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1-50 of 257
- Additional Crew
'Pepper' Paire Davis was born on 29 May 1924 in Los Angeles, California, USA. She is known for A League of Their Own (1992), A League of Their Own (1987) and Pajama Party (2000). She was married to Robert Davis. She died on 2 February 2013 in Van Nuys, California, USA.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Ada Beth Lee was born on 8 November 1917 in Newton, Iowa, USA. She was an actress. She was married to Bill Lee. She died on 14 December 1991 in Van Nuys, California, USA.- Animation Department
- Additional Crew
Al Pabian was born on 13 February 1918 in Rochester, New York, USA. He is known for Snoopy Come Home (1972), Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown (and Don't Come Back!!) (1980) and Race for Your Life, Charlie Brown (1977). He was married to Joan Pabian. He died on 9 April 2015 in Van Nuys, Los Angeles, California, USA.- Actor
- Music Department
- Soundtrack
Al Vescovo was born on 27 February 1936 in Memphis, Tennessee, USA. He was an actor, known for Pennies from Heaven (1981), Hercules in Hollywood (2005) and The Sweet Spot (2003). He was married to Norma Jean. He died on 14 October 2011 in Van Nuys, California, USA.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Aladdin was born on 20 September 1912 in New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for Garrison's Gorillas (1967), The Rebel (1959) and My Three Sons (1960). He died on 9 June 1970 in Van Nuys, California, USA.- Actor
- Director
- Additional Crew
Alan Bergmann was born on 17 October 1927 in Brooklyn, New York, USA. He was an actor and director, known for Star Trek (1966), The Six Million Dollar Man (1974) and Flying High (1978). He was married to Ruth Record, Maurine Rae Potts and Dolores Margaret Mann. He died on 31 August 2017 in Van Nuys, California, USA.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Alan Carney was born on 22 December 1909 in Brooklyn, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World (1963), The Absent Minded Professor (1961) and Zombies on Broadway (1945). He died on 2 May 1973 in Van Nuys, California, USA.- Alan Donath was born on 15 August 1950 in Lorain, Ohio, USA. He was an actor, known for Dementia (2004), Wrong Turn (2010) and No Crime No Punishment (2011). He died on 29 April 2022 in Van Nuys, California, USA.
- Additional Crew
Alberto Behar was born on 12 September 1967 in Miami, Florida, USA. Alberto is known for Chasing Ice (2012). Alberto was married to Mary Duffy. Alberto died on 9 January 2015 in Van Nuys, California, USA.- Allene Hale was born on 16 May 1892 in Vermont, USA. She was an actress, known for The Love Hunger (1919). She died on 6 February 1985 in Van Nuys, California, USA.
- Cinematographer
- Producer
- Director
He was born in British India at Gujrat, Punjab, now present day Pakistan. The eldest son of C.D. Chaudhri who was an officer working in the British Government Department of Information and Broadcasting. Amin's love for the cinema started at the young age of 8 when his uncle got a job at a local cinema as a projectionist. He would bring dinner to his uncle in the projection room and watch films night after night. He felt it was magic the way the projector could create the images on the screen. He loved to see how the audiences would laugh and cry during the movies. It was then he decided he would be the person to create the magic on the screen. At age 11 he shared his dream of becoming a Hollywood Director with his friends and although they laughed at him, he believed in his heart one day his dream would come true. At age 18 he left his country for England to study Political Science and Economics at the direction of his father. After 2 years he set sail for America to persue his childhood dream to be a film director. He enrolled in New York University and graduated in 1965. He directed, photographed and edited his first feature film "Scandal That Rocked Britain" (1963). The film was shown worldwide. He worked as a film editor, music and effects editor on many film projects. He then worked as a cinematographer on independent features, television, and documentaries. In 1985 he formed Continental Film Group to produce quality independent feature films. He started his own movie studio in rural Pennsylvania where he has made 7 feature films. Tiger Warsaw (1988) starring Patrick Swayze and _Diary of a Hit Man (1991)_ starring Forest Whitaker were 2 of his biggest hits. His films have been shown in many international film festivals including Cannes, Duville, Montreal, Toronto, Chicago, Cairo, Calcutta to name a few.- Sound Department
- Music Department
- Producer
Andy Johns was born on 20 May 1950 in Leatherhead, Surrey, England, UK. He was a producer, known for Caddyshack II (1988), Rod Stewart Live at the Los Angeles Forum (1981) and Steve Miller Band: Live from Chicago (2008). He was married to Paula Boyd and Annette. He died on 7 April 2013 in Van Nuys, California, USA.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Beautiful Anita Page was one of the most famous and popular leading ladies during the last years of the silent screen and the first years of the talkie era. She was best known for starring in The Broadway Melody (1929), the first sound film to win the Academy Award for Best Picture. Her leading men included John Gilbert, Clark Gable, Buster Keaton, and Robert Montgomery.
Only in her late teens when stardom beckoned, Anita had a huge following that earned her record amounts of fan mail, but she was seldom given lead roles, most often playing second lead, perhaps due to her youthful inexperience as an actress. She was a charming, much-loved screen personality, but by 1932 MGM seemed to lose interest in her career despite impressive work in such films as Night Court (1932) and Skyscraper Souls (1932), and before the year was out her contract was not renewed. She slipped off into "B" stardom in films at Columbia, Universal, and even more minor studios. She retired from the screen in 1936, making a return 25 years later in The Runaway (1961) with Cesar Romero, and she lived quietly out of the limelight for over half a century. In the 1990s, the now widowed star was rediscovered by the media, which enjoyed her light-humored journeys down memory lane about her career, MGM, the silent and early talkie eras, and the stars she knew, earning the actress a devoted cult of young fans and a few brief appearances in ultra-low-budget films of the 1990s.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Ann Greenway was born on 15 August 1902 in Alexandria, Egypt. She was an actress, known for Half Marriage (1929), And How (1930) and The No Man (1933). She died on 27 June 1977 in Van Nuys, California, USA.- Anna Mae Walthall was born on 3 October 1894 in Alabama, USA. She was an actress, known for Bare Fists (1919), As Man Desires (1925) and At the Stroke of the Angelus (1915). She was married to ? Eldridge. She died on 17 April 1950 in Van Nuys, California, USA.
- Anne Cornwall was born on 17 January 1897 in Brooklyn, New York, USA. She was an actress, known for College (1927), Dulcy (1923) and The Roughneck (1924). She was married to Ellis Wing Taylor and Charles Maigne. She died on 2 March 1980 in Van Nuys, California, USA.
- Composer
- Music Department
- Soundtrack
Arnold Goland is best known for creating "The Wall of Sound" for Phil Spector. Mr. Goland was the first arranger that employed the classical music approach to popular music. Using a full string pad, countermelodies, and classical orchestrations, Goland created a new sound for The Ronettes, Jay and the Americans, Vicki Carr, The Four Lads, Patty Duke, Margaret Whiting, Maxine Andrews, Julio Ingleasias, and many others.
Goland had a rich childhood and background in music education. As a teenager in Brooklyn, he traveled on multiple subway trains to attend the High School of Music and Art, Then located on the campus of Columbia University. Later, he attended Cornell University as an Engineering Physics major. After producing several holiday musical revues on the Cornell campus his advisor suggested he change his major to music. He made the move to Julliard.- Actor
- Stunts
Art Dillard was born on 20 February 1907 in Fort Bend County, Texas, USA. He was an actor, known for Leadville Gunslinger (1952), Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok (1951) and Wild Horse Rodeo (1937). He was married to Ann. He died on 30 March 1960 in Van Nuys, California, USA.- Soundtrack
Art Kassel was born on 18 January 1896 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. He died on 3 February 1965 in Van Nuys, California, USA.- Actor
- Additional Crew
Extremely prolific and ubiquitous extra Arthur Roland Tovey was born on November 14, 1904 in Douglas, Arizona. Tovey appeared in his first film in an uncredited minor role in 1924 and began working profusely as a background extra starting in the mid-1940's. One of the most busy and tireless of American bit players, Arthur popped up in scores of movies and TV shows alike in a career that spanned an impressive seven decades altogether and was still plugging away into his early 90's. Moreover, Tovey not only served in the U.S. Army during World War II, but also was a longtime member of both the Musicians Local 47 -- he was a musician all his life who was especially adept at playing the piano -- and the Screen Actors Guild. Arthur died at age 95 of natural causes at his home in Van Nuys, California on October 20, 2000.- Artie Auerbach was born on 17 May 1903 in New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for The Jack Benny Program (1950), Here Comes Elmer (1943) and Some Time Soon (1937). He was married to Cleo Morgan and Doris. He died on 3 October 1957 in Van Nuys, California, USA.
- Stage, film, radio and television actress, a student at Columbia University and a member of the American Theatre Wing. She appeared on radio's "The March of Time", "Gangbusters", "Young Widder Brown" and "I Love a Mystery" and other radio series and programs, including one with Laurence Olivier in "Disraeli", which was one of his rare radio appearances. In one of her last films, Doctor Death: Seeker of Souls (1973), she co-starred with her husband, Jim Boles.
- Baby LeRoy was born on 12 May 1932 in Los Angeles, California, USA. He was an actor, known for A Bedtime Story (1933), Alice in Wonderland (1933) and It's a Great Life (1935). He died on 28 July 2001 in Van Nuys, California, USA.
- Actor
- Writer
- Soundtrack
Endearing, bushy-whiskered Welsh character actor whose screen repertoire seemed to consist for the better part of variations on a similar theme, namely stereotypical stiff-upper-lip or bumbling British gents. The son of an actress and an actor-manager and on stage from early childhood, Fox began his career in repertory theatre. During the last two years of World War II he served on a minesweeper in the Royal Navy. In 1952, he joined the ensemble of Brian Rix's Whitehall Farces as one of the 'Reluctant Heroes' and the 'Simple Spymen'. Buoyed by popular success, he probably developed his stock-in-trade character around this time. Following a stint on the London stage, Fox then landed several small roles in British films and co-starred for the BBC in the short-lived comedy series Three Live Wires (1961). The show's American producer promised him a shot at Hollywood and the actor and his wife promptly moved to Los Angeles. In 1962, Fox made his American stage debut at the Civic Playhouse in the three-act mystery play "Write Me a Murder" by Frederick Knott. The following year he appeared as a blundering waiter in The Danny Thomas Show (1953).
During the 1960's he became a familiar face on television, staking his particular claim to comedy relief fame as the cranky warlock physician Dr. Bombay in Bewitched (1964) (a character he declared was based on a naval officer with whom he served during the war) and as the buffoonish Colonel Rodney Crittenden in Hogan's Heroes (1965) (who was hopefully not based on anyone). He was also a Dr. Watson to Stewart Granger's Sherlock Holmes in The Hound of the Baskervilles (1972), striding a kind of middle ground between the Watson of Nigel Bruce and that of Edward Hardwicke. His many guest roles as assorted 'visiting' English officers included, among others, 12 O'Clock High (1964), The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (1964), Columbo (1971) and M*A*S*H (1972). More recently, he appeared as Archibald Gracie IV, survivor (albeit briefly) of the sinking of the Titanic (1997) and as the unflappable aviator Winston Havelock going off to his last 'tally-ho' in The Mummy (1999). His ongoing commitment to theatrical work led to engagements in Canada with Stage West, in Las Vegas, Los Angeles and starring on Broadway in a 1978 production of "3 Rue de L'Amour" with Louis Jourdan and Kathleen Freeman.
In private life, Fox was renowned as an expert theatre historian. He was reputedly a keen gardener, a painter of landscapes and a devotee of performing magic.- Make-Up Department
- Additional Crew
Bernard Ponedel was born on 14 August 1903 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. He is known for The Manchurian Candidate (1962), The Man with the Golden Arm (1955) and The Pride and the Passion (1957). He was married to Rose. He died on 3 April 1991 in Van Nuys, California, USA.- Rosetta Dewart Brice (a.k.a. Betty Brice) was born on the 4th of August, 1888 (not 1892 as often reported), the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Edward Lincoln Brice, in Sunbury, Pennsylvania. She was raised in Washington, D.C. and completed her education there. A striking young woman with Titian-red hair, green eyes, and a petite 5'6", 124 lb. figure, Miss Brice showed considerable dramatic talent in her youth and received training for the stage as well. After making her theatrical debut in Washington at the age of fifteen, she went on to appear in numerous stock company productions in Baltimore and Philadelphia.
In 1913, while performing with the Orpheum Stock Company at the Chestnut Street Theater in Philadelphia, Miss Brice decided that she wanted to try acting in movies and requested an interview with the general manager of the Lubin Film Company. After putting the actress through a screen test, Ira M. Lowry immediately offered her a job. Miss Brice would later frankly admit that she entered movies so she could watch herself act. "In a general sort of way I knew how I acted," she told a reporter for the Dramatic Mirror in 1915, "but I never saw myself....[and] I've never gotten over it, and I daresay I never will fail to feel that little thrill that comes when I see myself on the screen."
Her first role for Lubin, and her first appearance in a motion picture, came in the Betzwood production of The Price of Victory, a two-reel Civil War drama made in the summer of 1913. Her first day on the job found Miss Brice dressed in 1860s attire, jumping fully clothed into the Perkiomen Creek to play a scene in which the heroine valiantly blows up a bridge during a pitched battle and is killed by the collapsing timbers. Far from being put off by the physical rigors of her new venture, the actress was exhilarated. An athletic woman, who loved to ride and swim, she reveled in the pleasures of "the outdoor life" that working at the Betzwood studio provided. In addition to The Price of Victory, her Betzwood film with Thurston Hall and Octavia Handworth, Sweeter Than Revenge, also survives.
Rosetta Brice had a feisty independent streak, a fiery temper, and was not bound by conventional standards of feminine behavior. In 1908, at the age of twenty, her engagement to society scion, Horace Carpentier Hurlbutt, was announced in the Washington newspapers. When her fiancé objected to her acting career, she broke off the engagement and abruptly married John O. La Gorce, Secretary of the National Geographic Society, instead. That marriage ended in divorce after only a few years. In 1915, she was hauled into court in Philadelphia by a man who claimed that she had stolen two diamond rings from him. Her defiant attitude in court created a minor sensation in the press. She was equally defiant when asked by a Dramatic Mirror reporter in 1915 whether movie actresses had loose morals. Already well-known at the studio for the wild parties she occasionally threw, the actress firmly stated that "Morals are traits that each and every woman must define for herself. Certainly a woman's profession is not indicative of her morals!"
When the Lubin Company hired a new actor/director, John H. Pratt, in 1915, Rosetta Brice was placed under his direction. Pratt guided her through several successful films and her work for Lubin generally received high marks from movie critics. Their close work together soon led to a marriage between Miss Brice and the much older "Smiling Jack" Pratt. The couple continued to work for Lubin until the company folded in 1916, after which both returned to the theater. Eventually they went to Los Angeles to resume working in movies.
For reasons unknown, Miss Brice stopped appearing in films in the early 1920s, though her husband continued to seek work as an actor. Her final role was a minor character in the 1924 production of Beau Brummel, with John Barrymore. She died in Van Nuys, California, on February 15, 1935, at the age of 46. - Actress
Beverly Reedy was born on 1 July 1925 in California, USA. She was an actress. She died on 8 September 1997 in Van Nuys, California, USA.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Bob Holt started his career in front of the cameras with a film role in 1950, playing Octavius Caesar in Julius Caesar followed by another role in 1959 in The Great St. Louis Bank Robbery. He moved on to primarily voice acting in 1968 providing all of the voices for a film short called Johnny Learns His Manners. Throughout the 1960's, 1970's, and 1980's, Bob provided voices for main and supporting characters in numerous animated television series and films including many based on the works of Dr. Seuss. Arguably the most enchanting work of this period was his providing the main voice in 1976 of Avatar in Ralph Bakshi's film Wizards and in the 1984 Joe Dante film Gremlins where Bob provided the voices of Mogwai and other various Gremlins. Bob past away from a heart attack on August 2, 1985. His last full performance, not including samples taken from previous projects, was as the voice of Rodney in The Adventures of the American Rabbit which was released in 1986 after his passing.- Bob Peoples was born on 15 December 1924 in Los Angeles, California, USA. He was an actor, known for Jet Job (1952), Hold That Line (1952) and Prince of Pirates (1953). He died on 14 February 2013 in Van Nuys, Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Actor
- Writer
Brent Pfaff was born on 2 December 1959 in Union City, Pennsylvania, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for She's Too Tall (1998), Hostile Environment (1999) and Galaxis (1995). He died on 4 December 2011 in Van Nuys, California, USA.- Actor
- Additional Crew
Bruce Hoy was born on 10 March 1932 in Mount Healthy, Ohio, USA. He was an actor, known for Sigmund and the Sea Monsters (1973), Startime (1959) and Days of Our Lives (1965). He was married to Larri Thomas. He died on 31 January 2014 in Van Nuys, California, USA.- Additional Crew
- Casting Department
- Actor
Burton Sharp was born on 6 November 1930 in New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for Mortal Kombat (1995), Cyborg (1989) and Stargate (1994). He was married to Rosemary Sharp. He died on 25 September 2005 in Van Nuys, California, USA.- Actor
- Make-Up Department
Byron Poindexter was born on 26 March 1906 in Missouri, USA. He was an actor, known for Private Property (1960), Play It As It Lays (1972) and Sunday Showcase (1959). He was married to Edith Keon and Helen. He died on 8 September 1974 in Van Nuys, California, USA.- Cinematographer
- Director
- Writer
Pioneering cinematographer Carl Louis Gregory was born in Walnut, KS, in 1882. He and his family moved to Ohio, where, at age 11 he became interested in photography and made his own camera using a cigar box and a lens made from a pair of eyeglasses. While a student at a Cleveland high school he began earning a living taking photographs, and made enough money from that business to pay his tuition at Ohio State University. He also studied at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) and Columbia University. In 1905, a year after graduating from OSU, he opened a photography studio with branches in Cleveland, Colorado Springs (CO), San Antonio (TX) and even Monterrey, Mexico. He soon sold those businesses and went to work for the US Department of the Interior as an official photographer. A few years later he was hired by a wealthy businessman as a projectionist for slides and film that were shown during the man's lectures. In 1909 he joined the Edison Co. as a cameraman and director and turned out quite a few films at the company's New Jersey studios in Orange and Bedford Park. He even went to Cuba to shoot features and short educational films. He joined the Thanhouser Co. in 1910 as a cameraman/photographer and later became the studio's chief cameraman, shooting many of its films and supervising cinematographers on other projects. Renowned for his trick photography and seamless use of double-exposures, he was often mentioned whenever newspapers or magazines wrote about the technical aspects of the relatively new film business.
In 1913 he was placed in charge of the studio's prestigious Princess Films division; in addition to the day-to-day operation of the unit, he also shot films and wrote screenplays. He so impressed the powers-that-be at Thanhouser that he was promoted from the Princess Films division and placed in charge of the company's major, big-budget productions. He was the cinematographer for the Williamson brothers when they shot their groundbreaking underwater productions in the West Indies in 1914, and apparently liked it so much that he worked on quite a few similar projects, gaining even more renown for his expertise in that genre. In 1914 he and a company of actors traveled to Yellowstone National Park, among other places, to shoot a series of outdoor films for Thanhouser.
Gregory left Thanhouser in 1915 for Metro Pictures. He also became a respected lecturer on the subject of film photography, making the rounds of various professional photographic societies. In 1917 he traveled to Florida to do some work for the Technicolor Corp. He contributed to the war effort by being the chief cinematography instructor for the US Army's Signal Corps School of Photography, and wrote a book for cameramen, "Motion Picture Photography". After the war he became a photography instructor at Columbia University and was named Dean of Photography at the New York Institute of Photography. He still kept his hand in the business, however, directing and photographing Love's Flame (1920) for Fidelity Pictures.
He became involved with several companies that shot films in virtually all corners of the world, including Japan, China, Burma, Malaya and the Philippines. He was the cinematographer on one of the first films to be made in Hawaii, The Thirteenth Girl (1915), which was shot on Hilo. He worked for the Kislyn Color Corp., which was trying to develop a color process invented by photographer Louis Berthon. In the 1940s he was employed by the National Archives, and was the first person to try restoring some very early films that were shot on paper prints.
He died on March 11, 1951, at his Van Nuys, CA, home of complications from arteriosclerosis.- Make-Up Department
Chances are, if you saw a movie with one of the stars of the 1930s or 1940s, her hair was done by Carmen Dirigo, who passed away on July 25 in Van Nuys at the age of 99.
Dirigo, born Daisy Obradowits, was a prominent hair and wig stylist in Hollywood's Golden Age, working at the various studios and later in television. Among her stable of stars were Joan Bennett, Yvonne De Carlo, Joan Fontaine and her sister, Olivia de Havilland, Ann Blyth, Elena Verdugo, and many others.
She was born in New York on December 30, 1907 and moved with her mother Lilley to Southern California in the 1920s. Soon after, Lilley started a beauty shop on Cahuenga in Hollywood while Carmen went to school. But the younger Dirigo had show business dreams. From an early age, she worked as a dancer at the Egyptian, Chinese, and Pantages theaters doing prologue shows before feature films ran.
At Carmen's urging, Lilley finally attempted to get into the movie business during the last years of the silents. "I kept after her, but she was very shy," Carmen recalled in 1999. "One day, she went and made an appointment at Universal with Carl Laemmle and she sold him on the idea of having a hairstylist established on the lot. She told him that she once saw a picture where the actress is out in the rain, and when she comes in, her hair is all dry. She told him that he could have someone established on each picture to read the script and follow the story and do it accordingly. He thought that was brilliant, and that's how it all started."
By 1933, after taking a state test to get her cosmetology license, Carmen followed her mother and entered the hairstyling field, first working at United Artists. After four years, she moved to Paramount where she first worked with stars like Fontaine and Fredric March. Eight years later, she came to Universal as head of hairstyling, where her mother had broken ground working with legendary makeup artist Jack Pierce, famous for Universal's slate of classic monster films.
Of the rapid pace of the classic studio days, Carmen remembered the structured approach to the work. "They didn't have time to talk about stuff then," she said. "We would get there early, and have to rush to get people out on time. If I had wigs to do, I'd have to be there at 6:30AM and take the wigs off the block. Max Factor's on Highland and three wigmakers out of Universal would ventilate the wigs. Then, I would style them the night before."
One of her biggest challenges at Universal was the 1948 film, Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid which featured underwater photography of star Ann Blyth. "The producer wanted her hair to look as beautiful underwater as out of the water.," she recalled. "I had to get together with a chemist to figure out what we could use that would be pliable in the water. For days, before the picture started, I would be in my department with a fishbowl, and I'd have a hunk of hair which I waved first and sprayed with this chemical. I'd plunk it in the water and swish it around and see if it held the curl. When it did, I knew that it was okay."
While at Universal, Dirigo served as president of the Cinema Hairstylists, an elite association, and was the first hairstylist in the business to get screen credit. In 1951, the nascent television medium beckoned, and she moved to TV on shows including Fireside Theater, which ran until 1955. Around that time,, she did several episodes a CBS show called You Are There, which recreated significant moments from history. For an episode which aired in April, 1955, using wigs and makeup, she and Jack Pierce transformed actor Jeff Morrow into Abraham Lincoln for a staged recreation of the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation.
Dirigo's last job in the business was as hairstyling department head for TV's Petticoat Junction, where she worked until 1970. She retired to her house on Coldwater Canyon Boulevard in Van Nuys where she lived the rest of her life. Until a severe fall at home in 2000 left her partially immobilized, Dirigo was an avid equestrian and enjoyed watching her Academy screeners on VHS tapes. She leaves behind no living heirs.
Her legacy, along with her mother's, was creating firm aesthetics for women's hairstyles in films that remains to this day. One Universal press release from 1946 stated: "She is a firm believer in frequent hair style changes and in the choice of simple styles for business and sportswear. Elaborate hairstyles should be created only for evening and formal occasions, she recommends."- Actress
- Soundtrack
In a career spanning six decades plus, the ever-vital and ever-versatile Carmen Zapata stands as one of the most respected and diversified Hispanic-American figures in the performing arts. The much-admired veteran actress has worn many hats over the years: teacher, producer, translator, lecturer and narrator.
Born in New York City on July 15, 1927, the daughter of a Mexican father and Argentine mother, she started entertaining on the musical stage. Making her Broadway debut in the chorus of "Oklahoma" in 1946, she continued in the same vein with regional and summer stock roles in "Bloomer Girl", Bells Are Ringing", "Guys and Dolls" "Carnival" (with Liza Minnelli), "Bye Bye Birdie", "No Strings" and "Stop the World, I Want to Get Off". In 1956 she appeared on Broadway in the Jose Quintero-directed dramatic piece "The Innkeepers" starring Geraldine Page, but it closed within a few days. For years Carmen was active on the stand-up comedy circuit performing in clubs and hotels across the country while billing herself as "Marge Cameron" in order to encourage non-discriminatory employment.
She returned late to acting in the early 1960s (as Carmen Zapata) and the subsequent search for ethnic support roles proved both difficult and unfulfilling. It was impossible to steer clear of the severe stereotypes imposed on her, yet she managed to establish a name for herself on 1970s TV. As a series regular, she had supporting duties alongside Mayor Anthony Quinn in the drama The Man and the City (1971); played matriarch Sophia Valdez in the ethnic family sitcom Viva Valdez (1976) opposite Rodolfo Hoyos Jr.; appeared as Arthur Hill's housekeeper in the detective drama Hagen (1980) starring Chad Everett; and had flavorful recurring roles in The New Dick Van Dyke Show (1971) and Flamingo Road (1980). Unfortunately, the series' run of all these shows was too short-lived to earn top TV stardom for herself.
Always striving for dignity, intelligence and positiveness in her work, she was often defeated by token appearances that underused her vast talents. When afforded the opportunity she could be quite touching and heartfelt. Dramatic and comedic performances included roles in such popular shows as "The Bold Ones", "Bonanza", "Marcus Welby, M.D.", "Owen Marshall", "Medical Center", "Adam 12", "Mod Squad", "The Rookies", "Love, American Style", "Wonder Women", "The Streets of San Francisco", "McMillan and Wife", "Trapper John, M.D.", "Chico and the Man", "Matt Houston", "Falcon Crest", "Married with Children", "The Trials of Rosie O'Neil", "L.A. Law", "Dr Quinn, Medicine Woman", and many, many others. She was seen sporadically in the late 1980s and early 1990s on the daytime soap Santa Barbara (1984) as Carmen Castillo. Less visible on film, negligible roles included Sol Madrid (1968), Hail, Hero! (1969), Portnoy's Complaint (1972), Rabbit Test (1978), Boulevard Nights (1979), How to Beat the High Cost of Living (1980), the campy horror flick Vultures (1984), and, more recently as one of the choir nuns in the box-office bonanza Sister Act (1992) and its sequel.
More significantly, Ms. Zapata established herself as a prominent benefactor to the Los Angeles-area performing arts. In 1973 she co-founded the Bilingual Foundation of the Arts (BFA), a resident theater company and organization dedicated to bringing the Hispanic experience and culture to the Southern California community via the medium of bilingual stage productions. Serving as its president and producing director, many honors have been bestowed upon her for her selfless contributions. Establishing a durable relationship with the Los Angeles Unified School District to bring the works of great Hispanic authors to public school students, she has produced over 80 plays on BFA's mainstage. On TV, she starred as the town mayor for nine seasons on the PBS' bilingual children's television show Villa Alegre (1973).
As a teacher of drama, Carmen has offered her talents and services to the Academy of Stage and Cinema Arts and the East Los Angeles College Theatre Arts, among others venues. Moreover, a BFA facility was set up as an extension of UCLA. Since 1976, Carmen has been co-translating the groundbreaking plays and poems of such renowned Hispanic figures as 'Federico Garcia Lorca'. These important translations have included Garcia Lorca's "Blood Wedding", "The House of Bernarda Alba" and "Yerma" (the last work mentioned won a Dramalogue Award in 1980). In return, she portrayed the small role of Garcia Lorca's mother in the film Death in Granada (1996) starring Andy Garcia as the maverick Spanish poet and playwright who was executed by firing squad for his political stoicism.
A narrator for the Oscar-nominated documentary The Mothers of the Plaza of Mayo (1985), Carmen's later focus has been as a lecturer at universities and theater conferences across the country. At age 80, Ms. Zapata's unwavering dedication in preserving Hispanic-American culture continues to be a source of pride to the Los Angeles community and her profound influence has extended itself nationwide. At various times, she has been the recipient of several L.A. industry awards as well, including the "Ovation", the Dramalogue and Nosotros Awards for her excellence in theatre.
In 2003, she received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Her final millennium film roles included The Egg Plant Lady (2000) and The Sleepy Time Gal (2001) while on TV she made a brief appearance in the TV movie Fidel (2002). She died of heart failure on January 5, 2014, in Van Nuys, CA.- Actress
- Additional Crew
Carol McEvoy was born on 2 February 1945 in Los Angeles, California, USA. She was an actress, known for The Towering Inferno (1974), Emergency! (1972) and Choices (1981). She died on 13 May 1994 in Van Nuys, California, USA.- Additional Crew
- Actress
Carole Costello was born on 23 December 1938 in Attleboro, Massachusetts, USA. She was an actress, known for My Three Sons (1960), Trivia Trap (1984) and Card Sharks (1986). She was married to Gregg Jakobson, John Timothy Koester and Craig Martin. She died on 29 March 1987 in Van Nuys, Los Angeles, California, USA.- Charles Knapp was born on 10 November 1919 in San Diego, California, USA. He was an actor, known for Chinatown (1974), Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983) and T.J. Hooker (1982). He was married to Josephine Hirsch. He died on 27 October 1995 in Van Nuys, California, USA.
- Charles Lane was born on 25 January 1869 in Madison, Illinois, USA. He was an actor, known for Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1920), Sadie Thompson (1928) and The Canary Murder Case (1929). He died on 17 October 1945 in Van Nuys, California, USA.
- Charles Williams was born in San Angelo, Texas, and grew up there and in New Mexico. He attended Brownsville High School in Texas through the tenth grade. In the United States Merchant Marine, from 1929 to 1939, he served as a radio operator. Williams joined the U.S. Navy during World War II, and between 1939 and 1950 worked as an electronics inspector, a wireless operator, a radar technician, and a radio service engineer. In the course of these careers he lived in Peru, Arizona, Florida, and Switzerland. Williams married Lasca Foster in 1939; they had one daughter, Alison. His first novel, Hill Girl, was rejected by several publishers before the Fawcett publishing company picked it up in 1950 for their line of Gold Medal paperback originals. Williams had beginner's luck; it sold, according to one source, 1,226,890 copies. He went on to publish 21 more novels, gaining enough attention as a member of the "Gold Medal" writers that he was hired to script a few films, including his own The Wrong Venus, filmed as Don't Just Stand There (1968), and Hell Hath No Fury, filmed as _Hot Spot, The (1990/I)_. Williams seems to have been familiar with the saying, "God made the country, man made the city, and the Devil made the small town." His hard-boiled thrillers are often set in the hot, humid, mosquito- and snake-infested hamlets of the Gulf Coast and South Florida in the 1950s and 1960s. His more famous later novels take place on boats or ships on the open sea. He also wrote some very funny comedies, including The Diamond Bikini (1956) and Uncle Sagamore and His Girls (1959), in which a boy chronicles the shenanigans of his scheming uncle. However, Williams's thrillers more usually featured guys who think they can get rich quick when they are seduced by the deceitful promises of beautiful and dangerous dames, or honest, likable types who find themselves in deadly circumstances but are determined to see justice done at last. Although fourteen of his novels were optioned or adapted for film -- the most successful being Dead Calm (1989) -- he received little critical attention in the U.S. However, his books were enormously popular in France, where nearly all were either translated or filmed. His wife Lasca died in the early 1970s of cancer, and Charles went to live alone in a trailer on the border between California and Oregon. The weather there depressed him; he was too in love with sun and sea. His personal finances declined as the popularity of hard-boiled thrillers began to wane. In 1975, he committed suicide. Williams's reputation lives on, stronger than ever, among aficionados of the hard-boiled crime novel, and even his battered paperbacks can sell for $100 or more.
- Charlotte Lawrence was born Charlotte Sorkin on April 22, 1921, in Los Angeles, CA. She attended Fairfax High School in Los Angeles, CA where she was active in Theater. She moved to New York in the early 1940's to pursue a career in Radio. She had a lucrative career as a radio actress, but left NY to return home to take care of her mother. In the mid 1950's she appeared in several I Love Lucy episodes and countless TV shows as a character actress. In the mid 1960's, Charlotte left acting and entered the corporate world. She worked at Capital Records for over 10 years before landing a key position at Lorimar Television Productions as Manager, Music Clearance and Licensing. From the late 1970's to 1992, Charlotte oversaw the music clearance and licensing for Lorimar's television shows (The Waltons, Dallas, Knots Landing, Falcon Crest, Full House, Perfect Strangers and Hogan's Family), plus countless MOW's and mini-series, as well as Lorimar Motion Pictures. Charlotte also handled the music clearance and licensing for Lorimar's advertising company Bozell, Jacobs, Kenyon & Eckhardt, which at the time was the 11th largest advertising agency in the United States, with accounts such as Chrysler and Revlon. In 1992 Charlotte left Lorimar to become Director of Music Licensing for Saban Entertainment. She passed away quietly in her home on October 20, 1993 in Van Nuys, California.
- Actor
- Writer
Iowa-born Chester Conklin was raised in a coal-mining area by a devoutly religious father who hoped that his son would go into the ministry. However, Chester got the performing bug one day when he gave a recitation at a community singing festival and won first prize. Knowing his father would never approve of his desire to become a comedian, he left home. One night in St. Louis he caught a vaudeville act by the famous team of Joe Weber and Lew Fields, who were doing what was called at the time a "Dutch" act. Conklin thought that he could do that act himself, and better, so he decided to develop a character patterned after his boss at the time, a German baker named Schultz. Schultz had a thick accent and a very bushy "walrus"-type mustache, which Conklin appropriated for his new character. He managed to break into vaudeville with this act and spent several years on tour with various stock companies. Eventually he secured a job as a clown with a traveling circus. After seeing several of Mack Sennett's Keystone Kops shorts in theaters, Conklin went to the Sennett studio and applied for a job there. Sennett hired him as a Keystone Kop (at $3 a day). He stayed with Sennett for six years, and became famous for his pairing with burly comic Mack Swain in a series of "Ambrose and Walrus" shorts and appeared in several of Charles Chaplin's shorts for the studio (Chaplin adapted Conklin's "walrus" mustache as part of the costume for his "Little Tramp" character). Conklin was approached by Fox Films to do a series of comedy shorts, and when Sennett refused to match the offer Fox made, Conklin left Sennett and signed with Fox. He stayed with Fox for several years, then freelanced for several independent producers in a series of comedy shorts. Conklin worked steadily into the sound era, and retired from the screen in 1966. His last movie was the well-received Western comedy A Big Hand for the Little Lady (1966), in which his character was named "Chester."- Camera and Electrical Department
Chris Duffy was born on 31 December 1961 in Poughkeepsie, New York, USA. Chris is known for Divergent (2014), Deja Vu (2006) and R.I.P.D. (2013). Chris died on 11 March 2019 in Van Nuys, Los Angeles, California, USA.- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
- Additional Crew
- Director
Christine Ballard was born on 13 August 1947 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. She was an assistant director and director, known for It's a Living (1980), Night Court (1984) and Alice (1976). She died on 2 January 2016 in Van Nuys, California, USA.- Actress
- Soundtrack
One of five children, Christine Cecilia McIntyre was born in Nogales, Arizona, on April 26, 1911, to John and Edna (nee Barnaby) McIntyre. In the early 1930s, Christine received a Bachelor of Music degree at Chicago Musical College, where she honed her operatic soprano voice (which can be heard in a handful of her movies); she also began her radio career in Chicago. By 1936, she was acting on the professional stage in L.A., starring in plays such as "The Bird of Paradise" with actors like Pierce Lyden. She broke into movies with a small role in Swing Fever (1937), signing for feature films with RKO. This led to a series of B westerns with stars like Buck Jones, Johnny Mack Brown, and Ray Corrigan. Then, in 1944, with her hair newly dyed blonde, she was discovered by producer Hugh McCollum at Columbia Pictures and signed a ten-year contract to do shorts for the studio. Over the next decade, she worked with comedians such as Andy Clyde, Hugh Herbert, and Shemp Howard (solo), not to mention both Joe Besser and Joe DeRita. However, she will forever be remembered for her prolific work with The Three Stooges. A favorite concert piece of hers, Johann Strauss' "Voice of Spring," was the basis for the 1945 Stooges short Micro-Phonies (1945), considered by many Stooge fans as the trio's finest effort and which also provides the best example of Christine's beautifully pure operatic soprano voice as she sings the above-mentioned aria (which Curly Howard, as "Senorita Cucaracha," hilariously lip-synchs to). Always focused, always a presence onscreen, Christine developed into a first-rate comedic actress--her timing was impeccable and she wasn't afraid to get "down and dirty" with slapstick experts such as the Stooges (she even beat up poor Shemp Howard in the classic Brideless Groom (1947), then knocked him through a door), and it was merely through unfortunate twists of fate that she never segued over into television at the same time that funnywomen Lucille Ball and Imogene Coca were making their small-screen marks. Though Christine's career at Columbia consisted mostly of comedy shorts, she did show up in occasional features, often westerns. In 1953, near the end of her Columbia contract, she married radio producer/writer/actor J. Donald Wilson (not to be confused with Jack Benny's announcer Don Wilson), and soon after retired from show business. Christine and J. Donald spent the next 30 years developing joint careers in real estate. The former actress passed away in Van Nuys, California, on July 8, 1984, six months after her husband.- Christopher Lloyd Dennis was born on 16 June 1967. He was an actor, known for Not Now John (2012), Gene Simmons: Family Jewels (2006) and American Superman. He was married to Bonnie Finkenthal Dennis. He died on 2 November 2019 in Van Nuys, California, USA.
- Music Department
- Composer
- Writer
Academy Award-winning songwriter ("The Continental", 1934), composer, pianist and publisher, educated at military academy, then a pianist in film theatres, and later a vaudeville entertainer in the USA and Europe. He wrote the Broadway stage scores for "Moonlight", "Mercenary Mary", "Kitty's Kisses", and "Americana". Then he became a music publisher, and went to Hollywood in 1929. Joining ASCAP in 1920, and his chief musical collaborators included Joe Young, Sidney Clare, Billy Rose, B. G. DeSylva, Benny Davis, Leo Robin, Herb Magidson, J. Russel Robinson, Vincent Rose, Archie Gottler, Sidney Mitchell, and William Friedlander. His popular-song compositions also include "Ma, He's Making Eyes at Me", "Margie", "Barney Google", "Prisoner of Love", "You've Got To See Mama Every Night", "Oh, Frenchy", "Palesteena", "Come On, Spark Plug", "Memory Lane", "Big City Blues", "Walking With Susie", "Lonesome and Sorry", "Sing a Little Love Song", "Mercenary Mary", "You Call It Madness But I Call It Love", Bend Down, Sister", "My Baby Said Yes Yes", "Looking for a Needle in a Haystack", "Midnight in Paris", "Here's to Romance", "Champagne Waltz", and "Singin' the Blues".- Actor
- Soundtrack
Leo Gorcey's younger brother, David Gorcey is not usually thought of as one of the "original" Dead End Kids, but he did have a small role in the 1935 Broadway production of Sidney Kingsley's "Dead End" - and he is the person responsible for getting his brother Leo a part in the play. Ultimately this led to Leo's becoming a movie star while David played supporting roles and bit parts. Although David is not in the movie Dead End (1937), he appears in more of the Dead End Kids/East Side Kids/Bowery Boys movies than anyone else except Huntz Hall. Later David became a clergyman who specialized in helping troubled kids. According to David Hayes' and Brent Walker's book "The Films of the Bowery Boys", David Gorcey's funniest role is in Abbott and Costello in the Foreign Legion (1950).