) and Robert Montgomery Presents (1950). Laurence died on 20 February 1959 in Glastonbury, Somerset, England, UK.
- Director
- Writer
- Actor
Julius Steger was born on 4 March 1866 in Vienna, Austrian Empire [now Austria]. He was a director and writer, known for Her Mistake (1918), Just a Woman (1918) and Redemption (1917). He died on 26 February 1959 in Vienna, Austria.- August Tollaire was born on 7 March 1866 in Paris, France. He was an actor, known for Plastered in Paris (1928), The Belle of Broadway (1926) and His Captive Woman (1929). He died on 15 January 1959 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Writer
- Actress
Daisy Eloise Smith was born on 30 December 1866 in Maryland, USA. She was a writer and actress, known for La paloma (1916), Little Kaintuck (1913) and Anne of the Trails (1913). She died on 28 May 1959 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Writer
- Additional Crew
Frank Lloyd Wright was one of America's most famous architects who introduced his concept of "Organic architecture" and designed such landmarks as the Fallingwater and the Guggenheim Museum of Art.
He was born Frank Lincoln Wright on June 8, 1867, in Richland Center, Wisconsin, USA, into a family of Welsh descent. (Wright changed his middle name when he became an adult.) His father, William Cary Wright, was a music teacher and a Baptist minister. His mother, Anna Lloyd-Jones Wright, was a teacher. His father played the music of Johann Sebastian Bach which Wright later credit as a source of his sense of harmony in music and architecture. His mother involved him in playing with Froebel's geometric blocks, which formed his 3D vision, and later helped him develop architectural style marked with geometrical clarity. Wright studied engineering at University of Wisconsin for two years, but dropped out without graduating. He moved to Chicago and worked for several architecture firms, including his six years working directly with the "father of modernism" and leader of the Chicago School, Louis Henry Sullivan, who was Wright's mentor from 1888-1893.
In 1889 he married his first of three wives, Catherine Lee Clark Tobin. He and Catherine raised six children together. He also borrowed $5,000 from his then employer, Louis Sullivan, to buy a lot in Oak Park, Illinois and build his first house. That same house he used also as an architectural laboratory by making many changes and additions while developing his original design for the Prarie style of architecture. In 1893 Wright was fired by Sullivan himself, amidst the dispute over Wright's acceptance of a growing number of independent commissions. Then he established his own office in Oak Parc. During the 1890s he originated the style of "Prarie Houses" and designed many private homes in the Prarie School style across the Midwestern United States. At the same time he was commissioned to design several corporate and public buildings in communities in and around Chicago and Buffalo. He had his offices established in the Steinway Piano Building, then later had his office in Orchestra Hall in Chicago.
In 1904 Wright fell in love with Martha(Mamah)Borthwick Cheney, the wife of one of his clients. However, neither of them could get divorced from their marriages, so they eloped to Europe in 1909. In 1910, in Berlin, Wright published his first collection of architectural designs, known as the "Wasmouth Portfolio" and created the first exposure of his work in Europe, which later had influenced such movements as Bauhaus and Constructivism. During his two years in Europe, Wright lived mainly in Italy and became influenced by the Mediterranean architecture. In 1911, back in the USA, he settled with Mamah and her two children in his new home named Taliesin, which means "shining brow" in Welsh, the language of his ancestors. He wanted to marry Mamah, but his first wife was still not giving him a divorce. In August 1914, one of his male servants set fire in the house and murdered Mamah and her two children, as well as several other servants. Wright, was on a business trip and survived the disaster, was devastated and buried himself in work. At that time he was approached by a self-proclaimed sculptor, named Miriam Noel, who offered her condolences and claimed that she could understand him. Soon Wright asked her to move into Taliesin with him, although he was still married to his first wife, Catherine. From 1916 - 1922 Wright worked in Tokyo, Japan where he completed Tokyo's Imperial Hotel, which survived the earthquake of 1923 and found praise after the majority of Tolyo was left in rubble. In 1922 his first wife gave him a divorce that he had been waiting for since 1909. In 1923 he married Miriam Noel, but they separated in less that a year because of her drug addiction, albeit she did not give him a divorce until their legal battle ended in 1927.
In 1924 he met Olga (Olgivanna) Milanoff Hinzenburg, a ballerina with Russian Ballet in Chicago. Olgivanna was a daughter of Montenegro's Chief Justice and a granddaughter of Duke Marko Milanoff. In 1925 Wright invited Olgivanna and Svetlana, her daughter from her previous marriage, to move into his home, Taliesin. In December of 1925, daughter Ivanna was born to Wright and Olgivanna. In 1926 Olgivanna's ex-husband, Valdemar Hinzenburg, sought custody of Olga's daughter, and tried to have them arrested, but the charges were dropped in 1926. Olgivanna and Wright married in 1928. As his personal life had finally came to harmony, Wright's creativity evolved to the new level. In 1932 he and his wife, Olgivanna, established the Taliesin Fellowship School for architects which became a great success with 30 students, and a waiting list of 27 more. In 1934 Wright and Olgivanna were visited by Mr. and Mrs. Kaufmann Sr., the owner of Kaufmann Department Store, beginning one of history's great patron - artist relationships. For the Kaufmanns Wright created his masterpiece, the Fallingwater. It was organically designed above a waterfall to preserve a living harmony with nature, where house and a stream created an interplay through the confluence of falling water and geometrical clarity of architecture. Completed between 1935 and 1937, the Fallingwater became a landmark and one of the most famous private residences in the world. It was used as a family home from 1937 - 1963, then was restored and opened for the public as a museum.
Kaufmann also gave substantial financial backing to other projects by Wright, such as Broadacre City, which was later showcased in Kaufmann's store. Wright also created architectural design for middle class family homes known as Usonian Style, which was caused by the shift of society and answered to the growing demand. In 1937 he designed his third home, Taliesin West, which he completed after purchase of 800 acres of land in Scottsdale, Arizona. There he lived and worked for the rest of his life, he taught a Taliesin Fellowship School of architecture and designed many of his most famous buildings, such as the Guggenheim Museum in New York City, and many other buildings. From 1943 until 1959 Wright worked on the design and construction of the Guggenheim Museum, "I want a temple of spirit, a monument!" requested Hilla Rebay, the art advisor to Solomon R. Guggenheim. Wright created an outstanding design in a shape of an inverted ziggurat, a winding pyramidal temple, or an ascending spiral alluding to such organic form as a nautilus shell. "It was to make the building and the painting an uninterrupted, beautiful symphony such as never existed in the World of Art before," wrote Wright. He created a temple of art, albeit he did not live to see the completion of the Guggenheim Museum, it stands today as a testimony to Wright's architectural genius.
Frank Lloyd Wright died five days after having an intestinal surgery, on April 9, 1959, in Phoenix, Arizona, and was laid to rest near his mother and Mamah Borthwick Cheney in Spring Green, Wisconsin. Then his Fellowship was managed by his widow, Olgivanna until her death in 1985. According to her dying wish in 1985, the ashes of her and her husband were laid to rest in memorial garden of their Taliesin West home in Scottsdale, Arizona.- A versatile and accomplished young amateur actress, Grace Hayward became a professional before she was 20. Her parents, George and Alida (Carpenter) Hayward, moved from Terre Haute, Indiana, where Grace was born, to Mt. Carmel, Ill. when Grace was in high school. During the 1890s she performed with "Ferris Comedians," a traveling troupe, and eventually married Richard Ferris, the head of the company. Ferris promoted her for a time as "The Grace Hayward Company." When her marriage began to disintegrate, Hayward formed her own repertory company, traveling around the theater-vaudville circuit, presenting and acting in plays, many of which she wrote. In 1902, she acquired the rights to "Graustark: The Story of a Love Behind the Throne," a best-selling novel by George Barr McCutcheon, and dramatized it. She did the same for "St. Elmo" and "Truxton King." All three were made into motion pictures but it is unclear as to whether Hayward's dramatizations were used in the productions.
After she and Ferris divorced, she married George Mahan Gatts. During the Twenties and early Thirties, Hayward and Gatts toured the country presenting many of her original plays. One of them was "Her Unborn Child," which opened at Etlinge's 42nd Street Theater in New York on March 5, 1928. After the motion picture was made, Hayward published a novelization of the story. During the Depression, she was commissioned to write a play for Civilian Conservation Corps camps. It was titled, "The CCC Murder Mystery," and reputedly was presented at least 1,000 times.
The Gatts retired to Los Angeles, probably in the early forties. George died on April 8, 1949, and Grace died January 7, 1959 at age 90. - Actor
- Additional Crew
- Art Department
Tom Heslewood was born on 8 April 1868 in Hessle, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Peg of Old Drury (1935), Nine Days a Queen (1936) and The Glorious Adventure (1922). He died on 28 April 1959.- Musahipzade Celal was born on 31 August 1868 in Constantinople, Ottoman Empire [now Istanbul, Turkey]. Musahipzade was a writer, known for Aynaroz Kadisi (1938), Bir kavuk devrildi (1939) and Balaban Aga (1980). Musahipzade died on 20 July 1959 in Istanbul, Turkey.
- Olga Leonardovna Knipper-Chekhova (nee Knipper) was born on September 9, 1868, in Glasov, Russian Empire, into the family of a German origin. She received an excellent private education and was bilingual, being fluent in Russian and German.
She was one of the original 39 founding members of the Moscow Art Theatre in 1898. She also was the favorite actress of Konstantin Stanislavsky and Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko, the founders of the Moscow Art Theatre. There her stage partner was Vsevolod Meyerhold, Vasili Kachalov, Boris Dobronravov, and many other leading Russian actors. She was a student and the mistress of Nemirovich-Danchenko before she met writer Anton Chekhov.
Olga Leonardovna met the playwright Anton Chekhov in 1898, when she was given the leading role in his play 'Chaika' (The Seagull). She brilliantly played the role on the opening of the first season at the Moscow Art Theatre in 1898. She also starred as 'Masha' in 'Tri sestry' (The Three Sisters). Olga Leonardovna married Anton Chekhov in 1901. At that time he was already suffering from tuberculosis. In January, 1904, she starred as 'Ranevskaya' in the premiere of 'Vishnevy sad' (The Cherry Orchard) at the Moscow Art Theatre in 1904, with singer 'Feodor Chaliapine Sr.', writer Maxim Gorky, and composer Sergei Rachmaninoff in attendance.
Six months later, after a tremendous effort to save his life in a German hospital, her famous husband, writer Anton Chekhov died of a lung haemorrhage. Olga Leonardovna never managed to have a child with her husband Anton Chekhov. She hosted and educated her niece, also named Olga Knipper, who will later become the famous film-star Olga Tschechowa in the Nazi Germany after her brief marriage to actor Michael Chekhov, who was the nephew of Anton Chekhov.
Under the name of Olga Leonardovna Knipper-Chekhova, she continued successful work on stage with the Moscow Art Theatre Company for the rest of her life. She did not play many film roles, mostly due to the influence of her teachers, Stanislavsky and Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko. They strongly believed that live stage acting was a superior form of art. For that reason both Stanislavsky and Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko discouraged their stage actors of the Moscow Art Theatre from working in motion pictures.
While on a tour in Kharkov, Ukraine, Olga Leonardovna was arrested on stage in 1917, during her performance of 'The Cherry Orchard'. She suffered from all kinds of violence during the Russian Revolution of 1917. She was under suspicion, because her brother Konstantin Knipper was the ranking officer to Aleksandr Kolchak in the Russian White Army. Her nephew Lev Knipper was also an officer with the Russian White Army fighting against the Bolshevik communists. Olga Leonardovna survived through the terrible years of spy-mania in the Soviet Union under he dictatorship of Joseph Stalin. At that time her film-star niece Olga Tschechowa was playing dangerous games as a personal friend of Adolf Hitler and Joseph Goebbels in the Nazi Germany.
She was greeted by her famous niece Olga Tschechowa, who was secretly flown to Moscow from Germany and discreetly attended the performance of 'The Cherry Orchard' at the Moscow Art Theatre, in May of 1945. They were neither allowed to talk, nor even to approach each other. At the end of the play Olga Tschechowa was immediately walked out of the Moscow Art Theatre. Aunt Olga Leonardovna was stunned by the surprise appearance of her film-star niece and collapsed in the backstage. Later fearful aunt Olga Leonardovna destroyed all the Chekhov family photographs in the fire. She worked at the Moscow Art Theatre through her entire acting career, mostly under the directorship of her teacher and lover Nemirovich-Danchenko.
Olga Leonardovna Knipper-Chekhova was honored with the title of the People's Artist of the Russian Federation. She survived three Russian Revolutions and two World Wars. She outlived her contemporaries, who were fighting against each other, but were admirers of her acting talent, such as the last Russian Emperor Tsar Nicholas II, the first Communist leader Vladimir Lenin, and the Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin. Olga Leonardovna died on March 22, 1959, in Moscow, Russia. - Cinematographer
- Director
- Writer
Ernst Krohn was born on 25 December 1868 in Prenzlau, Brandenburg, Germany. He was a cinematographer and director, known for Die Mausefalle (1918), Unikum (1919) and Im Schatten des Geldes (1919). He died on 4 August 1959 in Berlin, Germany.- Actor
- Director
- Writer
Pierre Magnier was born on 22 February 1869 in Paris, France. He was an actor and director, known for The Rules of the Game (1939), Cyrano de Bergerac (1923) and L'ibis bleu (1919). He died on 15 October 1959 in Clichy-la-Garenne, Seine [now Hauts-de-Seine], France.- Norwegian author Peter Egge was born in Trondheim, Norway, in 1860, into a peasant family from Innerhad. He attended grammar school, but his family's dire financial straits necessitated his leaving school and getting a job. He worked in a variety of positions, from office clerk to sailor to journalist. During these years he wrote several books, but was so unhappy with them that he burned them. Finally, at age 22, his first novel, "Common People", was published, and he began to turn out both novels and plays (many of his works being centered around his home town of Trondheim),.
His novels "The Heart" and "The Hansine Solstad" brought him his greatest critical and financial success, with the latter having been translated into ten languages. His comedy "Love and Friendship" is a staple of Scandinavian theatre and has also been performed in Europe and America. - Charles Dow Clark was born on 21 September 1869 in St. Albans, Vermont, USA. He was an actor, known for The Bat Whispers (1930), Ladies of the Jury (1932) and The Confidence Man (1924). He was married to Winifred F. Buckley. He died on 26 March 1959 in New York City, New York, USA.
- Zélie Yzelle was born on 3 October 1869 in Sommedieue, Meuse, France. She was an actress, known for Claudine à l'école (1937), Le Plaisir (1952) and Ouvert contre X... (1952). She died on 14 February 1959 in Antony, Hauts-de-Seine, France.
- Animation Department
- Producer
- Director
Frank A. Nankivell was born on 16 November 1869 in Maldon, Victoria, Australia. He was a producer and director, known for Robinson Crusoe Returns on Friday (1923), Napoleon Not So Great (1923) and Cleopatra and Her Easy Mark (1923). He died on 4 July 1959 in Florham Park, New Jersey, USA.- Writer
- Stunts
Carlo Lombardo was born on 28 November 1869 in Naples, Italy. He was a writer, known for The Island Monster (1954), La duchessa del Bal Tabarin (1917) and Frou-frou del tabarin (1976). He died on 19 December 1959 in Milan, Italy.- H.R. Hignett was born on 29 January 1870 in Ringway, Cheshire, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Tilly of Bloomsbury (1931), The Life of Lord Byron (1922) and A Yank in London (1945). He was married to Frances Wetherall. He died on 17 December 1959 in Tadley, Hampshire, England, UK.
- Director
- Actor
- Writer
Ivane Perestiani was born on 13 April 1870 in Taganrog, Don Voisko Oblast, Russian Empire [now Rostov Oblast, Russia]. He was a director and actor, known for Sami sitsotskhle (1924), Savur-Mogila (1926) and Suramis tsikhe (1922). He died on 14 May 1959 in Moscow, RSFSR, USSR [now Russia].- Spikehorn Meyer was born on 15 July 1870 in Ohio, USA. He died on 19 September 1959 in Gladwin, Michigan, USA.
- Gertrude Sterroll was born on 26 August 1870 in Weybridge, Surrey, England, UK. She was an actress, known for The Call of Youth (1921), Lorna Doone (1920) and The Wine of Life (1924). She died on 27 January 1959 in Marylebone, London, England, UK.
- István Ráth-Végh was born on 23 November 1870 in Budapest, Hungary. István was a writer, known for Fekete krónika (2004) and Fekete krónika: A szép méregkeverö (2005). István died on 18 December 1959 in Budapest, Hungary.
- Legendary Swedish dramatic stage actress and tragedienne: The brilliant Gerda Lundequist is considered as one of Scandinavian theatre's most important modern female pioneers of the early 1900s stage.
With new modern portrayals of the Ibsen, Strindberg and the classic Shakespeare leading women, her importance to modern female stage characterization in Swedish and Scandinavian theatre is not to be underestimated.
Born in Stockholm 1871, she was brought up by foster mother Amalia Charlotta Ekecrantz, a manufacturer's widow, and later tutored by the great Swedish drama teacher Signe Hebbe at the Royal Academy of Music's old Theatre School in Stockholm 1886-89. Lundequist made her professional debute at Svenska teatern in Stockholm 1889, and her breakthrough came already the following year with her astounding portrayal of Kristina in play "Mäster Olof" by August Strindberg at the old Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm. Then followed the magnificent and historically important portrayals of the Shakespeare women Queen Gertrude in "Hamlet" and Lady Macbeth in "Macbeth", title role in "Antigone" by Sofokles, Ingrid in "Peer Gynt" by Henrik Ibsen, Ingeborg in Ibsen's "The Pretenders", title role in Hjalmar Söderberg's "Gertrud", title role in "Monna Vanna" by Maurice Maeterlinck, title role in "Maria Stuart" by Friedrich Schiller, Goneril in Shakespeare's "King Lear", Irene in "When We Dead Awaken" by Ibsen... and from there on.
Her thespian nickname as "Sweden's Sarah Bernhardt" is indeed flattering, in a way slightly misread and unjust for her as an actress. To change from the actress she most likely was as Antigone on stage 1908, or her Lady Macbeth in 1909, via her powerful and yet subtle performance as Margaretha Samzelius, the matron at Ekeby, in classic silent film The Saga of Gösta Berling (1924) - is nothing but a presentation of a true artists development. In Of Love and Lust (1955) - at age 84! - we get to see a brilliant glimpse of a true character actress at her very element: balanced, natural and collected in all her movements and thoughts. In full control of her melodic voice, character and limbs, she delivers as the old Royal Highness a refined example of timeless female bitchiness to a fellow sister! What we get to see is not at all an overacting or old melodramatic gesticulating theatre diva (as you perhaps would expect from a stage actress of her generation and with such a record), but a complete and absolutely magnificent character actress performance. Also such roles as her lovely cynical Änkedomprostinna, Mrs Hyltenius, in "The Baron's Will" by Hjalmar Bergman (a role she played 1945, 1948 and 1949 in different stagings due to her success in it) and her simple and very moving portrayal of the lonely Mrs Dowey in J.M. Barrie's beautiful little play "The Old Lady Shows Her Medals" (in 1940), shows that she indeed had an unusual wide ability for someone of her theatre generation when it came to shift from big classic tragedy to small drama stage plays, and to work with simple means when necessary.
According to colleagues and theatre people around, she was during her life described as reserved, hard to get in and as a person who never liked to talk about herself with others; she hated interviews on her roles by inquisitive journalists (and soon refused all of them!). But people who knew her closely private stated that she had a wonderful sense of humor (and because of that said they found it very regretful that she never played comedy on stage) and a very genuine warmth and kindness. So most likely she guarded her integrity well, and did hide herself in the primadonna role that somewhat became her trade mark in public, both on- and off-stage (on which subject there are many amusing stories!).
But diva or no diva; there is a reason why Gerda Lundequist is still spoken of in the Swedish theatre world of today - almost 50 years after her death and nearly 100 years after her first legendary female characterizations. Many of her character portrayals of the most classic female parts became so popular with the audience and critics at the time that she was called to reprise them at other theatres later on. - Nick De Ruiz was born on 24 February 1871 in Santa Barbara, California, USA. He was an actor, known for The Unknown (1927), Call of the West (1930) and Wings of Adventure (1930). He died on 21 June 1959 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- John C. Porter was born on 4 April 1871 in Leon, Iowa, USA. He was married to Mattie Lee. He died on 27 May 1959.
- Cinematographer
- Director
Giovanni Tomatis was born on 18 April 1871 in Piozzo, Piedmont, Italy. He was a cinematographer and director, known for Foolshead Wishes to Marry the Governor's Daughter (1910), Il portafortuna (1909) and Cretinetti al bagno (1909). He died on 24 April 1959 in Dogliani, Piedmont, Italy.- Else Günther-Geffers was a German parapsychological medium. When she was four years old, she had warned neighbors that the Neuwieder Kathedrale (Cathedral in Neuwieder, East Prussia) would burn down. Four days later the cathedral did burn down. While attending Turnschule (physical education class), young Else remarked to a girl who stood next to her in class: "You better not exercise today, for before long you are due to have a baby." An indignant teacher expelled Else for this "wicked and untrue" remark. It didn't take the school authorities long, however, to discover that Else had spoken the truth and she was reinstated. Else married in 1897 at the age of 26. Her husband Kurt Günther was a businessman in Königsberg. The couple had four children. In 1912 Else Günther-Geffers began to read palms and give advice to acquaintances regarding sale of land, investments and petty thievery. Around 1922 she began working professionally with telepathy, in addition to chiromancy (palmistry) and clairvoyance. The media celebrated her as a maverick medium, which lead to her being hired for criminal investigations by police and court officials, as well as members of the public who desperately hoped for cases involving loved ones to be solved. She appeared in the 1929 German silent horror film "Somnambul" directed by Adolf Trotz. Several books were written about Else in the late 1920s, and newspapers continued to report about her as well, such as when she visited her son Armin in New York in 1932. After World War II, Else Günther-Geffers settled in Brandenburg, where she only worked as a spiritual healer. She died on August 19, 1959 in Treuenbrietzen, East Germany.
- Sara Perry was born on 16 September 1871. She was an actress, known for One Too Many (1950). She died on 18 January 1959 in White Plains, New York, USA.
- Ivan Pelttser was born on 9 November 1871 in the Russian Empire. He was an actor, known for The Last Night (1937), Medved (1938) and Bolshaya zhizn (1939). He died on 29 March 1959 in Moscow, RSFSR, USSR [now Russia].
- Kate McComb was born on 25 November 1871 in Sacramento, California, USA. She was an actress, known for Crime with Father (1951), Armstrong Circle Theatre (1950) and Campbell Summer Soundstage (1952). She was married to John Rector McComb. She died on 15 April 1959 in New York, New York, USA.
- Actor
- Director
Lafe McKee began working in Hollywood around 1913. He usually played the likeable father of the heroine, the distressed businessman, or the ranch owner on the verge of losing his homestead or cattle to the villains. The majority of his films were westerns and he supported such actors as Gary Cooper, John Wayne, Gene Autry, Tim McCoy, Tom Tyler, and others.- Johan Bojer was born on 6 March 1872 in Orkanger, Norway. He was a writer, known for The Power of a Lie (1922), The Face of the World (1921) and Sangen til livet (1943). He was married to Ellen Lous Lange. He died on 3 July 1959 in Oslo, Norway.
- David Pinski was born on 5 April 1872 in Mogilev, Russian Empire [now Belarus]. He was a writer, known for The Singing Blacksmith (1938) and Di mishpokhe Tsvi (1916). He died on 11 August 1959 in Haifa, Israel.
- Elizabeth Cloud-Miller was born on 9 April 1872 in Ra'anana, Palestine (present-day Israel). She was an actress, known for I Led 3 Lives (1953). She died on 16 September 1959 in Ilford, Essex, England, UK.
- Writer
- Actress
Mary H. O'Connor was born on 1 September 1872 in St. Paul, Minnesota, USA. She was a writer and actress, known for The Lure of the Mask (1915), Souls Triumphant (1917) and A Yankee from the West (1915). She died on 3 September 1959 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Additional Crew
- Producer
Messmore Kendall was born on 9 December 1872 in Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA. Messmore was a producer, known for Pardon My French (1921), The Song of the Soul (1920) and Cardigan (1922). Messmore was married to Sepha Treble, Elizabeth Thomason and Katherine Grace Flynn. Messmore died on 1 May 1959 in Palm Beach, Florida, USA.- Actress
Sister to actress Anne Schaefer, Herman and one other brother all born in St. Louis, Missouri around the 1870s. Married name is Barbara Nowatny and used Barbara Norton as a stage name because it was easier. Nowatny comes from the Czech Novotny ancestral name and the family originated from the German speaking area around Prague. She is the aunt of actresses Jane and Eva Novak (Barbara Eva Novak).
Barbara was cast in many roles during the 20s, 30s and 40s as a little old lady, with most roles being uncredited. She appeared in The Wizard of Oz, Camille and Tom Sawyer, among others.
She had two children, Gerome and Agnes Nowatny (Agnes Imes, married) also of St. Louis. Her husband passed away around Gerome's 12th year and she stayed in St. Louis until her older sister, Anne came out to Hollywood with D.W. Griffith and was established as a silent movie actress.- After attending the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, Charlotte Parry began her professional career as a mimic, imitating stage personalities of the 1890s. She left touring in 1896, settling in St. Paul, Minnesota, where she gave birth to two children. On the death of her first husband, Frank M. Smith, she resumed an active stage career, becoming a highly-regarded "protean artist", specializing in playlets in which she played all (or nearly all) of the characters, rapidly changing costumes, accents and mannerisms. In 1906, she became a critical and popular success in "The Comstock Mystery", a playlet authored by W. H. Clifford; Miss Parry portrayed seven of the eight roles.
By 1913, she had found a new vehicle for her talents, "Into the Light", a psychological fantasy written by Frank Lyman. While the subject matter was different, the structure was similar, with Miss Parry assuming multiple parts, though she disdained being tagged as a "quick-change artist".
Toward the end of the decade, she introduced another routine, "Song & Story of the City", but on several occasions she returned to her first major success, reviving "The Comstock Mystery".
From the 1920s, she spent increasing amounts of time living in London and performing in Europe, having married Joshua Lowe, the London representative of "Variety", better known to readers as "Jolo". When Lowe was killed in an accident after World War II, Charlotte retired from acting and returned to the United States, residing with her daughter Aline. Aline had married Colonel Laurence Cramer, one-time governor of the U. S. Virgin Islands. Charlotte Parry died at the home of her daughter on 2 November 1959 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. - Actress
- Soundtrack
Madame Sul-Te-Wan was born on 7 March 1873 in Louisville, Kentucky, USA. She was an actress, known for Maid of Salem (1937), In Old Chicago (1938) and Safari (1940). She was married to Robert Reed Conley. She died on 1 February 1959 in Hollywood, California, USA.- Marie Hedemark was born on 24 March 1873 in Kristiania, Norway. She was an actress, known for Den nye lensmanden (1926), Boer Boerson Jr. (1938) and To levende og en død (1937). She died on 8 August 1959 in Oslo, Norway.
- Gabrielle Fontan was born on 16 April 1873 in Bordeaux, Gironde, France. She was an actress, known for Sylvie et le fantôme (1946), Angel and Sinner (1945) and Strangers in the House (1942). She died on 8 September 1959 in Juvisy-sur-Orge, Essonne, France.
- Writer
- Script and Continuity Department
- Director
L.V. Jefferson was born on 14 May 1873 in Carthage, Missouri, USA. She was a writer and director, known for The Set-Up (1926), The Desert Scorpion (1920) and The Bandit Chaser (1928). She died on 30 November 1959 in Hollywood, California, USA.- Emmy Albiin was born on 9 June 1873 in Stockholm, Stockholms län, Sweden. She was an actress, known for Mästerman (1920), Smålänningar (1935) and Striden går vidare (1941). She was married to Karl Albin Johannesson later Albiin. She died on 24 May 1959 in Stockholm, Stockholms län, Sweden.
- Director
- Writer
- Actor
Will Louis was born on 24 June 1873 in Maryland, USA. He was a director and writer, known for Spaghetti a la Mode (1915), What 80 Million Women Want (1913) and The Haunted Attic (1915). He was married to Adelaide Bonelli. He died on 6 December 1959 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Edward Hambro Danchell was born on 18 August 1873 in London, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Alle mand paa dæk (1942), Op og ned langs kysten (1950) and Pas paa svinget i Solby! (1940). He died on 7 December 1959.
- Actor
- Producer
Hardly remembered today, if at all, Fred Stone was once one of the most multi-faceted circus performers to hit turn-of-the century America. There seemed to be nothing he couldn't do--tightrope walking, acrobatics, clowning . . . you name it. This initial celebrity eventually led to his stellar headlining in vaudeville houses, stardom on the Broadway musical stage and character lead work in films.
He was born in a Valmont, Colorado, log cabin in the summer of 1873. Running away from home at the ripe old age of 11, he eventually joined a traveling circus show. By his teens he had taught himself the high-wire act and other athletic skills so well that he earned a name for himself under the big top. He met and teamed up with fellow circus performer David Craig Montgomery (1870-1917) in 1895. Billed as "Montgomery and Stone," they became a prominent song-and-dance duo in burlesque houses and minstrel shows. The toast of New York in the first decade of the 1900s, they appeared in a number of hit revues, including "The Red Mill" and "Chin Chin." One of their most famous pairings was in the 1903 Broadway musical version of L. Frank Baum's "The Wizard of Oz" in which Fred portrayed the Scarecrow to Montgomery's Tin Man. The agile duo also shared billing on various other circuits, including "Wild West" shows, with the likes of close friends Will Rogers and Annie Oakley.
After Montgomery's unexpected death on April 20, 1917, following an unsuccessful operation, Fred continued solo, often appearing with wife Allene Crater (later billed as Allene Stone or Mrs. Fred Stone) in such musical shows as "Criss Cross" and "Ripples." Fred also extended his talents to the movies. Although he didn't become a steady fixture (he dropped out of films by the early 1920s), he had wrangled a few of his own comedy and western vehicles to make a dent, with The Goat (1918), Under the Top (1919), Johnny Get Your Gun (1919), The Duke of Chimney Butte (1921) and Billy Jim (1922) being his best. He made an auspicious return to the movies in the sound era as Katharine Hepburn's beleaguered father in the seriocomic classic Alice Adams (1935), and as a feuding clan member in the tumbleweed western The Trail of the Lonesome Pine (1936). Given such a rousing reception, the 63-year-old was offered his own secondary feature, top-lining such comedy efforts as The Farmer in the Dell (1936), Grand Jury (1936), Quick Money (1937) and No Place to Go (1939), before ending his lucky streak with The Westerner (1940) starring Gary Cooper and Walter Brennan. In 1950 Fred retired completely from show business. During the final years of his life he suffered from advancing blindness and heart trouble. He died at his Los Angeles home in March of 1959 at age 85. The patriarch of a show-biz family, his daughters Dorothy Stone, Paula Stone and Carol Stone were also actresses who appeared with their father at various times on Broadway (he was also the uncle of Milburn Stone, veteran character actor and Gunsmoke (1955)'s "Doc Adams"). A long-overdue biography of Fred Stone was published by Armond Fields in 2002.