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- Tall, dour-faced and slouch-shouldered character actor Abe Vigoda proved himself in both gritty dramatic roles and as an actor with wonderful comedic timing.
Vigoda was born in Brooklyn, New York, to Lena (Moses) and Samuel Vigoda, a tailor -- both Russian Jewish immigrants. His father was a tailor on the Lower East Side. He made his first stage appearance at the age of 17 and plodded away in small theater shows for over 20 years. For the majority of film-goers, Vigoda first came to prominence in The Godfather (1972) as the double-crossing Tessio, pleading to no avail with Robert Duvall to save his life "for old times' sake". Vigoda had roles in a few nondescript TV films before landing the plum role of the dour, unsmiling, urinary tract-tormented Sgt. Phil Fish on the sitcom Barney Miller (1975), his best-known role. The character of Fish proved popular enough to be spun off to his own (albeit short-lived) series, Fish (1977).
With his long, blank, rarely smiling face, he remained in high demand in mafioso-type roles, and for a while in the mid-1980s, he was mistakenly believed to have been dead, leading a producer to remark, "I need an Abe Vigoda type actor", not realizing Vigoda was still alive. The 1990s and beyond became busy again for Vigoda, making appearances in North (1994), The Misery Brothers (1995), A Brooklyn State of Mind (1998), and Crime Spree (2003). He continued acting into his 90s, surprising audiences with his entertaining style.
Vigoda died in his sleep on January 26, 2016, , a month before his 95th birthday, in suburban Woodland Park, New Jersey. He was interred in Beth David Cemetery in Elmont, New York. - Angela Bruce was born in Leeds to an English mother and Trinidadian father. Despite an inauspicious start in life after her mother was forced to place her in a children's home, where the matron considered her "too coloured" to be adopted, her life changed dramatically at the age of three, when she chose the family she wanted to adopt her.
Bruce grew up as the only black child in a tiny mining village in England's northeast and enjoyed an idyllic rough-and-tumble childhood climbing trees and riding horses. Raised by her adoptive family to be happy in her own skin, she came of age after a Cinderella-like break into show business when the musical Hair came to Newcastle and she was plucked from the audience to dance on stage and later audition for the show, joining the cast ten days later to tour the UK for two years. Soon after that, she joined the original cast of The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975).
Since, then, in an acting career spanning five decades, she has played a myriad of characters on the stage, screen and radio. In 1975 she came to notice as Sandra Ling in the BBC's nursing-themed Angels (1975). Three years later, she was even more prominent as one half of a multiracial extramarital affair, the first of its kind, in Coronation Street (1960). In 2005, fittingly for an actress whose first big part was as a nurse, Bruce took the title role in the acclaimed TV drama-documentary Mary Seacole: The Real Angel of the Crimea (2005). (Mary Seacole being a Jamaican "doctress", a contemporary of Florence Nightingale during the Crimean War who was famous for using herbal remedies to treat British soldiers, and Victorian Britain's first black celebrity.)
Among the many television roles she has played, Bruce is popular among fans for her turns as D.S. Langford in EastEnders (1985), as Janice Stubbs in Coronation Street (1960), as prison warden Mandy Goodhue in Bad Girls (1999), as Brigadier Winifred Bambera in Doctor Who (1963), as Isabel in Takin' Over the Asylum (1994), and as Mrs. Justin in The Ghost Hunter (2000). Her theatre roles include the eponymous heroine in Educating Rita and Polly Peachum in The Threepenny Opera. She presented the BBC educational series Science Challenge and an episode of the BBC Civilisations series about the Roman presence in north-east England. She was made an ambassador for Derwentside, an honour bestowed upon local people who have raised the profile of England's northeast. - Actress
- Additional Crew
Shaindel Kalish's parents were Abraham Kalish, a Jewish producer in the Yiddish Theater, and Esther Naidith. Her father was also a successful comedian, who performed under the name Al Kelly. She attended Marshall High School in Chicago and began her acting career with the Jewish People's Institute, a community center in Chicago founded by her father.
In the 1930s, she appeared in films under the stage name Ann Preston. She married director Charles K. Freeman. She later married Yisrol Paul Mann Libman, an actor/director, and went by the name Jennie Shaludel Libman during this marriage. After leaving Hollywood, she appeared, using the stage name Ann Shepherd, in stage productions, including appearing on Broadway in such plays as Sophie (1944), Truckline Café (1946), and All My Sons (1947).- Actress
- Soundtrack
Raised in a staunchly Catholic home by her Irish mum, the former Kathleen Parke, Anna Quayle had an immediate experience of elements used for her character as 'Reverend Mother Joseph' in Father Charlie (1982). Her acting work also includes many other fine performances in a variety of roles in theatre, cinema and television.- American character actress Anne Ramsey was born Anne Mobley in Omaha, Nebraska to Eleanor (Smith), a national treasurer of the Girl Scouts, and Nathan Mobley, an insurance executive. Her uncle was U.S. Ambassador David S. Smith. An ancestor was Mayflower Pilgrim William Brewster. She attended Rosemary Hall (then an elite girls' school in Greenwich, Connecticut) and Bennington College, and was active in numerous on- and off-Broadway productions. After she married actor Logan Ramsey, the couple founded Philadelphia's Theatre of the Living Arts. In the early 1970s she began her lengthy film career. In 1971 she starred opposite her husband in The Sporting Club (1971), then settled into bit parts.
Eventually, she was noticed for her trademark brusque, gruff, usually comedic roles, after which she received more film offers, notably Goin' South (1978), Any Which Way You Can (1980), The Goonies (1985), and Deadly Friend (1986). Unfortunately, in the mid-1980s she discovered she was suffering from throat cancer and was forced to have parts of both her tongue and jawbone removed, which obviously affected how she spoke and the effects of which are evident in Throw Momma from the Train (1987). She received an Academy Award nomination in 1987 for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Danny DeVito's inimitably nightmarish mother in Throw Momma from the Train (1987) which she managed to finish by bravely soldiering on even as her cancer remorselessly worsened. She died in 1988, aged 59, just weeks after Throw Momma from the Train (1987) was released. - Actor
- Producer
- Director
Anthony Quinn was born Antonio Rodolfo Quinn Oaxaca (some sources indicate Manuel Antonio Rodolfo Quinn Oaxaca) on April 21, 1915, in Chihuahua, Mexico, to Manuela (Oaxaca) and Francisco Quinn, who became an assistant cameraman at a Los Angeles (CA) film studio. His paternal grandfather was Irish, and the rest of his family was Mexican.
After starting life in extremely modest circumstances in Mexico, his family moved to Los Angeles, where he grew up in the Boyle Heights and Echo Park neighborhoods. He played in the band of evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson as a youth and as a deputy preacher. He attended Polytechnic High School and later Belmont High, but eventually dropped out. The young Quinn boxed (which stood him in good stead as a stage actor, when he played Stanley Kowalski in "A Streetcar Named Desire" to rave reviews in Chicago), then later studied architecture under Frank Lloyd Wright at the great architect's studio, Taliesin, in Arizona. Quinn was close to Wright, who encouraged him when he decided to give acting a try. Made his credited film debut in Parole! (1936). After a brief apprenticeship on stage, Quinn hit Hollywood in 1936 and picked up a variety of small roles in several films at Paramount, including an Indian warrior in The Plainsman (1936), which was directed by the man who later became his father-in-law, Cecil B. DeMille.
As a contract player at Paramount, Quinn's roles were mainly ethnic types, such as an Arab chieftain in the Bing Crosby-Bob Hope comedy, Road to Morocco (1942). As a Mexican national (he did not become an American citizen until 1947), he was exempt from the draft. With many other actors in military service during WWII, he was able to move up into better supporting roles. He married DeMille's daughter Katherine DeMille, which afforded him entrance to the top circles of Hollywood society. He became disenchanted with his career and did not renew his Paramount contract despite the advice of others, including his father-in-law, with whom he did not get along (whom Quinn reportedly felt had never accepted him due to his Mexican roots; the two men were also on opposite ends of the political spectrum) but they eventually were able to develop a civil relationship. Quinn returned to the stage to hone his craft. His portrayal of Stanley Kowalski in "A Streetcar Named Desire" in Chicago and on Broadway (where he replaced the legendary Marlon Brando, who is forever associated with the role) made his reputation and boosted his film career when he returned to the movies.
Brando and Elia Kazan, who directed "Streetcar" on Broadway and on film (A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)), were crucial to Quinn's future success. Kazan, knowing the two were potential rivals due to their acclaimed portrayals of Kowalski, cast Quinn as Brando's brother in his biographical film of Mexican revolutionary Emiliano Zapata, Viva Zapata! (1952). Quinn won the Best Supporting Actor Academy Award for 1952, making him the first Mexican-American to win an Oscar. It was not to be his lone appearance in the winner's circle: he won his second Supporting Actor Oscar in 1957 for his portrayal of Paul Gauguin in Vincente Minnelli's biographical film of Vincent van Gogh, Lust for Life (1956), opposite Kirk Douglas. Over the next decade Quinn lived in Italy and became a major figure in world cinema, as many studios shot films in Italy to take advantage of the lower costs ("runaway production" had battered the industry since its beginnings in the New York/New Jersey area in the 1910s). He appeared in several Italian films, giving one of his greatest performances as the circus strongman who brutalizes the sweet soul played by Giulietta Masina in her husband Federico Fellini's masterpiece The Road (1954). He met his second wife, Jolanda Addolori, a wardrobe assistant, while he was in Rome filming Barabbas (1961).
Alternating between Europe and Hollywood, Quinn built his reputation and entered the front rank of character actors and character leads. He received his third Oscar nomination (and first for Best Actor) for George Cukor's Wild Is the Wind (1957). He played a Greek resistance fighter against the Nazi occupation in the monster hit The Guns of Navarone (1961) and received kudos for his portrayal of a once-great boxer on his way down in Rod Serling's Requiem for a Heavyweight (1962). He went back to playing ethnic roles, such as an Arab warlord in David Lean's masterpiece Lawrence of Arabia (1962), and he played the eponymous lead in the "sword-and-sandal" blockbuster Barabbas (1961). Two years later, he reached the zenith of his career, playing Zorba the Greek in the film of the same name (a.k.a. Zorba the Greek (1964)), which brought him his fourth, and last, Oscar nomination as Best Actor. The 1960s were kind to him: he played character leads in such major films as The Shoes of the Fisherman (1968) and The Secret of Santa Vittoria (1969). However, his appearance in the title role in the film adaptation of John Fowles' novel, The Magus (1968), did nothing to save the film, which was one of that decade's notorious turkeys.
In the 1960s, Quinn told Life magazine that he would fight against typecasting. Unfortunately, the following decade saw him slip back into playing ethnic types again, in such critical bombs as The Greek Tycoon (1978). He starred as the Hispanic mayor of a southwestern city on the short-lived television series The Man and the City (1971), but his career lost its momentum during the 1970s. Aside from playing a thinly disguised Aristotle Onassis in the cinematic roman-a-clef The Greek Tycoon (1978), his other major roles of the decade were as Hamza in the controversial The Message (1976) (a.k.a. "Mohammad, Messenger of God"); as the Italian patriarch in The Inheritance (1976); yet another Arab in Caravans (1978); and as a Mexican patriarch in The Children of Sanchez (1978). In 1983, he reprised his most famous role, Zorba the Greek, on Broadway in the revival of the musical "Zorba" for 362 performances (opposite Lila Kedrova, who had also appeared in the film, and won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her performance). His career slowed during the 1990s but he continued to work steadily in films and television, including an appearance with frequent film co-star Maureen O'Hara in Only the Lonely (1991).
Quinn lived out the latter years of his life in Bristol, Rhode Island, where he spent most of his time painting and sculpting. Beginning in 1982, he held numerous major exhibitions in cities such as Vienna, Paris, and Seoul. He died in a hospital in Boston at age 86 from pneumonia and respiratory failure linked to his battle with throat cancer.- Actor
- Stunts
- Producer
Born in Hailey, Idaho to Salvatore and Nancy Vitale, Anthony Vitale moved with his family in 1969 to Southern California.
He graduated in 1983 from Reed High School in Long Beach with 2 scholarships for English journalism, one from the Los Angeles Times and the other from the Rotary Club of Long Beach.
He briefly attended Long Beach Community College, pursuing an art career. He then became a marine carpenter. In 2006, aged 40, his love for the arts led him to Hollywood to fulfill his passion for acting.- A follower of Parnell who became disillusioned with parliamentary politics after Parnell's death, Arthur Griffith went to South Africa, and returned to Ireland to found the radical political party Sinn Fein around 1903 or 1904. Rumoured to have beaten a right-wing French newspaper publisher with a horse whip over slights/affronts to Maud Gonne. Died at 50, apparently of stress-related ill health, in 1922 only 10 days before Michael Collins was killed, after seeing Sinn Fein's reach the pinnacle of political power in post World War I southern (Roman Catholic Nationalist) Ireland.
- Actress
- Soundtrack
As a singer of light opera, Bernice Claire could be called the trailblazer for Jeanette MacDonald. In the year 1930, Claire and Alexander Gray were "the" operetta duo of talking pictures.
Bernice Claire Jahnigen was born March 22, 1909 in Oakland, California, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Adolph Jahnigen (later mistranscribed as Jahnigan). Her distinguished Castlemont High Schoolteacher, Alice Eggers, favorably influenced Bernice. It was Eggers who persuaded Bernice to audition for orchestra leader Emil Polak, who led theatre and radio orchestras in San Francisco at that time. Claire's publicist would later fabricate a teacher-student relationship between Claire and opera great Maria Jeritza. She possessed a remarkably clear and pure coloratura voice and had no difficulty singing demanding roles such as Victor Herbert's "Mlle Modiste," in which she starred in a school production.
She moved to New York in the 1920s, where she met singer Alexander Gray, a veteran of the Ziegfeld Follies. Together they co-starred in operettas such as "The Desert Song." Around 1929 Mr. Gray asked her to accompany him to a screen test for First National-Vitaphone at the time the studios were hastily converting to sound, and bolstering their music departments. The producers liked the team so much, they were both signed. Gray was signed to co-star with Marilyn Miller in "Sunny," and Claire was assigned the starring role in the first screen version of No, No, Nanette (1930). They both moved to Hollywood. Within little more than one year, Bernice Claire made the first screen versions of such hits as "Mlle Modiste" (released as Kiss Me Again (1931)), Spring Is Here (1930) (in which she sings "With a Song in My Heart"), The Song of the Flame (1930) and an original film musical Top Speed (1930) starring Joe E. Brown. When the studios determined that musicals had lost their drawing power, Claire was given a very different role in the prison drama Numbered Men (1930), directed by Mervyn LeRoy. Her co-star was Conrad Nagel. By 1932 Claire returned to New York radio and appeared with many prestigious orchestras, including Rudy Vallee, Erno Rapee and others. Her apartment was located at number 2 West 67th Street, just off Central Park West. The Vitaphone Company continued to use Claire's talent in film shorts, such as The Red Shadow (1932), based on "The Desert Song," with Alexander Gray. In 1934 she co-starred in The Flame Song (1934) with J. Harold Murray in an abbreviated version of The Song of the Flame (1930) (which she had made as a feature in 1930). She also toured in vaudeville and played roles in comedies and operettas, such as "Her Master's Voice." In 1933 she and Alexander Gray sang a duet in Universal's Moonlight and Pretzels (1933). In 1935 Claire co-starred in a British musical film Two Hearts in Harmony (1935), co-starring George Curzon. In the 1930s, her days and nights were occupied with radio and special appearances, including the 1935 San Diego Exposition. In 1937 she was elected "Miss Perfume for 1937" by delegates to the Perfume and Cosmetics Buyers Conference at the Hotel Roosevelt.
With her new dog, named "Jimmy Walker," she moved to a new apartment at 162 East 86th Street in the Upper East Side. On WABC she appeared with Frank Munn in 1935, accompanied by Gustave Haenschen's Orchestra. The following year she was on "Melodiana" for station WJZ. Instead of her being cover girl for the movie magazines, now she appeared on the covers of radio magazines, such as "Tower Radio." Throughout the country, Claire starred in numerous revivals, such as "The Chocolate Soldier," "Naughty Marietta" (Grand Rapids Municipal Opera), "The Fortune Teller," "Robin Hood," "The Firefly," "The Pink Lady," and "Salute to Spring" by Richard Berger (St. Louis Municipal Stadium).
In October 1938, when Rodgers and Hart's "I Married an Angel" was produced in Sydney, Australia, Bernice Claire played the role of Countess Peggy, which was originated by Vivienne Segal on Broadway. She returned to Australia the next year to perform "The Waltz Dream." Back in the U.S.A. she played Lorna Moon, opposite Eric Linden, in "Golden Boy." Into the 1940s Bernice continued to play leading ladies in such crowd-pleasing shows as "Irene" and "The Firefly."
When her first husband died, she felt unable to continue her performing. She and her second husband, Douglas Morris, owned property in southern California, including convalescent homes. During the 1970s and '80s Bernice was honored by local film societies in the San Francisco Bay Area. When her health deteriorated she quietly left her social and professional circles for retirement.- Actress
- Director
- Soundtrack
Actress, singer, director, producer, musician and writer, Bibi Ferreira was considered the Grand Dame of Brazilian stage. She sang, acted, directed and produced during her 72 year career. Born Abigail Izquierdo Ferreira on June 1, 1922, in Rio de Janeiro, her father was actor Procópio Ferreira and her mother was Spanish ballerina Aída Izquierdo.
Bibi was first seen on stage at just 24 days old, replacing a doll in the play Manhãs de Sol (Sunny Mornings) by Oduvaldo Viana. As a young child Bibi traveled with her mother throughout Latin America as part of the Companhia Velasco troupe of Spanish revues. At age three she was already singing and dancing on stage, becoming known as "la niña de Velasco". Her professional stage debut was at age 18 in the Italian play La Locandiera by Carlo Goldoni. Five years later she started her own theater company, Companhia de Comédias Bibi Ferreira.
During the 1950s she took her company to Portugal and performed throughout the country for five years. In the 1960s and 1970s Bibi hosted several television shows, such as Brasil 60, Brasil 61, Bibi ao Vivo, Bibi Especial, Brasil 78, and Brasil 79, just to name a few. She was boldly innovative and helped in shaping the format of studio audience shows. She hosted the television show Curso de Alfabetização para Adultos (Literacy Course for Adults), which taught more than 30,000 people in Brazil. For this she was awarded "Best Communicator" at Tokyo's International Culture Festival. Bibi was featured in the first live satellite transmission to Brazil, a television broadcast of the 1972 Academy Awards. During the 1960s, Bibi brought Broadway's biggest musicals to Brazil including My Fair Lady, Hello, Dolly!, and Man of La Mancha.
In 1975 she debuted the iconic play Gota d'Água (A Drop of Water) by singer-songwriter Chico Buarque and Paulo Pontes. Another hallmark was 1983's Piaf-A Vida de uma Estrela da Canção (based on Piaf, written by British playwright Pam Gems), in which Bibi interpreted and sang Edith Piaf's famous repertoire. She performed Bibi Canta e Conta Piaf (Bibi Sings and Tells Piaf) in her shows. Her success in performing this work for more than 30 years all over the world has earned her the French government's highest artistic accolade, the Orde des Arts et des Lettres, twice (in 1985 and 2009). Bibi Canta e Conta Piaf was recorded at Teatro Maison de France in Rio de Janeiro in 2004 and released on DVD. Renowned French photographer Hughes Vassal, who captured Piaf's final years, heard Bibi perform and declared she was "the only artist capable of reliving the dramatic emotions of Edith Piaf."
During the 1990s, Bibi maintained a busy schedule of performances, singing such orchestral concerts as Bibi in Concert and Bibi in Concert II-Entertainer throughout Brazil and Europe. She was a highly praised director of concerts, operas, and plays. Many acclaimed Brazilian names performed under her direction, such as Maria Bethânia, Elizeth Cardoso, Clara Nunes, and Roberta Miranda. During a performances of Piaf-Uma Estrela da Canção, the Portuguese fado legend Amália Rodrigues saw Bibi and asked if she would portray Amália on stage. In 2001, at her 60th career anniversary celebration, Bibi performed Bibi Vive Amália (Bibi Lives Amália), singing the Portuguese fadista's greatest works. The production was an absolute triumph among critics and audiences alike in Brazil and Portugal. Bibi was the subject at Rio de Janeiro Carnival in 2003. She was honored by one of the samba schools, Unidos da Viradouro, where Brazilian artists paraded in her honor.
In 2004, she performed Bibi in Concert III-Pop. The play As Favas com os Escrúpulos, written by Juca de Oliveira and directed by Jô Soares, marked her return to spoken comedy after 54 years performing musicals. It performed to more than 300,000 people during its four year run. In 2010, she performed in De Pixinguinha a Noel, passando por Gardel (From Pixinguinha to Noel going through Gardel). She was featured alongside the renowned tango orchestra El Arranque at sold-out performances in Buenos Aires, São Paulo, and Rio de Janeiro. According to the Argentinean newspaper La Nación, Bibi "left the city teaching us how to sing the tango." She recorded the album Bibi Ferreira and Miguel Proença Tangos, containing the most treasured tangos from her childhood memories. In 2011, she recorded the album Bibi Ferreira Brasileira - uma suíte amorosa, in which she sang Brazilian popular music classics. In 2012 she recorded the album Bibi Ferreira-Natal em família (Bibi Ferreira-Christmas in Family), a collection of popular Christmas songs. Bibi Histórias e Canções (Bibi, Stories and Songs), was a celebration of her 72- year career and 90th birthday celebration, where she sang and shared stories highlighting her life and career. On April 14, 2013, she presented Bibi in Concert at Lincoln Center in New York.- Actor
- Producer
- Writer
Drago was well known for his villainous parts (leading or supporting), and his rugged yet scary looks and evil smile. He was born William Eugene Burrows in Hugoton, Kansas. He became interested in acting and took his mother's maiden name "Drago" as a stage name. At first he worked as a stuntman in Kansas, then attended the University of Kansas. After graduating he worked as a radio host before joining an acting crew that led him to New York. He began his acting career at the end of 1970s.
After appearing in multiple TV series as a guest actor, he appeared in such low-budget films as: Windwalker (1980), Vamp (1986), Hunter's Blood (1986), Freeway (1988), Dark Before Dawn (1988), Gwang tin lung fo wooi (1989), True Blood (1989), Martial Law II: Undercover (1991), Lady Dragon 2 (1993) and Cyborg 2: Glass Shadow (1993). He also appeared in Walker, Texas Ranger (1993). Other well-known appearances were in: Mad Dog Time (1996), Tremors 4: The Legend Begins (2004) and The Hills Have Eyes (2006) (the remake), as the leader of mutant nomads. He did an extensive work on TV, most notably on Charmed (1998). He also produced an instructional acting video with his wife, Silvana Gallardo.- Actor
- Producer
- Director
Cary Elwes was born in Westminster, London, England, the third son of interior designer/shipping heiress Tessa Georgina Kennedy and the late portrait painter Bede Evelyn Dominick Elwes. He is the brother of producer/agent Cassian Elwes and artist Damian Elwes. He was raised in London and attended Harrow. After graduating from Harrow, he moved to the US and studied drama at Sarah Lawrence College. He left school after two years to begin his film career. Cary is well respected by colleagues and fans alike and considered by many to be one of the finest actors working today. He is interested in history and says, "It's deliberate that a lot of my films have been period pieces". He is politically active for causes he believes in, such as protecting the environment and helping Native American people.
Elwes is married to Lisa Marie Kurbikoff, a stills photographer. He comes from a long-established recusant English family on his father's side. Several prominent Catholic clerics are among his relatives, including Fr. Luke Cary-Elwes, Dom Columba Cary-Elwes, and Dom Cuthbert Cary-Elwes. His grandfather was society painter and war artist Simon Elwes. Cary (the surname "Cary-Elwes" was shortened to "Elwes" in some branches of the family) was an altar boy at London's Brompton Oratory, although he did not attend a Catholic high school. From his maternal grandmother, Daska Marija Ivanovic-Banac, who was born in Osijek in the Austra-Hungarian Empire (now in Croatia), he has Croatian Jewish and Serbian ancestry. Cary's other lineage is English, Irish, and Scottish.- Christina Jastrzembska is of Polish descent and resides in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. She was born in 1948 in West Germany to Boryslaw and Natalia Jastrzembski. In 1952, her parents relocated the family to Jersey City, New Jersey to start a new life after World War II. Her parents owned a corner store and she attended James J. Ferris High School in Jersey City (Class of 1966). She graduated from St. Peter's College (Class of 1970) with a degree in psychology.
In 1972, she moved to Canada, where she began an acting career which has lasted over 30 years. She has performed across Canada in television, commercials, cartoons, feature films, and on stage. Her television credits include Van Helsing (2016), The Guard (2008), Flash Gordon: A Modern Space Opera (2007), Stargate Universe (2009), and Little House on the Prairie (2005). She appeared in such films as Ill Fated (2004), The Twilight Saga: New Moon (2009), and The Beast of Bottomless Lake (2010). - Claudette Sutherland began her long theatrical and television career in musical comedy originating in 1961, at age 22, the role of "Smitty" in the long-running smash hit musical "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying", opposite stars Robert Morse and Bonnie Scott. As a writer, she wrote and performed DOG MAN, a personal history produced by Joe Stern at the Matrix Theatre in Los Angeles. She has contributed to Los Angeles Magazine, is a member of PEN West, and recently facilitated a UCLA Ethics Writing Retreat for healthcare professionals. She teaches Creative Writing in the BFA critical studies program at AMDA-Los Angeles.
- Daniel McDonald was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania, the youngest of seven siblings. A life member of the Actors Studio, he has also studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) in London, with Paul Curtis of the American Mime Company, and with famed acting teacher Sanford Meisner. Active on television and on stage, he married Mujah Maraini-Melehi in 1999. Daniel McDonald died on February 15, 2007, aged 46, from brain cancer.
- Actress
- Producer
- Executive
Danneel Ackles (born Elta Danneel Graul, she went by Danneel Harris professionally until after her marriage to Jensen Ackles) was born on March 18, 1979, in Lafayette, Louisiana is an American actress and model. The name "Danneel" was inspired by Danneel Street in New Orleans. She is known for her roles as Shannon McBain on the American daytime soap opera One Life to Live (1968) and as Rachel Gatina on the WB/CW television drama series One Tree Hill (2003).
Graul/Ackles was born and raised in Louisiana before moving to Los Angeles to study acting. She did some modeling work and in 2004 landed a role in the small independent film The Plight of Clownana (2004), a film was co-produced by her husband. She also had guest roles in a number of TV series, and a recurring role as Rachel on the CW's One Tree Hill (2003).
She has appeared in episodes of a number of TV Shows including, NCIS, CSI and How I Met Your Mother. Her other films include Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay (2008), A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas (2011), and Fired Up! (2009). Danneel co-starred with Jensen in Ten Inch Hero (2007) which they filmed in 2006. n May 2009, Harris was announced to have been cast in the Screen Gems Thriller film, The Roommate (2011).- Actor
- Producer
- Director
David Nelson was born on October 24, 1936 in New York City to Ozzie Nelson and Harriet Nelson. He attended Hollywood High School. He later was a film producer (The Nelson Co.) and director, who directed several episodes of The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet (1952).
Nelson had two sons with his first wife, June Blair. Daniel Blair Nelson was born on August 20, 1962 and James Eric Nelson was born June 8, 1966. After that marriage ended in divorce, he remarried to Yvonne O'Connor Huston in 1975, adopting her three children.
His stepdaughter Teri Nelson Carpenter was once married to game show host Chuck Woolery. His twin nephews Matthew and Gunnar, perform as The Nelsons. Matthew Nelson performs with Red37 and Gunnar Nelson is a radio host. His niece, Tracy Nelson, is an accomplished actress.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Deborah Gaye Van Valkenburgh is a Schenectady, New York-born Los Angeles-based actress, singer, artist, and writer working in all manner of media. She graduated from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York, with a BFA in Painting & Drawing. As a teen in Upstate New York she performed in coffee houses with the folk band Spur Of The Moment. During college she sang locally in a duo popularly known as "The Myrtle Avenue Watermelon".
She made her professional debut on Broadway in the revival of the musical "Hair". This was swiftly followed by a memorable performance as "Mercy" in Walter Hill's cult classic film The Warriors (1979), then for five years as "Jackie Rush" on the hit TV sitcom Too Close for Comfort (1980) as one of the daughters of a couple played by Ted Knight and Nancy Dussault.
She has since appeared in a wide array of stages across the country performing in such notable venues as TOSOS, Geva Theatre Center, Manhattan Theatre Club, San Diego REP, The Old Globe Theatre, South Coast REP, The Blank Theatre Company, The Matrix, The Odyssey Theatre Ensemble, LATC, Arizona Theatre Company and Portland Center Stage. Acclaimed Productions include Amy and David Sedaris's The Book Of Liz, Steve Martin's Picasso At The Lapin Agile, Ruby's Bucket O'Blood (world premiere), The Beauty Queen Of Leenane, Dancing At Lughnasa, Burn This, The Goat, Company, Tamara, The Heidi Chronicles, Pump Boys & Dinettes, and Livin' Dolls.
She continued her musical escapades in the early 1990s as a featured vocalist for Peter Tork: A Likely Story and acoustic band DB House at a variety of legendary clubs like The Roxy, At My Place and Coconut Teaszer. She completed work on Shirlyn Wong's short film Love's Routine (2013), which starred Willem Dafoe.- Actress
- Additional Crew
Diora Baird is an actress and former model. Born in Miami, Florida, she first entered into acting after her mother enrolled her into acting class. She had the dream of becoming an actress from her early childhood. To pursue the career in acting she moved to Los Angeles when she was only 17. She worked various jobs including waitress before entering the modeling industry, garnering fame when she appeared on the cover of Playboy magazine in the August 2005 issue.- Dolores Albin was a dancer, singer, and comedian. Starting in 1916 (at the age of 10), Dolores performed in a vaudeville song and dance act in Chicago. After her family moved to Los Angeles, she became part of "Dolores and Eddy", a vaudeville act booked through the Fanchon and Marco circuit. Later, Dolores was part of the three-person Adagio Act, where she was thrown between two men as part of the dance act. The group performed with the Paramount Publix Units, playing Paramount Theatres all over the country.
- Actress
- Soundtrack
Dorothy Ford was born April 4, 1922 and raised in San Francisco and Santa Barbara, California, as well as in Tucson, Arizona. During school she appeared in several pageants, and after graduation went into modeling. Standing 6'2" and with measurements of 38-26-38-1/2, she was a natural for photographic work.
Her first job was in San Francisco when Billy Rose cast her in his "Aquacade", along with Johnny Weissmuller, and she was an Earl Carroll showgirl, appearing in various revues including "Something to Shout About" and "Star Spangled Glamour". Ford caught the attention of casting agents, and made her screen debut as a model in Lady in the Dark (1944). MGM put her under contract in 1943, casting her in two musicals, Thousands Cheer (1943) (with Red Skelton) and Broadway Rhythm (1944). Her other appearances that year included Two Girls and a Sailor (1944), Meet the People (1944), Bathing Beauty (1944) and The Thin Man Goes Home (1944). She was seen in The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945) as part of an onscreen performing act and in King Vidor's An American Romance (1944) before she left MGM in 1945.
Dorothy studied at the Actors' Lab, the West Coast version of New York City's Group Theater. She had a much fuller role in her Universal Pictures' debut with Bud Abbott and Lou Costello in Here Come the Co-eds (1945), which finally gave her a chance to really act. Playing the captain of a women's basketball team appearing as ringers in a college game, she exuded a bold confidence as well as a shy streak, and stole every scene she was in. She briefly returned to modeling in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, as part of South America's first post-war fashion show. It was there that she met Gen. Mark W. Clark, who testified that "this is the first girl I've ever seen who could go bear hunting armed with a switch."
In 1946, she returned to MGM and appeared in Love Laughs at Andy Hardy (1946), playing a co-ed who doesn't have a date for the college dance and is unexpectedly matched up with Mickey Rooney. The height difference between Ford and the 5'2" Rooney made for laughs at the homecoming dance, which was the highlight of the film. This was her first major role to play off her height; she wore four-inch heels and publicity stills from the studio listed her height as 6'6". By that time she was often referred to in press releases as a "Glamazon". She was outspoken in advising other tall women that "if nature has made you tall, then be good and tall." During the 1940s, when actresses between 5'8" and 5'10", such as Maureen O'Hara, Ingrid Bergman, Alexis Smith, Angela Lansbury, and Marie Windsor, were regarded as formidable, Ford -- at 6'2" and 145 pounds -- was regarded as one of the most striking women in Hollywood.
Ford appeared in a New York stage production of "The Big People" (which played off her height in a positive way). In 1948, she was back in Hollywood in an unusual independently-made anthology film, On Our Merry Way (1948). In 1949, she was cast in John Ford's 3 Godfathers (1948) playing the potential love interest of John Wayne. That same year she married James Sterling in Las Vegas. However, just over a month later she obtained an annulment in Ventura, California on the grounds that they were both drunk at the time. Her Superior Court suit said the two never lived together after the rites and that she didn't know she was a bride until two days after the ceremony. Sterling did not contest the suit.
As the 1950s began, Ford's career slowed down and her biggest role of the decade came in the Abbott & Costello fantasy-comedy, Jack and the Beanstalk (1952). Evidently, Costello liked Ford and appreciated her sense of humor, because he later included her in an episode of The Abbott and Costello Show (1952). She made various television appearances throughout the 1950s, including "The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet" and "The Red Skelton Show". In April 1952, aged 30, she married Thomas B. Chambers, an automobile sales manager and tennis star. In 1953, she became pregnant, but was hospitalized after losing the baby. She and Chambers divorced the following year.
After an appearance in The Bowery Boys vehicle Feudin' Fools (1952), Ford's screen career started to wind down, but her remaining roles were in some surprisingly high-visibility films. John Wayne cast her in a small role in The High and the Mighty (1954) as a glamour girl with her hooks into 'Phil Harris', and Billy Wilder used her in the opening segment of The Seven Year Itch (1955). Dorothy appeared in several lower-budget films over the next few years, then faded out of movies in 1962 but remained involved with the movie business even after giving up acting, joining MGM as a technician in the studio's film lab in 1965. She was married for 30 years to actor Mike Ragan (born Hollis Alan Bane); they retired to Marina Del Rey, California until his death in 1995. She died in Canoga Park, California on October 15, 2010 at the age of 88.- Actor
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Douglas Fairbanks was born Douglas Elton Thomas Ullman in Denver, Colorado, to Ella Adelaide (nee Marsh) and Hezekiah Charles Ullman, an attorney and native of Pennsylvania, who was a captain for the Union forces during the Civil War. Fairbanks' paternal grandparents were German Jewish immigrants, while his mother, a Southerner with roots in Louisiana and Georgia, was of British Isles descent. From the age of five he was raised by his mother due to her husband's abandonment. She changed her sons' surnames to Fairbanks (her former husband's surname) and covered up their paternal Jewish ancestry.
He began amateur theater at age 12 and continued while attending the Colorado School of Mines. In 1900 they moved to New York. He attended Harvard, traveled to Europe, worked on a cattle freighter, in a hardware store and as a clerk on Wall Street. He made his Broadway debut in 1902 and five years later left theater to marry an industrialist's daughter.
He returned when his father-in-law went broke the next year. In 1915, he went to Hollywood and worked under a reluctant D.W. Griffith. The following year he formed his own production company. During a Liberty Bond tour with Charles Chaplin he fell in love with Mary Pickford with whom he, Chaplin and Griffith had formed United Artists in 1919. He made very successful early social comedies, then highly popular swashbucklers during the 'twenties. The owners of Hollywood's Pickfair Mansion separated in 1933 and divorced in 1936. In March 1936, he married and retired from acting.- Actress
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British stage and film actress Elizabeth Allan was born in Skegness, Lincolnshire. She made her stage debut at the age of 17; her movie debut came about four years later with an appearance in the Hercule Poirot mystery Alibi (1931).
At the beginning of her career, Allan mainly appeared in films for Julius Hagen's Twickenham Studios, but later signed a contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. 1935 was a good year for the actress, with roles in two Charles Dickens adaptations: - David Copperfield (1935) and A Tale of Two Cities (1935) - and the star-studded horror Mark of the Vampire (1935).
Allan's relationship with MGM became strained after they announced her for a leading part in The Citadel (1938), only to then replace her with Rosalind Russell. Not long following this incident, Allan was again replaced in a successful picture, this time by Greer Garson in Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939). This was the final straw for Allan, and she successfully sued the studio, thus terminating her contract with them.
By the 1950s, Allan was taking on character roles. Notable movies of this period include No Highway in the Sky (1951), The Heart of the Matter (1953), and The Haunted Strangler (1958) (which turned out to be her final film). She also appeared on the UK version of the game show What's My Line (1951) as a panelist, which got her awarded with Great Britain's Top Female TV Personality of 1952.
Allan was married to agent Wilfred O'Bryen from 1932 to his death in 1977. She passed away on July 27, 1990 at the age of 80.- Ernestine Gilbreth Carey was born in 1908 in New York City and graduated as an English major from Smith College. In 1930, soon after graduation, she began fourteen years of New York City department store buying and management. Meanwhile, she married and had two children. A writer and lecturer, she has authored and coauthored seven books, including Belles on Their Toes (with Frank Gilbreth Jr.), Jumping jupiter, Rings Around Us, and Giddy Moment. In 1950 she was co-recipient (with her brother) of the French International Humor Award for Cheaper by the Dozen.
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- Producer
Fernández is an award-winning actor and writer. Born and raised in East Los Angeles, she attended Garfield High School, East L.A. College and Cal State University, Los Angeles, While at Cal State, she found her niche in Chicano Theater. Fernandez starred in film roles with Edward James Olmos, Paul Rodriguez, and Cheech Marin (in A Million to Juan (1994)) and in Luminarias (1999) (with Scott Bakula, Robert Beltran, and Cheech Marin). She was nominated for a Desi Award and is a recipient of Nosotros's Golden Eagle Award for her portrayal of Julie in American Me (1992) and the Alma Award for Hollywood Confidential (1997) . She won the Best Actress award at the Ibero-American International Film Festival in Huelva, Spain for her performance in Luminarias (1999) and her second Golden Eagle Award for Outstanding Writer for Luminarias (1999).
Fernández's professional acting career began in Luis Valdez's Zoot Suit as Della, the female lead in the original stage production at the Mark Taper Forum. After Zoot Suit, she toured nationally and internationally with El Teatro de la Esperanza. Among her many appearances she has performed at the New York Shakespeare Festival and the Denver Center for the Performing Arts. A founding member of the Latino Theater Company (LTC), Fernández acted in several productions at the Los Angeles Theatre Center, including La Victima, King Lear, Etta Jenks, Roosters, Stone Wedding, August 29 (which she co-wrote and starred in with members of LTC) and the stage production of Luminarias.
Fernández's writing credits also include the plays Premeditation and How Else Am I Supposed To Know I'm Still Alive, the latter which has been produced throughout the U.S. and adapted into an award-winning film for the Universal Hispanic Film Project (CineFestival Special Jury Award). Her screenwriting credits include East Los High (2013) and Luminarias (1999). She is adapting her stage play, Dementia (commissioned by the Mark Taper Forum), for the big screen.
She is also a poet and a motivational speaker, performing and speaking in schools and community centers throughout California and the Southwest. She and her husband, José Luis Valenzuela, Artistic Director of the Latino Theater Company and Professor of Drama at UCLA, have two children. They reside in East Los Angeles.- Actress
- Director
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Florence Stanley was born Florence Schwartz on July 1, 1924 in Chicago. She enjoyed a prolific career in the theatre before achieving fame on television as Abe Vigoda's long-suffering, neglected wife, Bernice, on Barney Miller (1975), and later, as Bernice Fish in the short-lived spinoff Fish (1977). Other notable performances include small roles in, Robert Mulligan's Up the Down Staircase (1967), Mike Nichols's The Day of the Dolphin (1973), and The Fortune (1975).- Frances Marion Neal was born on June 27, 1920 in Carrollton, Mississippi. The daughter of Homer Neal, an army surgeon, and his wife, Charlotte (nee Server) Neal, she grew up in Texas. She began a modeling career at age 15 and landed a part in "George White's Scandals of '40" on Broadway.
After moving to Los Angeles, Neal was signed by RKO and made her debut in a small part in "Citizen Kane." She became the second wife of actor Van Heflin on May 16, 1942, and was the mother of Kate, Vana, and Tracy Heflin. She and Heflin divorced in 1967 after 25 years of marriage. - Actor
- Stunts
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Gattlin Griffith began auditioning at the tender age of seven years old. His first attempt at acting followed in the footsteps of his father, stuntman Tad Griffith, when he auditioned for a commercial role requiring stunt work. While he did not get that part, Gattlin did catch the eye of the casting director who had him audition for a national commercial for Yamaha motorbikes. Gattlin got the part and soon after booked a series of television commercials for Home Depot. Following that, his first TV series appearance came on Untold Stories of the ER (2004) in 2006 and his career took off from there. He went on to appear in hit television shows such as Cold Case (2003), How I Met Your Mother (2005), Monk (2002), Supernatural (2005), and Criminal Minds (2005).
Griffith made his feature film debut opposite Angelina Jolie in the Academy Award nominated film Changeling (2008). To date, Gattlin has appeared in nearly a dozen films, most notably: "Couples Retreat" for Universal Pictures opposite Vince Vaughn, "The New Daughter" with Kevin Costner for Mandate Pictures, and "Green Lantern" opposite Tim Robbins for Warner Brothers. When he's not acting, Gattlin is an accomplished equestrian gymnast and 4th generation trick rider whose grandparents, Dick and Connie Griffith, are in the Pro Rodeo, National Cowboy and Cowgirl Halls of Fame. His first exhibition rodeo was in January 2012 at the Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo with his younger brothers, Callder, Arrden, and Garrison.- Executive
She attended the University of California, Berkeley, and graduated from UCLA. As Gayle Ann Rosenbluth, she joined the William Morris Agency in 1975 as an agent in the theater department. She worked in the motion picture department before becoming V.P. of the television sector.- Actress
- Music Department
- Executive
Ja'Net DuBois was a multi-talented and diverse performer. She grew up in Brooklyn, New York and began her career on Broadway. She has appeared in various plays, including "Golden Boy" with Sammy Davis Jr. and Louis Gossett Jr., and "A Raisin in the Sun". She moved onto TV roles, receiving a Peabody Award for a 1969 CBS children's movie J.T. (1969). She then appeared in a daytime serial, Love of Life (1951); she is the first African American actress to have a regular serial role.
She was best known for her role as the sexy, confident, gossipy "Willona Woods" on Good Times (1974). She composed and sang the theme song, "Movin' On Up", for another Norman Lear series, The Jeffersons (1975). She appeared in many films, including the blaxploitation parody, I'm Gonna Git You Sucka (1988), as a tough and loving mother. She also did voice-over work, for which she received two Emmys.
She co-founded the "Pan African Film & Arts Festival", which showcases global films about people of African descent and fine arts. She is a community activist whose DuBois Care Foundation's mission is to empower youth by supporting after-school programs. She was also a painter who regularly exhibited her work. She released a CD in 2008, "Hidden Treasures", which includes the well-known TV theme song, "Movin' On Up".- Actor
- Soundtrack
James Olson was born on October 8, 1930 in Evanston, Illinois, the son of LeRoy Olson, an engineer. He made his stage debut at age 12 as "Hans Brinker" in the Evanston Children's Theatre production of 'Hans Brinker and the Silver Skates'. He received a BS degree in Speech from Northwestern University before serving in the U.S. Army as a military policeman (M.P.) in 1952 for a two-year stint.
A Chicago-based stage actor before moving to New York, the 6'3" Olson studied with Lee Strasberg and made his Broadway debut in 'The Young and Beautiful'. Throughout the late 1950s and 1960s he continued to find poignant Broadway roles in 'J.B.' (1958), 'Romulus' (1962), 'The Chinese Prime Minister' (1964), 'The Three Sisters' (1964) and 'Of Love Remembered' (1967). Olson was featured in the 1966 Mary Tyler Moore-Richard Chamberlain musical misfire 'Holly Golightly' (based on the film Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961)); the ill-fated musical closed before it reached Broadway.
Olson debuted on television as the title character in The Life of Mickey Mantle (1956). His film career began with the forgettable action drama The Sharkfighters (1956) but he later appeared in better roles in the film noir drama The Strange One (1957) and the Chekhov classic The Three Sisters (1966) (as Baron Tuzenbach, his Broadway stage role). He displayed an understated power in his performance as Joanne Woodward's suitor in the Oscar-nominated picture Rachel, Rachel (1968), which garnered him the best reviews of his film career. This was followed by a prime scientist role in the classic sci-fi thriller The Andromeda Strain (1971). He continued onstage in roles in 'The Glass Menagerie', 'The Crucible', 'A Safe Place', 'Twelve Dreams', and 'Winterplay'.
He had numerous TV-movie roles in Paper Man (1971), Incident on a Dark Street (1973), A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1974), The Sex Symbol (1974), The Missiles of October (1974), The Family Nobody Wanted (1975), Someone I Touched (1975), Strange New World (1975), Law and Order (1976), and The Spell (1977), and guest and/or recurring roles on such TV series as Bonanza (1959), Marcus Welby, M.D. (1969), Medical Center (1969), Police Story (1973), Police Woman (1974), The F.B.I. (1965), Gunsmoke (1955), Mannix (1967), Harry O (1973), Hawaii Five-O (1968), Maude (1972), Barnaby Jones (1973), The Bionic Woman (1976), and Battlestar Galactica (1978).
Major stardom proved elusive, however. Olson wrapped up his career with the films Ragtime (1981), Amityville II: The Possession (1982), Commando (1985) and Rachel River (1987) and 1990 TV appearances on The Family Man (1990) and Murder, She Wrote (1984), before retiring.- Actress
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Jane Levy was born in California, USA. Jane attended Sir Francis Drake High School in San Anselmo, California. While in school, she was on the hip hop dancing team and was captain of the soccer team. During that time, she also appeared in Community Theater productions of Annie and The Wizard of Oz. She attended Goucher College for a semester. After that, she attended the Stella Adler Studio of Acting in New York City.
Levy's parents and siblings supported her in her career. She moved back to Los Angeles after two years of living in New York City. Levy was cast as "Mandy Milkovich" in a five-episode role on the Showtime series Shameless (2011) within a few weeks of returning to the West Coast. In March 2011, she landed the first lead role of her career on the sitcom Suburgatory (2011), with Jeremy Sisto and Cheryl Hines. On May 9, 2014, Suburgatory (2011) was canceled by ABC after three seasons.
Levy was named by both TV Guide and TheInsider.com as one of the breakout stars of 2011, and was included on the top eleven list of funniest women compiled by AOL. Forbes named her as one of the handful of entertainment stars on their list of 30 under 30 who are "reinventing the world" (a list of the brightest stars of the future). She appeared in two films in 2012, Fun Size (2012) and Nobody Walks (2012). Released before Halloween, Fun Size (2012) co-starred Victoria Justice and comedian Chelsea Handler. While filming it, Levy was disappointed that she failed to meet co-star Johnny Knoxville, as he was on set for the one week of shooting that she was not.
Levy later starred in the 2013 remake of the horror classic Evil Dead (2013), as the drug-dependent Mia, replacing Lily Collins, who had originally been cast. The following year, she starred in two independent films, About Alex (2014) and Bang Bang Baby (2014). In 2015, Levy co-starred opposite Rene Russo in Frank and Cindy (2015). In 2016, she starred in her Evil Dead director Fede Alvarez's horror film Don't Breathe (2016), the story of friends who break into the house of a wealthy blind man. That same year, she co-starred with Lucas Till in Monster Trucks (2016), Paramount Animation's first live-action/CGI film, directed by Chris Wedge.
In 2017, Levy appeared in I Don't Feel at Home in This World Anymore (2017) directed by Macon Blair, and will star in zombie comedy Office Uprising (2018). She played the female lead in the The Pretenders (2018), a romantic drama directed by James Franco. Also in 2017, Levy appeared in the Showtime series Twin Peaks (2017).- Actor
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Jay C. Flippen could probably be characterized these days as one of those craggy, distinctive faces you know but whose name escapes you while viewing scores of old 1950s and 1960s films and television series. Playing both sides of the law throughout his career, his huge cranium, distinctive bulldog mug, beetle brows, bulky features, usually scowling countenance, and silver-white hair were ideally suited for roles as criminals and rugged adventurers, while his background as a standup comedian in burlesque, vaudeville and minstrel shows.
He was born John Constantine Flippen on March 6, 1899, in Little Rock, Arkansas. His father, John (a bookkeeper), died in 1908. Flippen's older sister, Era, died a year later (in 1909). His mother, Emma L. Flippen (née Pack), earned an income as a dance and theatre instructor. His maternal grandmother, Mary Pack, lived with the family. Picking up on his mother's artistic interests, Flippen joined the Al G. Field Minstrels at age 16. He was discovered by African-American star comedian Bert Williams in the 1920s, and was Williams' Broadway black face understudy and tour replacement for the 1920 musical revue "Broadway Brevities". Between 1924-29, he recorded scores of songs for Pathé Columbia, Perfect, and Brunswick Records. A veteran radio announcer for Yankee baseball games, Flippen was a lifelong baseball fan who forged friendships with several major league baseball stars. He also appeared on Broadway throughout the mid-1920s (and after), including "June Days" (1925), "Hello, Lola" (1926), "The Great Temptation" (1926), "Padlocks of 1927" (1927), "Second Little Show" (1930), the musical "Hellzapoppin'" (1941), and "Take a Bow" (1944).
Flippen made his film debut in the short The Ham What Am (1928), which captured a vaudeville performance, followed by a few other early 1930's shorts. He didn't move strongly into feature films until post-World War II where he could be counted on to provide his patented gruff and bluster in primarily war stories, film noir, and westerns whether playing a sheriff, farmer, cop, prison warden, military high-ranker or bartender. After playing Hodges, a guard, in Brute Force (1947), he appeared in such other crime yarns as Intrigue (1947), They Live by Night (1948), A Woman's Secret (1949), The Las Vegas Story (1952), The Wild One (1953), The Killing (1956), The Midnight Story (1957), Studs Lonigan (1960) and, The Seven Minutes (1971). His also dominated in such westerns as The Lady from Texas (1951), Devil's Canyon (1953), Man Without a Star (1955), Oklahoma! (1955) (as Ike Skidmore), The Restless Breed (1957), Run of the Arrow (1957), The Deerslayer (1957), From Hell to Texas (1958), and The Plunderers (1960).
Flippen supported many a top Hollywood male star during his four-decade film career. His atmospheric characters notably supported James Stewart in several of his top-notch vehicles, including Winchester '73 (1950), Bend of the River (1952), Thunder Bay (1953), The Far Country (1954), Strategic Air Command (1955), The Restless Breed (1957), Night Passage (1957), and Firecreek (1968). He was a regular player on 1960s television as well, including Bonanza (1959), The Untouchables (1959), The Dick Van Dyke Show (1961), Route 66 (1960), Burke's Law (1963), Gunsmoke (1955), Rawhide (1959), That Girl (1966), and The Name of the Game (1968). He also co-starred as an Chief Petty Officer in Ensign O'Toole (1962).
In later years, Flippen was dogged by illness. While filming his sheriff role in the classic comedy western Cat Ballou (1965), he had to have his leg amputated after a minor scrape, probably aggravated by diabetes, turned into a severe infection. He continued his career often in a wheelchair. His latest television roles were on episodes of The Virginian (1962), Here Come the Brides (1968), and Ironside (1967).- Producer
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Jean Dalrymple was considered to be one of the world's beautiful women in her day. She had an affair with publisher Henry Luce (Time magazine, Life magazine), husband of actress/playwright Clare Boothe Luce. Jean Dalrymple died of cancer (according to columnist Liz Smith) at 96 in New York City.- Actor
- Writer
One of 4 brothers born in the tough Gorbals section of Glasgow, Jimmy Boyle was was one of Britain's most wanted criminals by his early twenties. He was arrested for murder in 1967 and sentenced to life imprisonment, and became the country's most notorious prisoner. Paroled in 1982 from prison, he turned his life around amazingly. He is now a wine-connoiseur and writer, living part-time in France. He also makes large contributions to the British Labour Party.- Actress
- Additional Crew
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Joanie Sommers was born Joan Drost in Buffalo, New York in 1941. While barely a teen, her family moved to California where she began to pursue singing. She started singing with the band at her high-school dances at Venice High School. In 1959, she was put under contract by Warner Bros. records. She was put to work singing with Edd Byrnes (replacing Connie Stevens) of the TV series 77 Sunset Strip (1958) and guested on the show.
Her first single with Byrnes was "Kookie's Love Song", which was followed by her first solo album, titled Positively The Most, that same year. Critics embraced the jazz-influenced album and she was dubbed "the greatest singing discovery of the last 15 years". She was eighteen years old in 1960 when she released her first solo single, a rendition of "One Boy" from the musical Bye Bye Birdie which charted at #54 on Billboard's 100. In 1962, her biggest hit, "Johnny Get Angry", reached #7. That year she was named "Most Promising New Female Vocalist of 1962" by Cashbox magazine.
In 1965, Sommers reached her peak with the critically-acclaimed album, "Softly The Brazilian Sound", which paired her with bossa nova guitarist Laurindo Almeida. She left Warner Bros. for Columbia Records in 1966. She had several singles with Columbia, but only one album titled 'Come Alive'. Also in 1966, she played the part of a pink-haired angel who helps an ex-teen idol played by Ricky Nelson on the ABC Stage 67 (1966) production "On the Flip Side" which featured songs by Burt Bacharach and Hal David. Included in the soundtrack was Sommers' rendition of "Try To See It My Way".
During the 1960s, she made many TV appearances and the feature films Everything's Ducky (1961) and The Lively Set (1964). She also was the voice behind the popular Pepsi-Cola jingles, "It's Pepsi, for those who think young", and "Now you see it, now you don't, oh, Diet Pepsi!" As the 1960s came to an end, Sommers essentially retired from show business in order to concentrate on her marriage and children. In recent years, she has reemerged to perform at nightclubs and has recorded new albums.- John R. "Jack" Freimann studied theater and dramatic arts at Fordham University Graduate School of Business and theater and acting and taught for five years at New York University. He also worked professionally for Broadway and off-Broadway plays, and at Bucks County Playhouse in Pennsylvania and the Arena Stage in Washington, D.C.
- John Voldstad was born in Norway but raised in the United States since early childhood. A film and television actor, Voldstad is best-known for his roles on the long-running television series Newhart (1982) playing "Darryl #2" (one of a bizarre trio of brothers, two of whom never speak) and in the cult film Stripes (1981) as "Stillman's Aide".
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Born in India to South African parents, Juliet studied to be a dancer from the age of 4. Attending the Royal Academy of Dance, by the time Juliet was 14, she was deemed too tall to enter the world of ballet. She signed as a chorus dancer with the London Palladium and then pursued a career as a dancer in European nightclubs. While dancing in Paris, she was spotted by Hollywood choreographer Hermes Pan and signed to a role in the movie Can-Can (1960). While rehearsing for the movie, Soviet Premier Khrushchev was invited to watch the then-unknown Prowse and others rehearsing their steps. The next day, he denounced the dance as immoral and it was Prowse's photo that accompanied the news across newspapers worldwide. An instant celebrity, Juliet shot to stardom with her acting and dancing and the tabloids filled with her romance with star Frank Sinatra. That same year, she also appeared with Elvis Presley in G.I. Blues (1960) and again the tabloids followed her.
She appeared in more films the next year but, as her celebrity status waned, so did her movie career. Her engagement to Sinatra in 1962 fueled her nightclub act, but did nothing for her movie career. In 1965, she moved to television with the series Mona McCluskey (1965), playing a nutty Hollywood starlet, but the show soon ended. Her big-screen career ended with Run for Your Wife (1965) and she, thereafter, appeared on the stage and on the nightclub circuit. Some of her stage shows included "Sweet Charity", "Kismet", "Irma La Douce", "Mame" and "The Pajama Game". She also appeared as a guest on Television but, most of the time, she worked in her nightclub act. In 1994, she was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.- Actress
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Kathie Browne was born Jacqueline Sue Browne on September 19, 1930 in San Luis Obispo, California. She got her break in TV after appearing in a Los Angeles production of Tennessee Williams's play, "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof", making her TV debut in 1957 in The Gray Ghost (1957), The Sheriff of Cochise (1956), and Gunsmoke (1955). The following year, she made her movie debut in the B-movie, Murder by Contract (1958), but it was mostly television that was her métier. She made numerous guest appearances on a plethora of TV shows. The blonde haired, blue-eyed beauty played mainly ingénue parts, and was a very busy TV actress of the 1960s and 1970s.
One of her most famous acting role was as the prospective bride of "Adam Cartwright", during the 1963-64 season of Bonanza (1959). She had appeared on the series twice before, as different characters, in 1961 and 1962, but was cast as the pretty widow, Laura Dayton, in 1963, appearing in 4 episodes broadcast between December 8, 1963 and May 17, 1964, which was the penultimate show of the season. Laura was supposed to marry Adam and ride off with him into the sunset as Pernell Roberts was unhappy with the show and threatening to leave. The producers, at the demand of NBC (which owned the show), hired Guy Williams as a potential replacement for Roberts. Instead of leaving after the 1963-64 season, Roberts signed on for one more year on the Ponderosa, and Browne (as Laura) rode off with Adam's cousin, Will Cartwright, instead (played by Williams). A year after her turn as a regular on the short-lived western series, Hondo (1967), Browne gave another memorable performance, in the Star Trek (1966) episode, Wink of an Eye (1968), in which she played the beautiful Scalosian who (what else?) falls in love (or at least lust) with Captain Kirk.
Browne married actor Darren McGavin in 1969, and they were frequent co-stars, including his starring series, Kolchak: The Night Stalker (1974), during the 1970s. She retired from acting in 1980.
Kathie Browne (legally Jacqueline K. McGavin) died on April 8, 2003 in Beverly Hills, California, aged 72.- Lovely, buxom, and vivacious blonde bombshell Louisa Moritz was born as Luisa Cira Castro Netto on September 25, 1936 in Havana, Cuba. Many members of Louisa's family which include her father Luis, sister Aurora, and her older brother Rafael all worked in the law profession. Moritz left Cuba and moved to New York City during the upheaval of the 1950s. Louisa was inspired to change her last name from Castro to Moritz after seeing the St. Moritz Hotel in New York City. She arrived in NYC in July 1960, aged 23.
She began her acting career in TV commercials in the late 1960s. She made her debut in a TV commercial for Ultra-Ban spray deodorant and won both a Clio Award and an Andy Award for her work as a student driver in a TV commercial for American Motors. Louisa made her film debut in the lead role of young prostitute Carmela in The Man from O.R.G.Y. (1970). Perhaps best known to general audiences as the hooker Rose in the Oscar-winning classic One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), her most memorable roles included Sylvester Stallone's airhead navigator Myra in the cult science fiction black comedy Death Race 2000 (1975), cheery prostitute Flora in the delightful Sixpack Annie (1975), Officer Gloria Whitey in Up in Smoke (1978), hilarious as the aggressively lascivious Carmela in the uproariously raunchy teen comedy hoot The Last American Virgin (1982), and ditsy kleptomaniac Bubbles in the terrifically trashy babes-behind-bars treat Chained Heat (1983). Among the television programs Moritz appeared on are The Leslie Uggams Show (1969), The Joe Namath Show (1969), Love, American Style (1969), Ironside (1967), Happy Days (1974), M*A*S*H (1972), Chico and the Man (1974), The Rockford Files (1974), The Incredible Hulk (1978) and The Associates (1979).
Outside of acting, Moritz sold real estate, sung a song she specifically wrote about host Jay Leno on "The Tonight Show," and bought a hotel in Beverly Hills which she renamed the Beverly Hills St. Moritz. Although often cast as the generic dumb blonde in many films and TV shows (a part which she always played with great spirit and infectiously sweet good humor), Moritz in real life was the total radical opposite of this particular persona: She not only made the Deans List while studying for her law degree at the University of West Los Angeles, but won the American Jurisprudence Bancroft Whitney Prize for Contracts as well. She went on to become a lawyer in southern California, but was eventually disbarred for failing to provide certain quarterly reports. Louisa Moritz died at age 82 from cardiovascular disease on January 4, 2019 in Los Angeles, California. - A former Miss Deaf New York and Miss Deaf America (1982-1984), now married and known as Mary Beth Barber-Mothersell, she earned her bachelor's degree in social work at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), graduating in 1985. She went on to earn her master's degree in social work at Syracuse University, where she was awarded a Master's Prize. Barber-Mothersell is a Licensed Master Social Worker in New York State. She is a member of the National Association of the Deaf and was a Member at Large of the NTID Alumni Association (1993-98).
In 2005, she made a public service announcement (PSA) for the NY Relay Service aimed at informing hearing-abled people to not think that a relay service operator is a telemarketer and then hang-up when a hearing-impaired person may be attempting to call them. In 2006, she was recognized by the Hearing Loss Association of America (HLAA) as the Community Person of the Year. In 2008, she received a national Advocacy "Focus on People" award from Octicon, one of the largest hearing aid manufacturers in the world, for her efforts as the New York Relay Customer. - Actor
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Matt Frewer has been travelling all over North America in recent months filming recurring roles. Most recently, he worked in Los Angeles for HBO's Perry Mason and in Austin for AMC's Fear The Walking Dead. In Vancouver portrayed Carnage in Netflix's sci-fi drama Altered Carbon (2018); in Montreal (opposite Dennis Quaid) as Anthony Bruhl in NBC's Timeless (2016); in Toronto as Paul Rice in Crackle's The Art of More (2015), and also in Toronto as Dr. Leekie on BBC America's award-winning Orphan Black (2013); and in Brooklyn, New York as Dr. J. M. Christiansen in Steven Soderbergh's gritty early-20th century hospital drama The Knick (2014).
Frewer's film credits include Steven Spielberg's The BFG (2016), 20th Century Fox's Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb (2014), 50/50 (2011) (with Seth Rogen and Joseph Gordon-Levitt), Foreverland (2011), Frankie & Alice (2010) (with Halle Berry), and as Moloch in Zack Snyder's Watchmen (2009). He appeared in Snyder's 2004 film, Dawn of the Dead (2004). He filmed Attack on Darfur (2009) in South Africa and played the lead in the action/adventure film Wushu Warrior (2011), which was filmed in China. Other work on the big screen includes playing "Big Russ Thompson" in Honey, I Shrunk the Kids (1989), and Jobe Smith, the nefarious computer genius in Lawnmower Man 2: Beyond Cyberspace (1995). Frewer starred in four Sherlock Holmes films for Muse Entertainment, CTV and the Odyssey Channel.
He performed leading roles in numerous television movies & miniseries, including Nick Willing's Alice (2009) (as the White Knight; for which he was nominated for a Gemini Award). He reunited with Nick Willing to play Daedalus in 13 episodes of Olympus (2015). Frewer starred in the television miniseries Delete (2013) for Brightlight Pictures, A&E's miniseries Bag of Bones (2011) with Pierce Brosnan, Hallmark's Battle of the Bulbs (2010), and in Spielberg's Taken (2002). He played an arsonist known as the " Trashcan Man" in the Stephen King-scripted ABC miniseries, The Stand (1994).
In addition to his recent television work, Cable Ace and Gemini award-winning Frewer is a familiar face on the Emmy-nominated DreamWorks/TNT Falling Skies (2011) as well as Eureka (Sci-Fi), Intelligence (CBC), and Doctor, Doctor (CBS). He made guest appearances on such prime time network television series as St. Elsewhere, Miami Vice, and Star Trek: The Next Generation. Other notable turns on television include portraying such real-life notable individuals as U.S. Ambassador Edwin O. Reischauer in American Playhouse's Long Shadows (1994) (PBS), Alexander Haig in Kissinger and Nixon (1995) (TNT), and Gene Kranz in the made-for-television movie Apollo 11 (1996).- Mieczyslawa Cwiklinska was a Polish actress, comedienne and singer. For more than 50 years on the stage, she was one of Poland's most outstanding comedic actors and singers.
She appeared on both stage and in film, and did operettas and the classics. She received numerous awards including commendations from the Polish national government. She was a member of her country's National Theatre.
On April 25, 1950, she celebrated the golden jubilee of her career in the theatre and was awarded highest honours by the Polish government. - Additional Crew
Margaret Kelly was born on June 24, 1910 in Dublin's Rotunda Hospital. Her parents left her as a baby with Mary Murphy, a spinster nurse, saying that they would be back for her in three months. They never returned; and Mary Murphy, already caring for two sisters and a brother, moved with her to Liverpool when she was four years old.
"A priest told the family that my parents were a young couple who were going abroad and couldn't take the baby with them for a while," Margaret Kelly recalled. "I wasn't left in the street, but I was certainly abandoned."
She kept her parents' surname but made no attempt to locate them, believing it to be their responsibility to search for her. She did not consider her childhood to have been deprived. "I was always well-dressed," she said. "Mary Murphy saw to that, and I always had enough jam butties to eat."
Nevertheless, young Margaret suffered from such poor health that it was decided to send for a doctor; and it was he who gave her the nickname "Miss Bluebell". Struck by her sharp blue eyes, the GP told her adoptive mother: "If I was her mother, I'd call her Bluebell".
The doctor recommended ballet classes as a means of putting some strength into Margaret's spindly legs and, at six, she was sent to Madame Cummins's dance school for lessons, which were paid for out of her earnings from doing odd jobs. After displaying abundant talent, she joined "The Six Little Darlings" at the age of 12 for a production of Babes in the Wood at Newquay.- Actress
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Oliva R. Duffy was born on October 20, 1894, in Charleroi, Pennsylvania, the eldest of three children, with two younger brothers. Olive or Ollie, as she was known to family and friends, did not have much of a childhood. Life in industrial Pittsburgh (at the time, spelled "Pittsburg") was depressing and grim with its smoky factories and hard living. She married Bernard Krug Thomas at the age of 16 (which wasn't uncommon at the time), but the marriage wasn't happy, and they divorced two years later.
By that time, Olive had left Pittsburgh for New York, where she found work in a department store. On a lark, she entered a competition for the most beautiful girl in New York City and, unsurprisingly, won. With the ensuing publicity, she caught the eye of Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. and immediately joined his famed Follies. An outstanding addition, men went wild over her beauty. She also posed nude for the famed Peruvian artist Alberto Vargas. As a result of her sudden fame, she was signed to a contract with Triangle Pictures. Her first film was Beatrice Fairfax (1916). Later that year, she married Jack Pickford, brother of screen star Mary Pickford.
The relationship was a stormy one. In 1917, she starred in four more films: Madcap Madge (1917), A Girl Like That (1917), Broadway Arizona (1917), and Indiscreet Corinne (1917). With five films on her resume, Olive was the toast of Hollywood. She made three films in 1918 and six in 1919. By 1920, Olive was at the top of the film world. She continued to make good pictures, most notably, Youthful Folly (1920) and also The Flapper (1920), which was an overwhelming success. After finishing Everybody's Sweetheart (1920), Olive and Jack sailed to France for a much-needed vacation.
The couple finally seemed happy, which seems odd in light of what was to follow. Olive accidentally ingested bichloride of mercury from a French-labeled bottle in a darkened bathroom, believing it to be another medication. Found unconscious, she died five days later. The death made worldwide headlines. Olive was only 25 when she died.- Actress
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Pearl Walker (Queenie Leonard), actress and singer was born on 7 April 1905. She had already amassed 20 years of stage and screen experience when, in 1941, she made the first of more than 30 Hollywood films. She also appeared in cabaret in England and in the United States, starred in a one-woman show, acted in television sitcoms, and provided voices for Disney cartoons. She died on January 17, 2002 in her adopted homeland of the United States.- A beautiful and durable actress of screen, stage and television, Asherson was born Renée Ascherson in London (dropping the "c" early in her acting career), the younger daughter of Charles Ascherson, a businessman and bibliophile of German-Jewish extraction, and his second wife, Dorothy Wiseman, who wed on 14 December 1910. (Her older sister was Janet Elizabeth Ascherson, born 22 May 1914).
Asherson's parents narrowly avoided being passengers on the fateful maiden voyage of the Titanic in 1912, after Charles Ascherson reportedly canceled the passage due to suffering from appendicitis.
She played the bride of Laurence Olivier's title character in Henry V (1944) (Henry V (1944)). She later appeared in Maniacs on Wheels (1949), a speedway drama with Dirk Bogarde. A frequent co-star of the actor Robert Donat, whom she married in 1953. The couple separated in 1956, but were due to reconcile at the time of his untimely death in London on 9th June 1958, aged 53. - Actor
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Probably best-remembered for his turbulent personal life with Elizabeth Taylor (whom he married twice), Richard Burton was nonetheless also regarded as an often brilliant British actor of the post-WWII period.
Burton was born Richard Walter Jenkins in 1925 into a Welsh (Cymraeg)-speaking family in Pontrhydyfen to Edith Maude (Thomas) and Richard Walter Jenkins, a coal miner. The twelfth of thirteen children, his mother died while he was a toddler and his father later abandoned the family, leaving him to be raised by an elder sister, Cecilia. An avid fan of Shakespeare, poetry and reading, he once said "home is where the books are". He received a scholarship to Oxford University to study acting and made his first stage appearance in 1944.
His first film appearances were in routine British movies such as Woman of Dolwyn (1949), Waterfront Women (1950) and Green Grow the Rushes (1951). Then he started to appear in Hollywood movies such as My Cousin Rachel (1952), The Robe (1953) and Alexander the Great (1956), added to this he was also spending considerable time in stage productions, both in the UK and USA, often to splendid reviews. The late 1950s was an exciting and inventive time in UK cinema, often referred to as the "British New Wave", and Burton was right in the thick of things, and showcased a sensational performance in Look Back in Anger (1959). He also appeared with a cavalcade of international stars in the World War II magnum opus The Longest Day (1962), and then onto arguably his most "notorious" role as that of Marc Antony opposite Elizabeth Taylor in the hugely expensive Cleopatra (1963). This was, of course, the film that kick-started their fiery and passionate romance (plus two marriages), and the two of them appeared in several productions over the next few years including The V.I.P.s (1963), The Sandpiper (1965), the dynamic Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966) and The Taming of The Shrew (1967), as well as box office flops like The Comedians (1967). Burton did better when he was off on his own giving higher caliber performances, such as those in Becket (1964), the film adaptation of the Tennessee Williams play The Night of the Iguana (1964), the brilliant espionage thriller The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1965) and alongside Clint Eastwood in the World War II action adventure film Where Eagles Dare (1968).
His audience appeal began to decline somewhat by the end of the 1960s as fans turned to younger, more virile male stars, however Burton was superb in Anne of the Thousand Days (1969) as King Henry VIII, he put on a reasonable show in the boring Raid on Rommel (1971), was over the top in the awful Villain (1971), gave sleepwalking performances in Hammersmith Is Out (1972) and Bluebeard (1972), and was wildly miscast in the ludicrous The Assassination of Trotsky (1972).
By the early 1970s, quality male lead roles were definitely going to other stars, and Burton found himself appearing in some movies of dubious quality, just to pay the bills and support family, including Divorce His - Divorce Hers (1973) (his last on-screen appearance with Taylor), The Klansman (1974), Brief Encounter (1974), Jackpot (1974) (which was never completed) and Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977). However, he won another Oscar nomination for his excellent performance as a concerned psychiatrist in Equus (1977). He appeared with fellow acting icons Richard Harris and Roger Moore in The Wild Geese (1978) about mercenaries in South Africa. While the film had a modest initial run, over the past thirty-five years it has picked up quite a cult following. His final performances were as the wily inquisitor "O'Brien" in the most recent film version of George Orwell's dystopian 1984 (1984), in which he won good reviews, and in the TV mini series Ellis Island (1984). He passed away on August 5, 1984 in Celigny, Switzerland from a cerebral hemorrhage.- Actor
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Richard St John Harris was born on October 1, 1930 in Limerick, Ireland, to a farming family, one of nine children born to Mildred (Harty) and Ivan Harris. He attended Crescent College, a Jesuit school, and was an excellent rugby player, with a strong passion for literature. Unfortunately, a bout of tuberculosis as a teenager ended his aspirations to a rugby career, but he became fascinated with the theater and skipped a local dance one night to attend a performance of "Henry IV". He was hooked and went on to learn his craft at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA), then spent several years in stage productions. He debuted on screen in Shake Hands with the Devil (1959) and quickly scored regular work in films, including The Wreck of the Mary Deare (1959), The Night Fighters (1960) and a good role as a frustrated Australian bomber pilot in The Guns of Navarone (1961).
However, his breakthrough performance was as the quintessential "angry young man" in the sensational drama This Sporting Life (1963), which scored him an Oscar nomination. He then appeared in the WW II commando tale The Heroes of Telemark (1965) and in the Sam Peckinpah-directed western Major Dundee (1965). He next showed up in Hawaii (1966) and played King Arthur in Camelot (1967), a lackluster adaptation of the famous Broadway play. Better performances followed, among them a role as a reluctant police informer in The Molly Maguires (1970) alongside Sir Sean Connery. Harris took the lead role in the violent western A Man Called Horse (1970), which became something of a cult film and spawned two sequels. As the 1970s progressed, Harris continued to appear regularly on screen; however, the quality of the scripts varied from above average to woeful.
His credits during this period included directing himself as an aging soccer player in The Hero (1970); the western The Deadly Trackers (1973); the big-budget "disaster" film Juggernaut (1974); the strangely-titled crime film 99 and 44/100% Dead! (1974); with Connery again in Robin and Marian (1976); Gulliver's Travels (1977); a part in the Jaws (1975); Orca (1977) and a nice turn as an ill-fated mercenary with Richard Burton and Roger Moore in the popular action film The Wild Geese (1978).
The 1980s kicked off with Harris appearing in the silly Bo Derek vanity production Tarzan the Ape Man (1981) and the remainder of the decade had him appearing in some very forgettable productions. However, the luck of the Irish was once again to shine on Harris's career and he scored rave reviews (and another Oscar nomination) for The Field (1990). He then locked horns with Harrison Ford as an IRA sympathizer in Patriot Games (1992) and got one of his best roles as gunfighter English Bob in the Clint Eastwood western Unforgiven (1992). Harris was firmly back in vogue and rewarded his fans with more wonderful performances in Wrestling Ernest Hemingway (1993); Cry, the Beloved Country (1995); The Great Kandinsky (1995) and This Is the Sea (1997). Further fortune came his way with a strong performance in the blockbuster Gladiator (2000) and he became known to an entirely new generation of film fans as Albus Dumbledore in the mega-successful Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001) and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002). His final screen role was as "Lucius Sulla" in Caesar (2002).
Harris died of Hodgkin's disease, also known as Hodgkin's lymphoma, in London on October 25, 2002, aged 72.