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1-32 of 32
- Composer
- Music Department
- Soundtrack
Born in Engels, an autonomous region for ethnic Germans on the Volga river, Alfred Schnittke trained as a pianist in Vienna, Austria, where his father served as a correspondent for a Soviet newspaper. In 1953, he moved on to the Moscow Conservatory and served on its faculty from 1962 to 1972. Schnittke wrote over 60 film scores between 1961 and 1984, but they were in popular styles dramatically different from his serious music, which was influenced strongly by Mahler, Ives, and Pousseur and was usually atonal. His music is often despairing, with surprising witty touches, including musical quotations from well-known works.- Actor
- Producer
- Director
Comic light actor in U.S. films and TV. Born in Vincennes and raised in Terre Haute, IN, Moore studied drama at Indiana State Teachers College before serving in the Marines in WWII. He had a tough time breaking into movies, although he performed in local and regional live theatre. He finally found his niche in television, starring as the incompetent county agent Hank Kimball in GREEN ACRES from 1965-71. He also appeared in at least thirty other TV series and numerous commercials. He and his wife had been married 47 years at the time of his death.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Part of the Philadelphia music scene which also spawned Frankie Avalon and Fabian, Rydell was undoubtedly the most talented of the teen idols. After a number of song hits, including "Wild One" and "Volare", he starred in Bye Bye Birdie (1963) before hitting the nightclub circuit. He still appears regularly on "oldies" shows, although he hasn't had a hit since the early 1960s.- Actor
- Additional Crew
- Soundtrack
Born in Los Angeles almost a year after the start of Great Depression. Bob (whose nickname 'Bobs' was given to him by his father, and for legal and professional reasons he adopted professionally) is from a family of 9 siblings; 6 boys and 3 girls. He made his first on-screen appearance as a (literal) babe in arms in Life Begins (1932). Watson received the sobriquet 'cry-baby' for his ability to cry on-cue. Watson is best known as "Pee Wee" from Boys Town (1938). Later in the mid-late 60's Watson left the film industry entirely and entered the Claremont School of Theology. Later he became a Methodist minister in Burbank and La Canada. Watson retired in 1997 and passed away in 1999, succumbing to prostate cancer- Actor
- Writer
- Director
One of the truly great and gifted performers of the century, who often suffered lesser roles, Burgess Meredith was born in 1907 in Cleveland, Ohio. He was educated in Amherst College in Massachusetts, before joining Eva Le Gallienne's Student Repertory stage company in 1929. By 1934 he was a star on Broadway in 'Little 'Ol Boy', a part for which he tied with George M. Cohan as Best Performer of the Year.. He became a favorite of dramatist Maxwell Anderson, premiering on film in the playwright's Winterset (1936). Other Broadway appearances included 'The Barretts of Wimpole Street'. 'The Remarkable Mr Pennypacker', 'Candida', and 'Of Mice and Men. 'Meredith served in the United States Army Air Corps in World War II, reaching the rank of captain. He continued in a variety of dramatic and comedic roles often repeating his stage roles on film until being named an unfriendly witness by the House Un-American Activities Committee in the early 1950s, whereupon studio work disappeared. His career picked up again, especially with television roles, in the 1960s, although younger audiences know him best for either the Rocky (1976) or Grumpy Old Men (1993) films. Meredith also did a large amount of commercial work, serving as the voice for Skippy Peanut Butter and United Air Lines, among others. He was also an ardent environmentalist who believed pollution one of the greatest tragedies of the time, and an opponent of the Vietnam War. Burgess Meredith died at age 89 of Alzheimer's disease and melanoma in his home in Malibu, California on September 9, 1997.- Producer
- Writer
- Director
Raised in Texas and Kentucky by her doctor father and mother. Went to Purdue University to study landscape architecture but switched to drama. Moved to Nashville after college to be with her family before heading to Los Angeles in 1982 to study at the Strasburg Institute. Worked for a commercials production company as a receptionist before taking a position with them as a music video production assistant. While working at the office, she began work on what would eventually become Thelma & Louise (1991), writing the script in longhand at home and then retyping it on the job.- The daughter of silent-screen star Alma Hanlon and Broadway writer/press agent Walter Kingsley, Dorothy Kingsley began her career as an uncredited gag writer for the Bob Hope Radio Show and, later, the Edgar Bergen Radio Show. Producer Arthur Freed put her under contract to MGM; her first assignment was polishing the Garland-Rooney musical Girl Crazy (1943). She later wrote a number of scripts for Debbie Reynolds and 'Esther Williams (I)'. After leaving Hollywood for Carmel, California, she and her husband William Durney started the Durney Vineyard brand winery.
- Actor
- Soundtrack
Although his career was short-lived, McPhail was fortunate enough to have appeared in some of the finest musicals and operettas of the late 30s. Jeanette MacDonald took an early interest in this handsome baritone, when he performed in the chorus of San Francisco and other of her pictures. The studio signed him on at nineteen as the back-up for Nelson Eddy in The Girl of the Golden West (1938), although McPhail did not get screen time. His career flared briefly in 1939 and 1940, when he appeared with MacDonald, Judy Garland, Eleanor Powell and future wife Betty Jaynes in a series of musical pictures. Although the studio groomed him as the next Nelson Eddy, it failed to recognize the changing interests of the moviegoing public, who tired of his style of singing. His marriage failed, and he took to drink. Roles dried up, and after an earlier suicide attempt, McPhail succeeded in poisoning himself on December 6, 1944.- Actor
- Stunts
Orphaned at twelve, Sitka caught the acting bug while living with a priest in Pittsburgh. He road the rails as a hobo for years during the Depression before arriving in Hollywood in 1936. Theatre work, including directing, eventually brought him to the attention of a talent scout, who contracted him to Columbia Studios. Famous for his character roles in slapstick comedy (he claims to have appeared in 450 movies), he became a regular in shorts and feature films with the Three Stooges, making thirty-five shorts with the boys before 1958. He holds the further distinction of appearing with each of the six Stooges (Moe, Shemp, and Curly Howard; Larry Fine; Joe Besser; and Joe DeRita). Sitka's most famous role, as a justice of the peace who begins every service with the words, "Hold hands, you love birds", brought him lasting fame among Stooge fans, who would sometimes ask him to repeat the phrase during their own wedding ceremonies.- Actor
- Director
- Writer
Mace was a dentist from Erie, Pennsylvania who at one point did some stage stock work for Mack Sennett. Heading west, he worked for Carl Laemmle and Thomas H. Ince before settling back with Sennett. After achieving success as the Chief of the Keystone Kops, he quit Sennett and opened his own company, trying to develop films around his old "One-Round O'Brien" character. After that didn't work out as he planned, Mace moved to Apollo Films. That was also a failure, and he later formed his own company, the Fred Mace Feature Film Company. Unfortunately, the company folded, and Mace returned to Sennett. By that time, however, his popularity had wained, and Mace received few roles over the next two years. He was ultimately found dead in a New York City hotel room, reportedly of a stroke.- Director
- Editor
- Producer
Born in 1930, Wiseman is a Cambridge, Massachusetts resident and member of the Massachusetts Bar Association who turned to filmmaking in 1967, after years as an instructor and/or researcher at Boston University, Brandeis University, and Harvard. In 1970 he founded Zipporah Films, Inc., which continues to distribute his documentaries. Wiseman has also written and lectured widely on law enforcement issues.- Writer
- Producer
Harold Robbins summed up his career best in a 1971 ITV documentary: "I'm the world's best writer--there's nothing more to say". This phenomenally successful author--over 750,000,000 copies of his books were sold worldwide, and most were adapted successfully for the screen. At fifteen, he left home to begin a series of low-paying jobs, including working as a numbers runner. At twenty, after buying options on farmers' produce, Robbins was a millionaire, but a move into sugar futures wiped him out. He next took a job as a shipping clerk with Universal Pictures warehouse in New York and was soon promoted to executive director for budget and planning. On a bet with a studio executive, Robbins wrote his personal favorite novel, Never Love a Stranger (Knopf, 1948), and other early works which achieved minor critical success. He soon devolved into a writer of more popular novels involving celebrity, sex, and violence, to the scorn of critics. His writings after 1960 reflected his personal life: six marriages, wild Hollywood parties, drug abuse. A stroke in 1982 left him with aphasia, although he continued to write, publishing his last novel, Tycoon, in 1997.- Writer
- Director
Salter is considered one of the finest "writers' writers" in the U.S. in the second half of the 20th century. Born in 1925 in Passaic, NJ, Salter had his work published in _Poetry_ magazine while still in high school. His father, a former West Pointer, convinced him to attend the military institute, from which he graduated in 1945. His exploits as an Air Force fighter pilot are recounted in his memoirs, _Burning the Days_. He started writing while stationed in Honolulu, although his first novel wasn't published until 1956, just before he resigned from the Air Force. Salter has worked only intermittently on films.- Actor
- Producer
- Additional Crew
Born to a large Irish Catholic family (the fifth of nine children) and raised in New York City, Lydon overcame a birth defect and alcoholic father to begin a Broadway career in 1937, acting opposite Van Heflin, Sidney Lumet and Uta Hagen in separate productions. After a number of films with Paramount and RKO, Lydon hit his stride in the "Henry Aldrich" B movie series of the early 1940s. After working increasingly in television in the early 1950s, Lydon turned to production roles, helping to create M*A*S*H (1972) and 77 Sunset Strip (1958). He is still active as a producer and writer.- Producer
- Writer
- Director
Son of Danny Singleton, a mortgage broker, and Sheila Ward, a pharmaceutical company sales executive, and raised in separate households by his unmarried parents, John Singleton attended the Film Writing Program at USC, after graduating from high school in 1986. While studying there, he won three writing awards from the university, which led to a contract with Creative Artists Agency during his sophomore year. Columbia Pictures bought his script for Boyz n the Hood (1991) and budgeted it at $7 million. Singleton noted that much of the story comes from his own experiences in South Central LA and credited his parents with keeping him off the street.- Actor
- Music Department
- Additional Crew
One of the greatest of the transition singers between the crooners and the rockers, Johnnie Ray was the only son of Elmer and Hazel Ray. He was born and raised in Oregon where he loved hiking in nature. He was close with his older sister, sometimes hiking with her. After he became famous, he corrected any reporter who asked him whether he preferred living in Los Angeles or New York. He insisted Oregon always would be his home.
Ray lost a large part of his hearing at age 13 in an accident while at a Boy Scout event. His hearing loss was not known to his immediate family for several months; they knew only that he became more withdrawn. After high school, he began singing locally in a wild, flamboyant style, unlike any other white singer up to that time. At age 25 he became an American sensation. The following year, during his first concert tour of the United Kingdom, Ray started attracting mobs of young people who rioted in front of him. In 1954, at age 27, he became the first American performer to draw crowds in Australia.
Ray's early songs, such as the 1952 45 RPM record, "Cry" / "The Little White Cloud That Cried," were major successes. Following up on that hit single, later the same year (1952) Ray had a #4 United States hit with a cover of the 1930 standard "Walkin' My Baby Back Home." In 1954, he covered The Drifters' R & B hit "Such A Night." Ray's version, released a short time after The Drifters' version, peaked at #18 on the American charts.
In 1954, Johnnie Ray co-starred alongside Marilyn Monroe, Donald O'Connor, Dan Dailey, Mitzi Gaynor and Ethel Merman in the 20th Century Fox film version of There's No Business Like Show Business (1954). Monroe's hatred of the film was widely publicized, and it was a disappointment both at the box office and with critics. After Monroe's premature death, There's No Business Like Show Business (1954) was remembered for her dancing and singing "Heat Wave". Ray's character, Steve Donahue, sings and dances with his family in vaudeville until he surprises them by becoming a Catholic priest. Much later, he returns to the family, explaining that the parish is allowing him to perform with them while wearing clothing that is similar to theirs. Ray never appeared in another A-list motion picture.
His cover of "Just Walkin' In The Rain", which had been composed years earlier by two incarcerated men, rose to #2 on the American charts in December 1956. His last major hit song in the United States came in 1957: "You Don't Owe Me A Thing." His recordings reached many more people in the United Kingdom than in the United States for the next four years.
In 1960, Ray's record label dropped him. Another label signed him in 1961 then dropped him a short time later. He never released another recording. From 1961 until his death in 1990, his popularity could be measured only by the venues where he performed and the number of tickets sold. Ray never played a stadium or large concert hall in the United States again.
In 1987, Ray performed in the relatively small auditorium at El Camino College in Torrance, California, a far cry from the nearby Hollywood Bowl where he had performed on August 27, 1955. Even that far back, according to a Los Angeles Times display ad for the Hollywood Bowl that can be found in the newspaper's August 23 edition in its database, Johnnie Ray was billed as one of six attractions at the "8:30 Pops" concert. (Performers were billed in this order: Johnny Green, Johnnie Ray, Helen O'Connell, Les Baxter, Four Freshmen, Leo Diamond.) It was the only appearance Ray ever made at the Hollywood Bowl.
Ray's brushes with the law during two visits to Detroit (1951 and 1959) resulted from a sting operation that police officers throughout the United States routinely did to apprehend gay men. In the aftermath of the 1951 arrest, Ray pled guilty and paid a fine. He was acquitted of the 1959 charge. Some writers have said Ray's trouble in Detroit may have contributed to a decline in his popularity in his home country. His 1951 arrest, however, was not reported in any newspapers at the time because there was no trial and his career did not take off until a few months later. By the time of his arrest and acquittal at the end of 1959, his career already had slipped considerably.
Other music historians have cited an equally important factor in Ray's fade from public view: an operation he underwent in New York in 1958 that he and his surgeon hoped would restore his hearing. The surgeon botched the procedure and his hearing worsened, thereby making it much harder for him to communicate with musicians who backed him and with record producers and sound engineers. Ray had to deal with the worst fate that could befall a solo performer in the 1960s as younger fans lionized groups that wrote their own songs: Ray no longer introduced new material to concertgoers or record buyers.
During his heyday, Johnnie Ray married a Los Angeles woman named Marilyn Morrison. Newspaper columnist Louella Parsons wrote about the couple many times between 1952 and 1954 as they frequently separated and reconciled, or so the columnists claimed. A biographer speculated decades later that music business bigwigs, which included Morrison's father, had arranged the marriage to divert the public's attention from Ray's alleged homosexuality. But during Ray's declining years, he had to cope with a media cover-up that was even more devastating: columnist Earl Wilson untruthfully reported that Ray's 1958 botched surgery was a total success. As new generations came along, no one in the music business knew or cared why Ray was unable to communicate with musicians and other people he needed for a comeback.
At the same time Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry and Buddy Holly replaced him on the Billboard charts, syndicated columnist Dorothy Kilgallen continued to write about him as if he were still on the A list. New Yorkers who saw them together noticed that they were openly affectionate in public. For many years, they speculated that she was blurring the boundary between her career and personal life, using her column to try to advance Ray's career.
Kilgallen's column as it appeared in the New York Journal-American on September 15, 1965 included a plug for his current show at New York's Latin Quarter nightclub, owned by the father of future star television newscaster Barbara Walters, and it also plugged a gig he had scheduled for October in Las Vegas. Neither Kilgallen nor any other journalist revealed that immediately before the Latin Quarter gig had started, Ray and his new manager lived in Spain for eight months during which time they settled a debt of many thousands of dollars that he owed to the IRS. Ray's manager from the previous decade, Bernie Lang, allegedly had been responsible for the accumulation of the IRS debt, and this presents yet another factor that likely contributed to Ray's disappearance from the public eye. Unlike the trouble that Col. Tom Parker caused Elvis, the way Bernie Lang treated Johnnie Ray has interested few people over the years. Lang was interviewed after Ray's death and maintained his innocence.
Ray had a minor comeback in the United States in the early 1970s, making TV appearances on The Andy Williams Show (1962) and The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (1962). Record labels and songwriters continued to ignore him, however. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, nostalgia for music without electric guitar distortion drew American television viewers to such prime-time shows as Happy Days (1974) and The Love Boat (1977), but Ray never appeared on-camera. His 1950s recordings can be heard playing in the background of two 1974 Happy Days episodes. In 1982, MTV put in heavy rotation the video for "Come On, Eileen" by Dexys Midnight Runners. The opening verse name-checked Johnnie Ray and the video included 28-year-old news footage of emotional girls greeting Ray as he arrived at Heathrow Airport in London. But most of the target audience for the song and especially for the MTV video had never heard of him. They tuned out the black-and-white footage and the lyrics, which Dexys Midnight Runners sang with a heavy English accent. American listeners were clueless about the words that open the song. They were almost unintelligible in the era before Google: "Poor old Johnnie Ray / sounded sad upon the radio, etc."
Ray continued to perform in Las Vegas but attracted much less attention than headliners Frank Sinatra, Wayne Newton and Liberace. His popularity never waned at large concert venues in England, Scotland, and Australia. The summer of 1989 saw Ray headlining and filling up those foreign venues, but when he performed in his beloved Oregon in October of that year, more than half the seats were empty.
Very soon after returning from Oregon, which he said was his actual home, to Los Angeles, where he lived out of necessity, he began showing symptoms of cirrhosis of the liver. His overseas fans didn't have access to this information. The American media now included many more entertainment news outlets than it had in the era when Parsons and Wilson had made a fuss over Ray, but all journalists, including those on Entertainment Tonight, ignored the fact that he was dying.
In 1990, he was hospitalized at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles for three weeks without attracting attention. When he entered an irreversible coma on February 23, 1990, a newspaper wire service finally picked up the story, followed by frequent announcements on CNN until he died the next day. His loyal fans in Europe and Australia had not known he was ill and were shocked and saddened. He was 63.- Writer
- Additional Crew
A niece of critic Burton Rascoe, who often gave her television scripts to read, Judith Rascoe was born and raised in California, attending Stanford University's writing program under Wallace Stegner. Early in her career, she caught the notice of literary critic Mark Schorer, who noted in Esquire magazine that she was one of the most interesting young writers of the early 1970s. Spent a year as a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Bristol and taught school in England for a while. Returned to the US and studied for a brief period at Harvard; she also worked as a reader for Atlantic Monthly at this time. Eventually settled at Yale University as a fiction instructor. Producer Joseph Strick read her story "A Lot of Cowboys" and asked her to write him a screenplay, which became Road Movie, The (1974). Author Robert Stone was so impressed with her literary abilities that he recommended her as screenwriter for the adaption of his novel DOG SOLDIERS, which became Who'll Stop the Rain (1978).- Director
- Actor
- Writer
Acknowledged as the founder of modern Chicano theatre and film, Luis Valdez was born to migrant farm workers Francisco and Armida Valdez and spent his early life traveling with the family, working in the fields himself. He eventually found himself at San Jose State College, where his play "The Shrunken Head of Pancho Villa" was staged in 1964. He later joined the United Farm Workers and staged improvisational theatre with the help of union actors to further their causes. This work lead to the formation of his El Teatro Campesino, which produced most of Valdez' early plays in both the US and Europe. His account of racism in 1940s Los Angeles, Zoot Suit (1981), was released in 1982 to less than critical acclaim. Valdez continued to write and direct throughout the period; his film La Bamba (1987), the tragic story of Chicano singer Ritchie Valens, proved wildly successful and launched the screen careers of Lou Diamond Phillips and Esai Morales. He continues to travel extensively while remaining true to his Chicano theatrical roots.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Born in Norfolk, Virginia to wealthy stockbroker Cornelius Hancock Sullavan and heiress Garland Council Sullavan, Margaret Brooke overcame a muscle weakness in her childhood to go on to become a rebellious teenager at posh private schools. She went on to perform with the University Players at Harvard and made her Broadway debut in Hello, Lola in 1926. Her Christmas Day marriage in 1931 to Henry Fonda lasted only 15 months, and her later marriages to director William Wyler and agent Leland Hayward were also tempestuous. Two of her three children, Bridget and Bill, would spend some time in mental institutions, and commit suicide. Friends noted that the collapse of her family life led to her breakdown. Her condition worsened over time, until she was discovered unconscious from barbiturate poisoning in a hotel room. Her death was ruled accidental by the county coroner.- Actress
- Music Department
- Composer
Daughter of Eva, the Baroness Erisso, and Major Glynn Faithfull, a WWII British spy. Recorded the first song written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, "As Tears Go By" (1964). Involved in a major drug scandal with Jagger, Richards, and others, which ultimately turned public opinion favorably towards the 'Rolling Stones' and other rock groups. In the '70s she became addicted to heroin and was homeless in London's Soho district for a couple of years. Recorded numerous albums in the '80s while struggling with cocaine and alcohol. Has remained sober and productive since.- Actor
- Writer
- Editor
American leading man of silent pictures. Born into affluence in Chicago, he attended the University of Chicago on scholarship and remained there as a professor of psychology and philosophy. A chance visit to the school by actor- manager Donald Robertson led to Sills abandoning his career and joining Robertson's stock company as an actor in 1905. Three years later he went to New York and was an immediate Broadway success. After nearly twenty productions, he was wooed into films by producer William A. Brady. Sills debuted in The Pit (1914) and was just as immediately a success in movies. His stalwart personality and handsome looks brought him a following, and his talent extended to a wide variety of roles in an equally wide variety of genres. Although he free-lanced for many years, working at almost every studio, he signed with First National in 1924 and made a couple dozen films there. Still popular at the advent of sound, he seemed assured of a continued career, but physical, emotional, and financial difficulties disrupted his life in the late 1920s. He died suddenly of a heart attack while playing tennis in 1930 at the age of 48. He was survived by his second wife, actress Doris Kenyon, and his two children.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Attended the Sylvia Young Theatre School (London) before obtaining minor movie and TV parts. Break came on BBC 1 soap opera EastEnders (1985) as "Wicksy", a young man with musical aspirations. Fiction turned to truth when "Every Loser Wins", sung by Berry on one episode, hit the top of the UK charts in 1986. Berry toured the club scene and cut an eponymous album before returning to the series. After leaving EastEnders (1985), Berry assumed a starring role in Heartbeat (1992) as a country constable. His son Louis and wife Rachel Robertson have also appeared on the series.- A popular character actor who played straight man to, among other comic greats, Bob Hope, Milton Berle, Jerry Lewis & Dean Martin, Jack Benny, and Red Skelton, Leeds accompanied Hope on 14 international USO tours. Appeared on Broadway with Mickey Rooney and Ann Miller in "Sugar Babies." Leeds' long television career peaked during the 1950s and 1960s but continued through the 1980s.
- Writer
- Actor
- Producer
The son of a former circus clown turned grocer and a cleaning woman, Red Skelton was introduced to show business at the age of seven by Ed Wynn, at a vaudeville show in Vincennes. At age 10, he left home to travel with a medicine show through the Midwest, and joined the vaudeville circuit at age 15. At age 18, he married Edna Marie Stilwell, an usher who became his vaudeville partner and later his chief writer and manager. He debuted on Broadway and radio in 1937 and on film in 1938. His ex-wife/manager negotiated a seven-year Hollywood contract for him in 1951, the same year The Red Skelton Hour (1951) premiered on NBC. For two decades, until 1971, his show consistently stayed in the top twenty, both on NBC and CBS. His numerous characters, including Clem Kaddiddlehopper, George Appleby, and the seagulls Gertrude and Heathcliffe delighted audiences for decades. First and foremost, he considered himself a clown, although not the greatest, and his paintings of clowns brought in a fortune after he left television. His home life was not completely happy--two divorces and a son Richard who died of leukemia at age nine--and he did not hang around with other comedians. He continued performing live until illness, and he was a longtime supporter of children's charities. Red Skelton died at age 84 of pneumonia in Rancho Mirage, California on September 17, 1997.- Writer
- Script and Continuity Department
Robert E. Sherwood, a brilliant multifaceted writer, was born to Arthur Murray and Rosina Emmet Sherwood, educated at the Milton Academy (Massachusetts) and Harvard, and was wounded while serving with the Canadian Black Watch in WWI. His literary career started with jobs as movie critic at Vanity Fair and Life magazines, but he became a full-time writer with the success of his play "The Road to Rome" in 1927. His first movie writing job came in 1924, rewriting the subtitles for The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923). Over the years he worked with most of the major talents in the film business, including Alexander Korda, George S. Kaufman and Samuel Goldwyn, often working without credit. During WWII Sherwood served in a number of posts, most notably as director of the overseas branch of the Office of War Information (OWI). He resigned in 1944 and returned to film writing, winning an Oscar for his script for The Best Years of Our Lives (1946). Sherwood received numerous literary awards throughout his career, including the Pulitzer Prize in 1936, '39, '41, and '49, and the Bancroft Prize for distinguished writing in American history in 1949.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Born and raised in New York, Storey moved with her then-husband Richard Conte to Los Angeles in the 1950s, where she worked on stage, television, and screen. After her divorce, she earned a master's degree in social welfare from UCLA and co-founded the Center for Human Problems in the Los Angeles area. Eventually she entered private practice, working with many people from the entertainment industry. Her son, Mark Conte, is a film editor.- Actor
- Music Department
- Soundtrack
Born in 1914, raised in Norfolk, Nebraska, Thurl Ravenscroft served as a navigator in the US Army Air Transport Command in World War II before settling in Hollywood. An accomplished singer, he performed with The Sportsmen Quartet, The Mellowmen Quartet, The Johnny Mann Singers, The Norman Luboff Choir, and many major stars, including Jim Nabors and Elvis Presley. He was best known, however, for his mellifluous voice-overs, and he voiced Tony the Tiger in countless advertisements for Kellogg's Frosted Flakes in both English and Spanish. In 1996 he and his wife June retired to southern California, although he still did occasional work as Tony. He died in 2005 of prostate cancer.- Son of Georgia State Supreme Court Judge R.C. Bell, Vereen McNeill Bell was graduated from Davidson College (North Carolina) in 1932 and later studied writing in Louisiana. He served as associate editor of _American Boy/Youth's Companion_ magazine for two years, then became a freelance writer. Volunteered for U.S. Navy duty in 1943. He died in WWII while serving as a lieutenant in the Second Battle of the Philippine Sea. In tribute to his career, the Georgia Legislature renamed the entrance highway to the Okefenokee Swamp the Vereen Bell Memorial Highway. Davidson College currently offers a Vereen Bell Award for creative writing.
- Composer
- Music Department
- Soundtrack
One of the driving forces, both as critic and musician, of 20th century American music, Thomson studied music at both Harvard University and elsewhere in the Boston area before moving to Paris to study with Nadia Boulanger in 1921. After spending a short time in his native land, he returned to Paris and remained there until 1940, working with many of the major composers, writers, and artists of the period, most significantly Gertrude Stein, with whom he wrote the opera "Four Saints in Three Acts" (1927-28). Upon returning to the US, Thomson became the music critic for the NY Herald-Tribune, earning himself a Pulitzer Prize in Music for his score for the film Louisiana Story (1948). Hated by many in the music world for his acerbic criticism, Thomson nevertheless won numerous accolades, including the Legion d'honneur (1947) and the Kennedy Center Honor for lifetime achievement (1983).- Actress in US and UK films of the early 1930s. Born on a farm, Cherrill was discovered by Charles Chaplin while sitting beside him at a boxing match in Los Angeles; he introduced himself at intermission and hired her for her debut in City Lights (1931). She met husband Cary Grant at the premiere of Blonde Venus (1932) and stopped working after their marriage in 1933. At one time, lived in England as the wife of the Earl of Jersey. Finally settled happily in Santa Barbara.
- Actor
- Art Director
- Production Designer
Born in Staunton, Virginia, William Haines ran off to live life on his own terms while still in his teens, moving to New York City and becoming friends with such later Hollywood luminaries as designer Orry-Kelly and Cary Grant. His film career started slowly, but by the end of the silent era he was regularly named as the #1 male box-office draw. He also became fast friends with a number of contemporaries, such as Joan Crawford and Marion Davies, whose fame would eclipse his. His career faded rapidly in the early 1930s, and he was finally released allegedly due to a fight with MGM mogul Louis B. Mayer over Haines' refusal to end his relationship with his lover, Jimmie Shields. However, as his film career ended, his interior design career blossomed, resulting in major work for Jack L. Warner and the Bloomingdales, and culminating in the refurbishing of the American ambassador's residence in London, England. Although Haines was quite open about his homosexuality and entertained many of Hollywood's gay set - including George Cukor and Clifton Webb - his story is missing from many histories of the era. Haines and Shields remained a couple for 50 years; Crawford called them "the happiest married couple in Hollywood."- Son of Edward & Nora Hickey. Best known as the ancient Mafia don in Prizzi's Honor (1985), Hickey had a long, distinguished career in film, television, and the stage. Began career as a child actor on the variety stage. Made Broadway debut as walk-on in George Bernard Shaw's "Saint Joan" (1951 production, starring Uta Hagen). Performed often during the golden age of television, including appearances on Studio One and Philco Playhouse. His most important contribution to the arts, however, remains his teaching career at the HB Studio in Greenwich Village, founded by Hagen and Herbert Berghof. George Segal, Sandy Dennis, and Barbra Streisand all studied under him.