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- Actor
- Soundtrack
Rambunctious British leading man (contrary to popular belief, he was of
Scottish ancestry, not Irish) and later character actor primarily in
American films, Victor McLaglen was a vital presence in a number of
great motion pictures, especially those of director
John Ford. McLaglen (pronounced
Muh-clog-len, not Mack-loff-len) was the son of the Right Reverend
Andrew McLaglen, a Protestant clergyman who was at one time Bishop of
Claremont in South Africa. The young McLaglen, eldest of eight
brothers, attempted to serve in the Boer War by joining the Life
Guards, though his father secured his release. The adventuresome young
man traveled to Canada where he did farm labor and then directed his
pugnacious nature into professional prizefighting. He toured in
circuses, vaudeville shows, and Wild West shows, often as a fighter
challenging all comers. His tours took him to the US, Australia (where
he joined in the gold rush) and South Africa. In 1909 he was the first
fighter to box newly-crowned heavyweight champion
Jack Johnson, whom he fought
in a six-round exhibition match in Vancouver (as an exhibition fight,
it had no decision). When the First World War broke out, McLaglen
joined the Irish Fusiliers and soldiered in the Middle East, eventually
serving as Provost Marshal (head of Military Police) for the city of
Baghdad. After the war he attempted to resume a boxing career, but was
given a substantial acting role in
The Call of the Road (1920)
and was well received. He became a popular leading man in British
silent films, and within a few years was offered the lead in an
American film,
The Beloved Brute (1924). He
quickly became a most popular star of dramas as well as action films,
playing tough or suave with equal ease. With the coming of sound, his
ability to be persuasively debonair diminished by reason of his native
speech patterns, but his popularity increased, particularly when cast
by Ford as the tragic Gypo Nolan in
The Informer (1935), for which
McLaglen won the Best Actor Oscar. He continued to play heroes,
villains and simple-minded thugs into the 1940s, when Ford gave his
career a new impetus with a number of lovably roguish Irish parts in
such films as
She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949)
and The Quiet Man (1952). The
latter film won McLaglen another Oscar nomination, the first time a
Best Actor winner had been nominated subsequently in the Supporting
category. McLaglen formed a semi-militaristic riding and polo club, the
Light Horse Brigade, and a similarly arrayed precision motorcycle team,
the Victor McLaglen Motorcycle Corps, both of which led to conclusions that he had fascist sympathies and was forming
his own private army. McLaglen denied espousing the far right-wing sentiments that were often attributed to him. He continued to act in films into his 70s and
died, from congestive heart failure, not long after appearing in a film directed
by his son, Andrew V. McLaglen.- Actor
- Director
- Additional Crew
David Ogden Stiers was born in Peoria, Illinois, to Margaret Elizabeth (Ogden) and Kenneth Truman Stiers. He moved with his family to Eugene, Oregon, where he graduated from North Eugene High School in 1960. At the age of twenty, he was offered $200 to join the company of the Santa Clara Shakespeare Festival for three months. He ended up staying for seven years, in due course playing both King Lear and Richard III. In 1969, he moved to New York to study drama at Juilliard where he also trained his voice as a dramatic baritone. He joined the Houseman City Center Acting Company at its outset, working on such productions as The Beggar's Opera, Measure for Measure, The Hostage and the hit Broadway musical The Magic Show for which he created the character 'Feldman the Magnificent'. He lent his voice to animated films, with Lilo & Stitch (2002) being his 25th theatrically-released Disney animated film. He was also an avid fan of classical music and conducted a number of orchestras, including the Yaquina Chamber Orchestra in Newport, Oregon, where was the principal guest conductor.
His other theatrical work included performances with the Committee Revue and Theatre, the San Francisco Actor's Workshop, The Old Globe Theatre Festival in San Diego and at the Pasadena Playhouse in Love Letters with Meredith Baxter. As a drama instructor, he worked at Santa Clara University and also taught improvisation at Harvard. In addition to his long-running role in M*A*S*H (1972), Stiers' work on television also included the excellent mini-series North & South: Book 1, North & South (1985), North & South: Book 2, Love & War (1986), The First Olympics: Athens 1896 (1984) and roles in such productions as Anatomy of an Illness (1984), The Bad Seed (1985), J. Edgar Hoover (1987), The Final Days (1989), Father Damien: The Leper Priest (1980) and Mrs. Delafield Wants to Marry (1986). Among his screen credits were The Accidental Tourist (1988), The Man with One Red Shoe (1985), Creator (1985), Harry's War (1981), Magic (1978) and Oh, God! (1977).
Above all, the prodigious talent that was David Ogden Stiers will be most fondly remembered as the pompous, ever-so articulate Major Charles Emerson Winchester III in M*A*S*H. He had found that taking on the role was -- from the beginning -- an easy choice. Stiers saw and loved the movie version. Moreover, he had a fond regard of fellow actor Harry Morgan (who played the character of Colonel Potter) as a kind of fatherly role model. In retrospect, Stiers viewed his experiences with the show as a career highlight, saying "No matter how much you read about the M*A*S*H company, the evolution of it, the quite beautiful human stance it takes, you will not know how much it means ". In his spare time on the set he often annoyed the security guards by skateboarding at 25 miles an hour and "cheerfully thumbing his nose at them".
David died of bladder cancer on March 3, 2018, in Newport, Oregon. He was 75.- Actress
- Producer
Tawny Kitaen was born on 5 August 1961 in San Diego, California, USA. She was an actress and producer, known for Bachelor Party (1984), The Perils of Gwendoline in the Land of the Yik Yak (1984) and Witchboard (1986). She was married to Chuck Finley and David Coverdale. She died on 7 May 2021 in Newport Beach, California, USA.- Michele Carey was born on 26 February 1942 in Annapolis, Maryland, USA. She was an actress, known for El Dorado (1966), Live a Little, Love a Little (1968) and The Wild Wild West (1965). She was married to Fred G. Strebel. She died on 21 November 2018 in Newport Beach, California, USA.
- Actress
- Soundtrack
Claire Trevor was born Claire Wemlinger in the Bensonhurst section of Brooklyn, New York, the only child of Fifth Avenue merchant-tailor Noel Wemlinger, an immigrant Frenchman from Paris who lost his business during the Depression, and his Belfast-born wife, Benjamina, known as "Betty". Young Claire's interest in acting began when she was 11 years old. She attended high school in Mamaroneck, Westchester County, New York. After starting classes at Columbia University, she spent six months at the American Academy of Dramatic
Arts, also in New York. Her adult acting experience began in the late 1920s in several stock productions; she appeared
with Robert Henderson's Repertory Players in Ann Arbor, Michigan in 1930. That same year, aged 20, she signed with Warner Bros. Not too far from her home haunts was Vitagraph Studios in Brooklyn, the last and best of the early sound process studios, which had been acquired by Warner Bros. in 1925 to become Vitaphone. Trevor appeared in several of the nearly 2000 shorts cranked out by the studio between 1926 and 1930. Then she was sent west to do ten weeks of stock productions with other contract players in St. Louis. In 1931 she did summer stock with the Hampton Players in Southampton, Long Island. Finally, she debuted on Broadway in 1932 in "Whistling in the Dark".
Trevor moved to the silver screen, debuting in the western Life in the Raw (1933). There would be three more films (one more western) that year and six or more through the 1930s. Although she had been typed playing gun molls and hard-case women of the world, she displayed her already considerable versatility in these early films, often playing competent, take-charge professional women as well as "shady" ladies. There was a disappointed-pout-vulnerability in her face and that famous slightly New York-burred voice that cracked with a little cry when heightened by emotion that quickly revealed an unusual and sensitive performer. Many of her early films were "B" potboilers, but she worked with Spencer Tracy on several occasions, notably Dante's Inferno (1935).
Hollywood finally took notice of her talents by nominating her for a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her standout performance as a slum girl forced by poverty into prostitution in Dead End (1937), opposite Humphrey Bogart. That same year she did the radio drama "Big Town" with Edward G. Robinson, then teamed with he and Bogart again for the slightly hokey but entertaining The Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse (1938). Director John Ford tapped her for his first big sound Western film, Stagecoach (1939), the film that made a star of John Wayne. All her abilities to bring complexity to a character showed in her kicked-around dance hall girl "Dallas", one of the great early female roles. She and Wayne were electric, and they were paired in three more films during their careers.
In the 1940s, Trevor began appearing in the genre that brought her to true stardom: "film noir". She started in a big way as killer Ruth Dillon in Street of Chance (1942) with Burgess Meredith. She was equally convincing as the more complex but nonetheless two-faced Mrs. Grayle in the Philip Marlowe vehicle Murder, My Sweet (1944). However, she was something very different and quite extraordinary as
washed-up, hopelessly alcoholic former nightclub singer and moll Gaye Dawn in Key Largo (1948), for which she won an Academy Award as Best Supporting Actress, again working with Bogart and Robinson. Her pitiful rendition of the torch song "Moanin' Low", which her character was forced to sing, humiliatingly, for the sadistic crime boss played by Robinson (to whom she is, figuratively speaking, permanently tethered) in exchange for a desperately needed drink. There were more quality movies and an additional Academy nomination (The High and the Mighty (1954)) into the 1950s,, but she also was doing work on stage and in television.
She was enthusiastic about live TV and appeared on several famous shows by the mid-1950s. She won an Emmy for Best Live Television Performance by an Actress as the flighty wife of Fredric March in NBC's Dodsworth (1956). She alternated her career among film, stage and TV roles. As she aged she easily transitioned into "distinguished matron" and mother roles, one of her most unusual ones being the murderous Ma Barker in Ma Barker and Her Boys (1959). Her final film role was as Sally Field's mother in Kiss Me Goodbye (1982).
Trevor and her third husband, producer Milton H. Bren, had long been residents of tony Newport Beach, California, to which they returned when she finally retired from screen work. However, she did maintain an active interest in stage work, and became associated with the University of California-Irvine's School of Arts. She and her husband contributed some $10 million to further its development for the visual and performing arts (that included three endowed professorships). After her passing in April 2000 at 90 years of age, the University renamed the school The Claire Trevor School of the Arts. Her presence on the UCI campus is in more than spirit alone. She donated her Oscar and her Emmy to UCI; both are on display in the arts plaza at the campus theatre that bears her name.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Dolores del Rio was the one of the first Mexican movie stars with international
appeal and who had meteoric career in the 1920s/1930s Hollywood. Del Rio came from an aristocratic family in Durango. In the Mexican revolution of 1916, however, the family lost everything and emigrated to Mexico
City, where Dolores became a socialite. In 1921 she married Jaime Del
Río (also known as Jaime Martínez Del Río), a wealthy Mexican, and the
two became friends with Hollywood producer/director Edwin Carewe, who "discovered" del Rio and invited the couple to move to
Hollywood where they launched careers in the movie business
(she as an actress, Jaime as a screenwriter). Eventually they divorced after Carewe cast her in her first film Joanna (1925), followed by High Steppers (1926), and Pals First (1926). She had her first leading role in Carewe's silent version of Pals First (1926) and soared to stardom in 1928 with Carewe's Ramona (1928). The film was a
success and del Rio was hailed as a female Rudolph Valentino. Her career continued to rise
with the arrival of sound in the drama/romance Bird of Paradise (1932) and hit musical Flying Down to Rio (1933). She later married Cedric Gibbons, the well-known art director and production
designer at MGM studios.
Dolores returned to Mexico in 1942. Her
Hollywood career was over, and a romance with Orson Welles--who later called
her "the most exciting woman I've ever met"--caused her second divorce.
Mexican director Emilio Fernández offered her the lead in his film Wild Flower (1943), with
a wholly unexpected result: at age 37, Dolores del Río became the most
famous movie star in her country, filming in Spanish for the first
time. Her association with Fernández' team (cinematographer Gabriel Figueroa,
writer Mauricio Magdaleno and actor Pedro Armendáriz) was mainly responsible for creating
what has been called the Golden Era of Mexican Cinema. With such
pictures as Maria Candelaria (1944), Las abandonadas (1945) and Bugambilia (1945), del Río became the
prototypical Mexican beauty. career included
film, theater and television. In her last years she received accolades
because of her work for orphaned children. Her last film was The Children of Sanchez (1978).- She was born Donna Lee Hickey, the daughter of a vaudevillian. At seventeen, she entered show biz as a dancer at the Copacabana and thereafter won several beauty contests, including "Miss American Legion," "Miss Miami Beach", and "Miss Fire Fighter". In January 1950, she was voted Queen of the New York Press Photographers' Ball. From there, it was but a small step to motion pictures and a contract with 20thCentury Fox, courtesy of a sympathetic member of that studio's casting department. However, after a year playing nothing but bit parts, Donna Lee declared with some disappointment "I didn't even work during my last six months there. Every week I hired a taxi, drove to the studio, picked up my check and drove home. They said they would hire me for another year at the same salary. I said no thanks." Instead, she made a move to Columbia which appeared to pay off with a leading role in Edward Dmytryk's classic military courtroom drama The Caine Mutiny (1954) (opposite Humphrey Bogart and Fred MacMurray). Her character, a night club singer, was named May Wynn. At the insistence of producer Stanley Kramer, Donna Lee henceforth adopted this as her stage moniker since there 'hadn't been a May since the days of May McAvoy and Mae Murray'. Freshly minted as May Wynn, she went on to co-star (albeit as second fiddle to, respectively, Donna Reed and Dianne Foster) in two back-to-back westerns: They Rode West (1954) and The Violent Men (1955). Second-billing finally came her way -- but it was to be in B-grade fare like The White Squaw (1956) and The Man Is Armed (1956) for 'Poverty Row' studios Allied Artists and Republic.
In October 1956, May married actor Jack Kelly (who would become popular as James Garner's more serious younger brother Bart in Maverick (1957)). Jack and May appeared together in low budget productions like Taming Sutton's Gal (1957) and Hong Kong Affair (1958) (with May standing in as a Chinese girl, since the local actress originally chosen for the part failed to come to grips with the English language). She also had recurring roles on The Bob Cummings Show (1955) and in the short-lived NBC drama series Noah's Ark (1956), with May as a secretary in a veterinary hospital. The only claim to fame of this series was that it was one of the first to be shot in colour. After exiting show business in 1960, May worked in real estate. She divorced Kelly in 1964 and four years later married realtor Jack Wesley Custer. This union also ended in divorce in 1979. As Donna Lee Custer, she retired to Newport Beach, California, where she passed away at the age of 93 on March 22 2021. - Virile-looking, hairy-chested actor Anthony George is best remembered for a couple of
popular TV crime series back in the early 1960s. Born Octavio George in
Endicott, New York, he began in small roles in motion pictures and TV
in the 1950s. Picked up by 20th Century-Fox he was sometimes billed as
Tony George or Ott George in such "B" movies as You Never Can Tell (1951), Three Bad Sisters (1956),
Chicago Confidential (1957) and Gunfire at Indian Gap (1957). More often than not, however, he appeared
uncredited and his dark, swarthy features usually had him typed as
minor heavies (convicts, thugs, mobsters, etc.). The fast pace and
expectations of making movies proved too much for the actor, however,
and he suffered a nervous breakdown during one such filming. Traveling
back East to recover, TV ended up being a more adaptable medium. He
finally hit pay dirt in 1960 when he was cast as a tough-talking good
guy, agent Cam Allison, alongside Robert Stack's Eliot Ness in The Untouchables (1959). He
abruptly left that series to head up his own cast as investigator Don
Corey in the detective drama Checkmate (1960). The show lasted two seasons and
made him a familiar face, if not a household name. Following this peak,
he became a steadfast presence in daytime soaps with regular roles on
Dark Shadows (1966), Search for Tomorrow (1951) and One Life to Live (1968). On occasion he would appear on stage and
in 1966 had a chance to play Nicky Arnstein in "Funny Girl" at Los
Angeles' Ahmanson Theatre opposite singing comedienne and impressionist
Marilyn Michaels, who was known for her dead-on impersonation of Barbra Streisand. Other
productions would include "The Front Page," "Winterset," "Come Blow
Your Horn" and "Cactus Flower." A voice-over actor in commercials as
well, Anthony George died of complications from lung disease in Los
Angeles, California on March 16, 2005. - Actor
- Writer
While in Vietnam entertaining troops with Bob Hope and others touring with the USO, Thomas Tully contracted a filarial worm, similar to the worm which can lead to elephantiasis. After returning to the U.S. his condition was diagnosed after a blood clot in a major leg vein cut off circulation so severely his left leg was amputated very close to the hip. This was circa 1971. The amputation was performed in Laguna Beach, California, close to his home in San Juan Capistrano. Complications to this surgery caused pleuritis, deafness and serious debilitation. His death was due, in great part, to these serious medical conditions. He should be remembered as a true patriot who sacrificed his life to entertain our troops during the Vietnam War.- Actress
- Soundtrack
About as reliable as one could ever find, character actress Mary Treen was a familiar face to most and could always be counted on to bring a bit of levity to any film scene. A minor actress for much of her career, she managed to secure a plain, unassuming niche for herself in 40s, 1950s/60s Hollywood.
She was born Mary Louise Summers in St. Louis, Missouri in 1907, her father dying while she was still an infant. Raised in Southern California by her mother, who once performed under the stage name Helene Sullivan, and her stepfather, a physician, she attended Westlake School for Girls as well as a convent where she tried out successfully in school plays.
Treen began dancing in vaudeville shows and revues before seeking her fame in the movies. Tall (5'9") and stringy-framed, she formed a musical comedy duo with Marjorie Barnett, who was 5'3", billing themselves as "Treen and Barnett: Two Unsophisticated Vassar Co-eds". Much of the comedy was centered around their difference in height. Not a beauty by Hollywood standards, she relied on humor to get attention. In 1934, Warner Brothers signed her up after seeing her in a local play.
After three years, she freelanced. Her scores of pudgy-cheeked nurses, waitresses, career girls, wallflowers and confidantes enhanced many a comedy or, at the very least, offered a brief respite in a heavier drama. A few of her highlights would include such films as Kentucky Moonshine (1938), I Love a Soldier (1944) (the role was written especially for her), Don Juan Quilligan (1945), and the Christmas classic It's a Wonderful Life (1946) (as James Stewart's cousin Tilly). In later years both Jerry Lewis and Elvis Presley utilized her talents in their movie vehicles.
She was given a bit more to do on television and actually stole some scenes as maid/baby nurse Hilda Hinkelmeyer on The Joey Bishop Show (1961) for three seasons. She typically guested on lightweight sitcoms such as "The Andy Griffith Show", "Green Acres", "Here's Lucy", "Happy Days", and "The Dukes of Hazzard".
Perhaps because she could play old maid types so easily in later years, she was often thought to have never married. She actually did marry in 1944 to Herbert C. Pearson, a wholesale liquor dealer. They had no children. He died in 1965. She later moved in with her ex-vaudeville partner, Marjorie Barnett-Klein, also widowed. In later years the two performed their old routines to the delight of other senior citizens. Treen was living in Balboa Beach, California when she died of cancer in 1989, aged 82.- Actor
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Perpetually glum standup comedian Joey Bishop was born
Joseph Abraham Gottlieb on February 3, 1918, in the Bronx, New York. He was the youngest of five
children of Chana "Anna" (Siegel) and Jacob Gottlieb, a bicycle repairman. His father was an Austrian Jewish immigrant and his mother was a Romanian Jew. He was raised in
Philadelphia and learned while growing up how to tap dance, do
imitations and play the mandolin and banjo. Dropping out of high school
at 18, he started out in the humor business in vaudeville as part of a
comedy act with his brother. Billed as "Joey Gottlieb" at the time, he
later joined a comedy group that called themselves "The Bishop Trio"
and kept the last name for himself after the team broke up. His nascent
career was interrupted while serving in the Army during WWII, but
quickly resumed things after his discharge in 1945. He appeared on
television as early as 1948, but it took a while before he caught on. A
master ad-libber, he became a nitery specialist at such establishments
as the Latin Quarter, and served as an opening act for a number of
stars, including Frank Sinatra, in the
mid-50s. As his reputation increased, he became a steadfast cog on the
talk show, sitcom and game show circuits. A frequent and amusing guest
panelist on
What's My Line? (1950), the
jug-eared jokester went on to guest-host on the
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (1962)
a record 177 times. He also frequently appeared as a guest for
Steve Allen and
Jack Paar in their earlier late-nite formats.
Bishop entered the sitcom venue in the early 1960s. On his first show,
The Joey Bishop Show (1961),
he played Joey Barnes, the host of a TV talk show in New York.
Abby Dalton came on board in the second
season as wife Ellie. Among his co-stars were up-and-coming stars
Bill Bixby and
Marlo Thomas and such character veterans as
Joe Besser, of
The Three Stooges fame, and
Mary Treen were brought aboard for stronger
support. This popular show lasted four seasons. Life imitated art
several years later when Bishop went on to compete against Carson for
the late-night viewing audience with his own talk show
The Joey Bishop Show (1967)
for ABC. The show was no match for Carson, however, and quickly
dwindled in ratings, fading away after two years. His
co-host/sidekick/foil was none other than
Regis Philbin.
Dick Cavett eventually replaced him to fill
the ABC midnight void.
Relatively overlooked for his work on film, Bishop did show some
promise early in the game with occasional straight roles that veered
away from his sarcastic comedy demeanor with such roles in
The Deep Six (1958),
The Naked and the Dead (1958)
and Onionhead (1958). He would also
generate public interest as the less-than-slick member of Hollywood's
"Rat Pack", which was comprised of ultra-hip pals
Frank Sinatra,
Dean Martin,
Sammy Davis Jr. and
Peter Lawford. Known as "Sinatra's comic"
at one time (for having frequently opened for the star), Bishop wrote
material and serving as the emcee for many of the clan's Las Vegas
shows in the 1960s. In addition he appeared in the "Rat Pack"-oriented
movies Ocean's Eleven (1960) and
Sergeants 3 (1962), but the
straight-laced comedian later butted heads with the party-hearty
Sinatra and split while the next film
Robin and the 7 Hoods (1964)
was in preparation. Elsewhere, he appeared as either a foil, sidekick,
or guest cameos in such standard movies as
Johnny Cool (1963),
Texas Across the River (1966)
with Dean Martin,
Who's Minding the Mint? (1967)
and even
Valley of the Dolls (1967).
Once his late night TV show folded he returned to night clubs for a
time but gradually withdrew more and more from the show-biz limelight
in the 1970s. He appeared in only three films after this point --
The Delta Force (1986),
Betsy's Wedding (1990) and
Mad Dog Time (1996) -- and showing
up on a rare occasion as a TV guest. Married to Sylvia Ruzga since
1941, their son Larry Bishop is an
actor-turned-director and producer. Long retired and the last surviving
"Rat Pack" member after Sinatra's death in 1998, his wife Sylvia of 58
years died of cancer in 1999. Joey, in failing health for some time,
died of multiple organ failure on October 17, 2007, at his Newport
Beach, California home.- Michael Sheard was born on 18 June 1938 in Aberdeen, Grampian, Scotland, UK. He was an actor, known for Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980), The Outsider (1983) and Mind Your Language (1977). He was married to Rosalind Allaway. He died on 31 August 2005 in Newport, Isle of Wight, England, UK.
- John Zaremba was born on 22 October 1908 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. He was an actor, known for 20 Million Miles to Earth (1957), Earth vs. the Flying Saucers (1956) and The Time Tunnel (1966). He was married to Elinor Deck Suter. He died on 15 December 1986 in Newport Beach, California, USA.
- An immaculate gent of sober appearance and cultivated presence, Bate
was seemingly destined to play spymasters and senior civil servants.
Lean, pale-eyed and of deceptively mild intonation, he was capable of
unnervingly icy composure, never more effectively displayed than as the
chameleon-like Soviet mole Kim Philby in
ITV's telemovie
Philby, Burgess and Maclean (1977).
In similar vein, Bate played the enigmatic, debonair American-born
spook, Bret Renssalaer, in Len Deighton's
Game, Set, and Match (1988).
Most famously, he added an authentic touch to the affable, officious
Home Office security undersecretary, Sir Oliver Lacon -- "Whitehall's
Head Prefect" - in John le Carré's
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (1979),
and its sequel,
Smiley's People (1982).
Anthony Bate began working life behind the bar of a hotel owned by his
family on the Isle of Wight. After completing his national service with
the Royal Navy Volunteers in 1947, he started dabbling in amateur
dramatics and then took the next step to formal training at London's
Central School of Speech and Drama, graduating a gold medal winner.
After the obligatory sojourn in repertory theatre, he made his West End
debut in a 1960 dramatisation of the famous 1925 Scopes Trial, "Inherit
the Wind", at St. Martin's Theatre. Over the next three decades, he
drew many excellent notices for such classical roles as Don Pedro in
"Much Ado About Nothing", for the Royal Shakespeare Company.
In occasional films from 1957, Bate popped up as straight man in minor
comedies, like
Dentist in the Chair (1960).
However, in due course, he found his niche to be on the small screen,
where he was increasingly sought-after by producers for a wide variety
of characters of, either, furtive, stern, starchy, supercilious or
sinister disposition. Besides crime and espionage, Bate was a
ubiquitous protagonist in screen adaptations from the classics: the
obsessive Inspector Javert on the trail of
Frank Finlay's Jean Valjeon, in a
1967 version of Victor Hugo's
oft-filmed masterpiece; as the intrepid Dr. Livesey of
Treasure Island (1977); and
as the Knight's Templar, Sir Brian de Bois Guilbert, chief nemesis of
Ivanhoe (1970). Another of his
outright villains was treacherous London gangster Eddie Edwards, taking
advantage of his boss's (Ray McAnally)
incarceration to usurp his criminal empire. In
Intimate Strangers (1974),
Bate was given a rare starring role, as a middle-aged family man,
re-evaluating his life after a heart attack. This introspective and
nuanced performance was, arguably, one of his best. The cool,
unflappable Mr. Bate also portrayed such historical personae as
Joseph Stalin, Field Marshal
Gerd von Rundstedt and
Eduard Shevardnadze -- all with
equal vigour and conviction. One of the unsung heroes of British
television, Anthony Bate passed away in June 2012 at the age of 84. - Norman Jones was born on 16 June 1932 in Donnington, Telford, Shropshire, England, UK. He was an actor, known for You Only Live Twice (1967), The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971) and Curtain of Fear (1964). He died on 23 April 2013 in Newport, Shropshire, England, UK.
- Niall MacGinnis is not as well known outside of Europe, but he was a
wonderful character actor whose variety of roles matched his great gift
for characterization and the look beyond just makeup that he projected.
He was educated at Stonyhurst College and Trinity College, Dublin. He obtained a basic medical education which qualified him as a house (resident) surgeon during World War II in the Royal Navy. But after the war he decided to pursue acting. He worked in stage repertoire and stock companies and moved on to do significant stage work at the Old Vic Theatre in London, where
John Gielgud was director and Shakespeare has a particular focus. MacGinnis had the burly look of a farm hand with a large head and curly hair falling away from a progressively receding hairline. He could portray a broad enough accent - or little at all, as the case might be - which could entail any part of the British Isles.
He moved on to film work in 1935 when British sound cinema was hitting its stride. He met young but well experienced director Michael Powell, who was eager to sell his script for an intriguing film to be shot on the furthest island from the north coast of the UK, Foulda. Alexander Korda was impressed and optioned the production of this script for
The Edge of the World (1937), and MacGinnis got the nod as the central protagonist, Andrew Gray. Soon after in 1938, MacGinnis worked with Old Vic mentor and director Gielgud for a role in an early TV production of the play "Spring Meeting" (1938). As the war years ensued and before his own service, MacGinnis did several war effort films, most notably asked by Powell to take the role of a German U-boat cook in 49th Parallel (1941). The film
sported a great ensemble cast, including Leslie Howard and
Raymond Massey, and was shot in Canada where the drama unfolded, but it lacked the drive to keep the story vital. MacGinnis shone as the good-natured peasant who loved food and had no use for Nazi strictures and warring on the world. Luckily for Powell, the movie with its flag waving spirit was a huge hit on both sides of the Atlantic.
By the late 1940s, MacGinnis was donning historical garb for what would
be some of his most familiar roles. Olivier remembered him and gave him
small but standout roles in both his Henry V (1944) and
Hamlet (1948). At about that time MacGinnis began associations with American film actors and production money coming over to Britain, the first being with Fredric March and his wife Florence Eldridge in
Christopher Columbus (1949). He finally came to American shores with an appearance on Broadway in "Caesar and Cleopatra" in late 1951 through April of 1952. In 1952 back in England, he had a supporting role as the Herald in a screen version of the story of Thomas a' Becket titled
Murder in the Cathedral (1951). Interestingly, he was also in the much better known and Hollywood-financed Becket (1964), as one
of the four murderous barons. When MGM came back to England to follow
up its previous visit and subsequent huge hit, Ivanhoe (1952), with
Knights of the Round Table (1953), MacGinnis had a brief but again noticeable role as the Green Knight, bound by loss of combat to Robert Taylor as Ivanhoe. The next year brought one of his rare lead roles, an exemplary one in every measure. As Luther in Martin Luther (1953), MacGinnis joined a mostly British cast in a US/West German co-production and American director Irving Pichel with West
German and historical scenery topped with a first rate script with
American and German co-writers. It received two Oscar nominations.
Into the later 1950s, MacGinnis held to a steady diet of sturdy movie
roles, usually supporting but always memorable because of his great
acting skill. Historically, he went further back in time with several
films of epic Ancient Greece, first as King Menelaus in Helen of Troy (1956), an American/Italian co-production with Robert Wise directing. That same year he stayed on the continent for another epic, this time Alexander the Great (1956) with American director Robert Rossen in an US/Spanish co-production that enlisted another first tier British cast, centered on box office idol Richard Burton, along with former co-star Freddy March. MacGinnis finally made it to Mount Olympus - that is, playing Zeus - in the rousing US/UK co-production of Jason and the Argonauts (1963), certainly best remembered for the stop motion animation magic of Ray Harryhausen.
Yet, MacGinnis' perhaps best remembered role - certainly to discriminating fans of horror/fantasy - was that of two-faced Dr. Julian Karswell, jocular magician - but deadly serious cult leader and demon conjurer (loosely based on the outrageous English social rebel and occultist Aleister Crowley). The film Curse of the Demon (1957) (the American cut was renamed "Curse of the Demon") was a stylishly atmospheric and convincingly spooky outing directed by Jacques Tourneur, the protégé of Hollywood veteran film
producer Val Lewton, best known for Cat People (1942). Based on M.R. James' Edwardian ghost story, "Casting the Runes," the film is now considered a classic of the genre with MacGinnis, sporting a devilish goatee, having fun with his split personality but also effectively betraying his inward fear of the powers he has unleashed. He easily stole the show from co-star Dana Andrews, as the stubborn American psychologist almost done in by the demon he does not believe exists.
Through the 1960s and into the 1970s, MacGinnis kept to up a fairly
steady stream of varied historical and contemporary movie roles, always
noticeable, and in some of the high profile films of the period,
including: Billy Budd (1962), The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1965), and the Cinerama adventure Krakatoa: East of Java (1968). There were some TV spots as well to showcase his character-molding
talents into the year of his passing to round out a body of over 75
screen appearances. - On Friday, August 5, the Lakers and Angels lost their biggest fan.
Richard Roat, the most supportive friend a person in the entertainment industry could ever have, passed away suddenly.
Richard had amassed over 135 acting roles on television, film, and on Broadway. He guest starred on "The Golden Girls" twice, the first as a Murder Mystery Host and later playing Betty White's boyfriend, only to be found dead in her bed the next morning. He appeared in "Friends," "Seinfeld," "Hill Street Blues," and just about every TV show going back to "Car 54 Where Are You?"
Richard performed on Broadway, (Sunday in New York, Any Wednesday, The Wall,) at The Public Theatre in Central Park (Julius Caesar,) The Huntington Hartford Theatre in Los Angeles, (Boys in the Band) and the Pasadena Playhouse (Moon Over Buffalo.)
In addition to his distinguished career as an actor, Richard had a successful practice as an entertainment tax preparer for over 50 years.
As an individual, Richard was a true Renaissance Man. He loved music, playing the violin, the theatre, movies, literature, provocative conversation, and a good whiskey. Richard loved sports and would have been ecstatic that the Angels won on the Friday night he passed. He had a gorgeous smile, a naughty twinkle in his eyes, and loved to badinage with everyone.
His greatest love was his family, with whom he shared his incredible sense of humor, intelligence, and unmatched zest for life.
Richard was fortunate to marry the love of his life, his true soulmate, Kathy. They had recently celebrated their fortieth wedding anniversary. Their life together was a magical journey of travel, fun, laughter, and love. It was truly "An Affair to Remember."
Richard will be missed by family, friends, colleagues, and clients. He will be thought of often, with warm memories and a quiet chuckle for all the good times he brought to our lives. - Actress
- Soundtrack
A professional entertainer since the age of six, blue-eyed brunette
Jane Frazee and her older sister Ruth Frazee
had a vaudeville sister act and appeared in nightclubs and on radio
together. They journeyed to Hollywood, but the act broke up when Ruth
failed her screen tests and Jane passed hers. Jane was quite attractive
with a pleasant singing voice, and went on to play in numerous westerns
and light musicals after signing with Republic Pictures. She later
appeared in a number of films for Universal Pictures, which put her to
the test by having her warble amidst the antics of
Bud Abbott and
Lou Costello in
Buck Privates (1941) and
Ole Olsen and
Chic Johnson in
Hellzapoppin' (1941). She married
actor/director Glenn Tryon in 1942 and had a
son, Timothy, but the couple divorced in 1947. Moving into TV guest
appearances in the early 1950s, Jane later retired and started a
successful real estate business. She died in Newport Beach, California
at age 67 following complications from a stroke on September 6, 1985.- Writer
- Producer
- Actress
Actress, producer and writer Yakira Chambers grew up on the Southside of Chicago. She graduated from Southern Illinois University with a Bachelor of Science and started her working life in St. Louis as a software quality assurance manager. After completing a Master's Degree in business administration, she moved to Los Angeles to find work in the entertainment industry. Chambers studied the Meisner technique for two years at the Baron Brown Studio in L.A. and then further honed her craft through the Midsummer in Oxford Program at Magdalen College. She made her screen debut in 2007. Five years later, she worked as executive producer on a TV sitcom, M.O. Diaries (2012), in which she also starred as Michelle Obama. She later appeared in several films which addressed social issues. In 2020, she was selected for the Viacom CBS Writers Mentoring Program. This led to Chambers becoming a staff writer and story editor on the spin-off series NCIS: Hawai'i (2021). Tragically, her life was cut short due to acute asphyxia on November 30, 2022. She was aged just 42.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Dark-haired beauty Jeanne Carolyn Cagney was born in New York City, New York on March 25, 1919 - just a few months after the end of World War I. She and her four brothers - including James Cagney and William Cagney - were raised by her widowed mother. Jeanne majored in French and German during her years at Hunter College High School, and starred in plays produced by the Hunter College of City College of New York. Upon graduating from college, she studied acting at the Pasadena Playhouse in California.
She began her movie career in 1939, with a role in the obscure comedy All Women Have Secrets (1939). This succeeded an appearance on Bing Crosby's radio program. However, she did not become known until three years later, when she acted in the highly-acclaimed biographical musical Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) alongside her brother, James (who won an Academy Award for his performance as George M. Cohan). Regrettably, Jeanne only made sporadic appearances in film and television until her retirement from acting in 1965. Notable movies include Quicksand (1950) - in which she played a femme fatale - and the Marilyn Monroe thriller Don't Bother to Knock (1952). Jeanne also made three more films with her brother James (The Time of Your Life (1948), A Lion Is in the Streets (1953), and Man of a Thousand Faces (1957)), and, in 1948, appeared on stage in a production of 'The Iceman Cometh'.
Jeanne was married to actor Ross Latimer from 1944 to 1952. She later wed Jack Sherman Morrison, a faculty member in theater arts at UCLA, in 1953, with whom she had two daughters: Mary and Terry. Jeanne and Morrison ended their marriage in 1973.
Jeanne Cagney was sadly diagnosed with lung cancer later on in her life, and died of the disease on December 7, 1984. She was 65. While not a household name, Ms. Cagney is remembered today among modern-day aficionados of 1940s and 1950s cinema.- Dale Van Sickel was born on 29 November 1907 in Eatonton, Georgia, USA. He was an actor, known for Radar Patrol vs. Spy King (1949), Zombies of the Stratosphere (1952) and The Crimson Ghost (1946). He was married to Iris Van Sickel. He died on 25 January 1977 in Newport Beach, California, USA.
- Estelle Etterre was born on 26 July 1899 in San Francisco, California, USA. She was an actress, known for Free Wheeling (1932), Sisters Under the Skin (1934) and The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show (1950). She died on 7 March 1996 in Newport Beach, California, USA.
- Cinematographer
- Special Effects
- Editorial Department
The favorite cinematographer of legendary director
Alfred Hitchcock began working
at Warner Bros. when he was 19 years old. He climbed his way up from
camera operator to assistant camera man and eventually took over the
Special Photographic Effects unit at Warners on Stage 5 in 1944. He
became an expert in forced perspective techniques which were widely in
use at the time as cost-saving measures, or on B-pictures. Burks did
special effects work on major productions like
Arsenic and Old Lace (1944),
The Unsuspected (1947) and
Key Largo (1948).
In 1949, Burks graduated to becoming a fully-fledged director of
photography. His striking black & white work on
The Fountainhead (1949) was
particularly evocative in showcasing the stark, austere architectural
lines of the film's chief protagonist, Howard Roark
(Gary Cooper). On the strength of
this, and his next film,
The Glass Menagerie (1950),
Hitchcock hired him to
shoot his thriller
Strangers on a Train (1951).
From this developed one of Hollywood's most inspired collaborations, as
well as a close personal friendship.
When his contract at Warner Brothers expired in 1953, Burks followed
Hitchcock to Paramount and went on to play an integral part in
creating the brooding, tension-laden atmosphere of the director's best
work between 1954 and 1964. His range varied from the neo-realist,
almost semi-documentary black & white look of
The Wrong Man (1956) to the
intensely warm and beautiful deep focus VistaVision colour photography
of Vertigo (1958). His muted tones
matching the claustrophobic setting of
Rear Window (1954) stood in sharp
contrast to the vibrant, full-hued colours used in the expansive
outdoor footage of
To Catch a Thief (1955) and
North by Northwest (1959).
The experience Burks had gained in forced perspective miniatures in his
early days at Warner Brothers, also stood him in good stead on
'Vertigo' (the mission tower), 'North by Northwest' (the Mount Rushmore
scenes) and, later, 'The Birds'. Because of his expertise, Burks was
often able to contribute ideas to shooting scenes more effectively. He
was also an innovator in the application of both telephoto and wide
angle lenses as a means to creating a specific mood. The
Hitchcock-Burks partnership ended after
Marnie (1964), and, under less-inspired
directors (except for
A Patch of Blue (1965)), his later
work inevitably declined in quality. Robert Burks and his wife, Elysabeth, were
tragically killed in a fire at their house in May 1968.
Robert Burks won the 1955 Academy Award for Best Colour Photography for
'To Catch a Thief'. He was also nominated for 'Strangers on a Train',
'Rear Window' and 'A Patch of Blue'.- Kane Richmond was born on 23 December 1906 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA. He was an actor, known for The Lost City (1935), Spy Smasher (1942) and Brick Bradford (1947). He was married to Marion Burns. He died on 22 March 1973 in Corona Del Mar, Newport Beach, California, USA.
- Handsome, strapping, wavy-haired, New Jersey-born Bill Edwards started
out to be an artist but sidetracked somewhat successfully into acting
during WWII. Born on September 14, 1918, he was raised in Wyoming
country and rode on the rodeo circuit for a couple of years until a
number of broken bones forced him to rethink his life's direction. He
traveled to New York to pursue art and studied at the Art Students
League. To supplement his tuition he worked as a 6'5", 215 lb. Conover
model. A talent agent saw his pictures and encouraged him to try
acting.
Despite his complete lack of experience, Warner Brothers saw promise in
Bill's blond-haired, blue-eyed good looks and solid-oak build and
placed him under contract in 1942. For the first two years he appeared
in a number of unbilled parts as reporter and military types in such
films as
Murder in the Big House (1942),
Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942),
Escape from Crime (1942),
Air Force (1943) and
Princess O'Rourke (1943).
Unable to rise above these small parts, he moved to Paramount where he
earned his first featured part as Forrest Noble, the mayor's son who is
engaged to Ella Raines in the
Preston Sturges classic
Hail the Conquering Hero (1944).
He then went on play Diana Lynn's hunky love
interest in
Our Hearts Were Young and Gay (1944)
and its sequel
Our Hearts Were Growing Up (1946)
but couldn't do better than being billed sixth and eighth in the films
Miss Susie Slagle's (1946)
with Veronica Lake and
The Virginian (1946) with
Joel McCrea, respectively.
Freelancing by 1947, Bill found himself cast in primarily "Poverty Row"
programmers. He was billed third behind
Jane Withers and
Robert Lowery in the Pine Thomas
production Danger Street (1947) and
made use of his cowboy-raised upbringing with the westerns, again third
billed in
Home in San Antone (1949)
starring Roy Acuff,
Panorama from a Moving Train on White Pass & Yukon Railway, Alaska (1905)
starring Kirby Grant and
Border Outlaws (1950) starring
cowboy singer Spade Cooley. He received his
one and only star status in the western
The Fighting Stallion (1950)
for the Jack Schwarz Productions.
It would have seemed Bill could have continued on as a cowboy star but
his acting proved wooden and following a few more years in films and TV
guest spots ("Bonanza," "Dragnet," etc.), abandoned his career and
returned to his first joy -- art. He later became a familiar name in
California as an exhibited oil and acrylic painter of the Old West and
as an illustrator. A well-known scuba diver and instructor in the
Southern California area, he at one time owned a diving and scuba gear
shop. Bill also returned to occasional acting in the 1970s and 1980s,
notably the film
Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970) and
the TV movies Pearl (1978) and
Gidget's Summer Reunion (1985).
Long married to Hazel Allen in 1946, the couple had one daughter,
Linda. They divorced in the mid 1970s after nearly 30 years of marriage
and Bill married Beryl Hunter in the ensuing years. Following their
divorce, he remarried first wife Hazel, who survived him. Bill suffered
from a disease that attacked his muscular system in his final years and
he died of pneumonia in Southern California in 1999 at age 81. - Actor
- Writer
- Director
Coming from a theatrical family, Jack Douglas' entry into show business
was as a producer, however, not as a performer. His father was a
theatrical producer, and Jack followed in his footsteps at an early age--he produced his first show at 15. Douglas showed no interest in the
performing end of the business until one night when one of his actors
took ill and, there being no replacement, Douglas put on the
character's costume and did it himself. He enjoyed it so much that he
soon gave up producing comedies and began performing in them. It wasn't
long before he became one of the more recognizable character actors in
British films, especially in the "Carry On" series, where he played a variation
on his most famous character, a nervous, terrified and perpetually
fidgety little man.- Diane Sayer was born on 22 February 1938 in Los Angeles, California, USA. She was an actress, known for Kitten with a Whip (1964), The Strangler (1964) and Madigan (1968). She was married to Jerry Shepard. She died on 26 March 2001 in Newport Beach, California, USA.
- Director
- Animation Department
- Music Department
Wilfred Jackson was born on 24 January 1906 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. He was a director, known for Cinderella (1950), Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) and Alice in Wonderland (1951). He died on 7 August 1988 in Balboa Island, Newport Beach, California, USA.- Music Department
- Composer
- Actor
Born March 14, 1922, at Mexia, Texas. He learned to play the piano at
five years of age and studied at the Detroit Conservatory and at
Pepperdine College in Los Angeles, California (his uncle was the
college's first president). He began his career as a concert pianist
but later joined Mel Tormé's "Meltones" in
1945. Baxter conducted a number of radio shows including "The Bob Hope
Show". His recording of "The Poor People of Paris" in March 1956 was a
#1 hit and sold more single copies than any other recording during that
decade (the song got that title by mistake. Originally titled "The
Ballad of Poor John" when it was popularized in France, a Capitol
Records representative cabled the title to the US; the cable used the
word "gens", meaning "people", instead of "jean"). Another major hit
was "April in Portugal", which was based on a song by
Raúl Ferrão. It was originally entitled
"Coimbra" (after a city in Portugal) and later introduced in the US as
the whispering serenade. But Jimmy Kennedy wrote a new set of lyrics in
1952 for it and it became a huge hit for Baxter\, who also wrote the
scores for over 120 motion pictures.
He died of heart and kidney problems on January 15, 1996.- Valerie Gaunt was an English actress who had a brief acting career in the 1950s. She is primarily remembered for portraying an unnamed Vampire Woman in an horror film produced by Hammer Film Productions. Her role was the studio's first vampire character with visible fangs.
Little is known about Gaunt's background. She was trained as an actress in the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), a drama school located in London. She graduated in 1951, and worked primarily in repertory theatre. In 1956, she had a guest-star role in the police procedural television series "Dixon of Dock Green" (1955 -1976). The series focused on an old-fashioned "bobby" (policeman) who investigated petty crime cases in the East End of London.
The film director Terence Fisher (1904 - 1980) noticed Gaunt while watching television, and offered her a role in an upcoming horror film. Gaunt made her film debut in Fisher's "The Curse of Frankenstein" (1957), the first horror film in color produced by Hammer Film productions. The film was a loose adaptation of the novel "Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus" (1818) by Mary Shelley, re-imagined as a "morally ambiguous chamber piece".
Gaunt portrayed Justine, a maid who works for Baron Victor Frankenstein (played by Peter Cushing) and secretly serves as his mistress. When a pregnant Justine attempts to blackmail Victor into marrying her, Victor orchestrates her murder. He is later executed for her murder, with his former mentor refusing to testify on his behalf. Unlike other versions of the Frankenstein story, Victor does not abandon his monster. He is instead trying to use it as a weapon against his enemies.
The film was a box office hit, earning about 8 million dollars at the worldwide box office. Hammer Film decided to produce more gothic horror films, and Gaunt was asked to appear on the next one. She was cast as the Vampire Woman in "Dracula" (1958), a loose adaptation of the novel by Bram Stoker. Her character was loosely based on the three Brides of Dracula from the original novel. Gaunt portrayed the first female vampire depicted by Hammer Film, which later specialized in vampire films. This film was also a box office hit.
Gaunt decided to end her film career just as it was starting. In 1958, she married the stock broker Gerald Alfred Reddington and permanently retired from acting. She was only 26-years-old at the time. Gaunt lived the rest of her life away from the spotlight. In 2016, she died in the Isle of Wight at the age of 84. Despite her brief career, she remains familiar to fans of classic British horror films. Both of her film appearances enjoy enduring popularity, ensuring a measure of fame for Gaunt. - Producer
- Actor
- Additional Crew
William (Bill) Cagney (producer brother of star James Cagney) was
almost a dead ringer for his, in front of the camera, more famous
brother. When first wife Boots' younger sister Viola "Bodie" (Mallory)
Avinger gave birth to identical twin boys Cleveland (Cleve) and Steven
(Steve) Lewis on February 19, 1941 - Boots Mallory Cagney wanted twins
like her middle sister and so she and Bill Cagney adopted fraternal
twins Jill and William shortly after that.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Richard Martin began working in
films as a receptionist at MGM in the late 1930s. He began appearing in
films while under contract to RKO in the early 1940s. Martin created
the character of "Chito Jose Gonzalez Bustamonte Rafferty", the
Irish-Mexican comic sidekick of cowboy star
Tim Holt, in the 1943 film
Bombardier (1943). He played the
character in a series of 29 films through the early 1950s. Martin
married actress Elaine Riley, who
co-starred with him in several films. He retired from the screen to
work in the insurance business in the early 1950s.- Producer
- Writer
- Director
Roy Edward Disney began working for the Walt Disney Company as an
assistant film editor on the True-Life Adventure film in 1954. In 1967,
he was elected to the Board of Directors of the company. In 1984, he
returned to the company as vice chairman of the board, and head of the
animation department. On October 16, 1998, in a surprise presentation
made at the newly unveiled Disney Legends Plaza at the company's
headquarters, Disney Chairman and CEO Michael Eisner presented him with the
prestigious Disney Legends Award.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Richard Lane was born on 28 May 1899 in Rice Lake, Wisconsin, USA. He was an actor, known for The Big Wheel (1949), Meet Boston Blackie (1941) and Take Me Out to the Ball Game (1949). He died on 5 September 1982 in Newport Beach, California, USA.- Director
- Animation Department
- Art Department
Clyde Geronimi was born on 12 June 1901 in Chiavenna, Lombardy, Italy. He was a director, known for Cinderella (1950), Alice in Wonderland (1951) and Peter Pan (1953). He died on 24 April 1989 in Newport Beach, California, USA.- Cinematographer
- Camera and Electrical Department
- Director
Gilbert Taylor was born on 21 April 1914 in Bushey Heath, Hertfordshire, England, UK. He was a cinematographer and director, known for Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977), Flash Gordon (1980) and The Omen (1976). He was married to Dee Vaughan and Eileen Donnelly. He died on 23 August 2013 in Newport, Isle of Wight, England, UK.- Charles 'Mask' Lewis Jr. was born on 23 June 1963 in San Bernardino, California, USA. He was an actor, known for History of MMA: The Politics of Combat Sports (2024), History of MMA (2012) and Mask (2015). He died on 11 March 2009 in Newport Beach, California, USA.
- Susan Hawkins was born on 11 August 1934 in Marylebone, London, England, UK. She was an actress, known for Carolyn (1956). She was married to John Tettemer. She died on 11 May 2004 in Newport Beach, California, USA.
- Director
- Writer
- Producer
Richard L. Bare was born on 12 August 1913 in Turlock, California, USA. He was a director and writer, known for 77 Sunset Strip (1958), I Sailed to Tahiti with an All Girl Crew (1969) and Wicked, Wicked (1973). He was married to Gloria Jean Bailey, Jeanne Evans, Julie Van Zandt, Phyllis Coates, Virginia May Carpenter and Barbara Joyce. He died on 28 March 2015 in Newport Beach, California, USA.- Actor
- Producer
- Director
Beau Vanden Ecker was born on 25 November 1930 in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA. He was an actor and producer, known for Hawaii Five-O (1968), Murphy's Law (1986) and China Gate (1957). He died on 9 May 2007 in Newport Beach, California, USA.- Writer
- Producer
- Director
Joe Connelly was born on 22 August 1917 in New York City, New York, USA. He was a writer and producer, known for Leave It to Beaver (1957), The Ray Milland Show (1953) and Karen (1964). He was married to Anastasi Pedroncelli and Cathryn Therese Scanlan. He died on 13 February 2003 in Newport Beach, California, USA.- Cinematographer
- Camera and Electrical Department
Born Russell September 16, 1903 in Los Angeles, California to Frank and
Bertha Harlan, who hailed from Iowa and Missouri. Russell was raised in
Los Angeles along with his younger brother Richard (b. 1911). His
paternal grandmother Sarah J. Harlan also lived with the family.
Harlan started in the film industry as an actor and stuntman, and by
the early 1930s was working behind the camera as an assistant. His
first work as lead cinematographer was in 1937, when he filmed four
"Hopalong Cassidy" westerns for Harry Sherman Productions. Harlan had a
career as a cinematographer that spanned some thirty-three years from
1937 to 1970. He was nominated six times for the Academy Award for Best
Cinematography, including two in 1962 for his work on Hatari! and To
Kill a Mockingbird.
Russell was married to Willette Marion Gregg (1914-1963). They had
three children together.
Russell Harlan died February 28, 1974 in Newport Beach, California and
was laid to rest in Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery, Glendale,
California.- Kathy Marlowe was born on 31 December 1934 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA. She was an actress, known for The Phenix City Story (1955), The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show (1950) and Queen of Outer Space (1958). She was married to Gerald Thompson and Harry Jackson. She died on 2 July 2022 in Newport Beach, California, USA.
- Actor
- Transportation Department
- Additional Crew
The son of an opera singer, Dan Gurney grew up in California and began
his racing career by drag racing at the local strips. He began his
professional career in 1955 and worked his way to Formula 1 four years
later when he raced for Ferrari. He won his first grand prix race in
1962 and was considered one of the best young American drivers as he
also won races in Can-Am, NASCAR and USAC. His greatest win was at the
1967 Belgian Grand Prix, when he became the only American to win a
Formula 1 race in a car of his own design. After nearly winning the
Indianapolis 500 as a driver, Gurney pretty much hung up his helmet and
turned to race ownership where his team won the 1975 Indy 500. Gurney
continued to own a racing team in the IMSA and CART Series. Gurney is
considered one of the greatest American race drivers of all
time.- Wade Crosby was born on 22 August 1905 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, USA. He was an actor, known for Westworld (1973), Tales of Robin Hood (1951) and Rose of the Yukon (1949). He died on 2 October 1975 in Newport Beach, California, USA.
- Touted by contemporary studio publicity as a 'native Parisian', Marcelle was in fact born in Brussels on January 8 1890. Her father, who was most definitely French, had her packed off to be educated at private schools in Paris and Geneva. She began her acting career on stage in her home town before moving to Paris where she delighted audiences as an ensemble member of Jacques Copeau's Théâtre du Vieux-Colombier. The financier and producer Otto Kahn eventually took over the company and brought the troupe to New York with a portfolio of twenty-five plays. They were to be featured at the Garrick Theatre in midtown Manhattan, which had been leased to Kahn in 1916. By 1924, the brunette, grey-eyed, somewhat regal looking actress had made her way to California for her feature film debut, perhaps at the behest of Kahn who was himself enamoured with Hollywood. Over the next 24 years, Marcelle would appear numerous times as (usually French) governesses, maids, concierges and nurses. By the mid 30's, her roles had shifted to mostly unbilled bits. Nonetheless, she stuck around as a freelance supporting player until leaving the business in 1952. She spent her remaining life in California and died at Newport Beach in June 1971 at the age of 81.
- Yvonne Horner was born on 25 March 1943 in Seaview, Isle of Wight, England, UK. She was an actress, known for One Million Years B.C. (1966), Prehistoric Women (1967) and Baby Love (1969). She was married to Dennis Maher and John Horner. She died on 4 November 1998 in Newport, Isle of Wight, England, UK.
- Katherine Johnson was born on 26 August 1918 in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, USA. She was married to James Arthur Johnson and James Francis Goble. She died on 24 February 2020 in Newport News, Virginia, USA.
- Frances Gladwin was born on 30 October 1920 in Ashland, Oregon, USA. She was an actress, known for Cattle Stampede (1943), Thundering Gun Slingers (1944) and Stagecoach Outlaws (1945). She died on 11 November 1965 in Newport Beach, California, USA.
- Sherwood Bailey was born on 6 August 1923 in Long Beach, California, USA. He was an actor, known for Choo-Choo! (1932), Readin' and Writin' (1932) and The Pooch (1932). He was married to Ruth. He died on 6 August 1987 in Newport Beach, California, USA.