Advanced search
- TITLES
- NAMES
- COLLABORATIONS
Search filters
Enter full date
to
or just enter yyyy, or yyyy-mm below
to
Only includes names with the selected topics
to
or just enter yyyy, or yyyy-mm below
to
1-50 of 3,975
- Actress
- Soundtrack
Anne Baxter was born in Michigan City, Indiana, on May 7, 1923. She was the daughter of a salesman, Kenneth Stuart Baxter, and his wife, Catherine Dorothy (Wright), who herself was the daughter of Frank Lloyd Wright, the world-renowned architect. Anne was a young girl of 11 when her parents moved to New York City, which at that time was still the hub of the entertainment industry even though the film colony was moving west. The move there encouraged her to consider acting as a vocation. By the time she was 13 she had already appeared in a stage production of 'Seen but Not Heard'", and had garnered rave reviews from the tough Broadway critics. The play helped her gain entrance to an exclusive acting school.
In 1937, Anne made her first foray into Hollywood to test the waters there in the film industry. As she was thought to be too young for a film career, she packed her bags and returned to the New York stage with her mother, where she continued to act on Broadway and summer stock up and down the East Coast. Undaunted by the failure of her previous effort to crack Hollywood, Anne returned to California two years later to try again. This time her luck was somewhat better. She took a screen test which was ultimately seen by the moguls of Twentieth Century-Fox, and she was signed to a seven-year contract. However, before she could make a movie with Fox, Anne was loaned out to MGM to make 20 Mule Team (1940). At only 17 years of age, she was already in the kind of pictures that other starlets would have had to slave for years as an extra before landing a meaty role. Back at Fox, that same year, Anne played Mary Maxwell in The Great Profile (1940), which was a box-office dud. The following year she played Amy Spettigue in the remake of Charley's Aunt (1941). It still wasn't a great role, but it was better than a bit part. The only other film job Anne appeared in that year was in Swamp Water (1941). It was the first role that was really worth anything, but critics weren't that impressed with Anne, her role nor the movie. In 1942 Anne played Joseph Cotten's daughter, Lucy Morgan, in The Magnificent Ambersons (1942). The following year she appeared in The North Star (1943), the first film where she received top billing. The film was a critical and financial success and Anne came in for her share of critical plaudits. Guest in the House (1944) the next year was a dismal failure, but Sunday Dinner for a Soldier (1944) was received much better by the public, though it was ripped apart by the critics. Anne starred with John Hodiak, who would become her first husband in 1947 (Anne was to divorce Hodiak in 1954. Her other two husbands were Randolph Galt and David Klee).
In 1946 Anne portrayed Sophie MacDonald in The Razor's Edge (1946), a film that would land her an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. She had come a long way in so short a time, but for her next two films she was just the narrator: Mother Wore Tights (1947) and Blaze of Noon (1947). It would be 1950 before she landed another decent role--the part of Eve Harrington in All About Eve (1950). This film garnered Anne her second nomination, but she lost the Oscar to Judy Holliday for Born Yesterday (1950). After several films through the 1950s, Anne landed what many considered a plum role--Queen Nefretiri in Cecil B. DeMille's The Ten Commandments (1956). Never in her Hollywood career did Anne look as beautiful as she did as the Egyptian queen, opposite Charlton Heston and Yul Brynner. After that epic, job offers got fewer because she wasn't tied to a studio, instead opting to freelance her talents. After no appearances in 1958, she made one film in 1959 Season of Passion (1959) and one in 1960 Cimarron (1960).
After Walk on the Wild Side (1962), she took a hiatus from filming for the next four years. She was hardly idle, though. She appeared often on stage and on television. She wasn't particularly concerned with being a celebrity or a personality; she was more concerned with being just an actress and trying hard to produce the best performance she was capable of. After several notable TV appearances, Anne became a staple of two television series, East of Eden (1981) and Hotel (1983). Her final moment before the public eye was as Irene Adler in the TV film Sherlock Holmes and the Masks of Death (1984). On December 12, 1985, Anne died of a stroke in New York. She was 62.- Actor
- Director
- Writer
With features chiseled in stone, and renowned for playing a long list of historical figures, particularly in Biblical epics, the tall, well-built and ruggedly handsome Charlton Heston was one of Hollywood's top leading men of his prime and remained active in front of movie cameras for over sixty years. As a Hollywood star, he appeared in 100 films over the course of 60 years. He played Moses in the epic film, The Ten Commandments (1956) , for which he received his first Golden Globe Award nomination. He also starred in Touch of Evil (1958) with Orson Welles; Ben-Hur, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor (1959); El Cid (1961); and Planet of the Apes (1968). He also starred in the films The Greatest Show on Earth (1952); Secret of the Incas (1954); The Big Country (1958); and The Agony and the Ecstasy (1965). A supporter of Democratic politicians and civil rights in the 1960s, Heston later became a Republican, founding a conservative political action committee and supporting Ronald Reagan. Heston's most famous role in politics came as the five-term president of the National Rifle Association, from 1998 to 2003.
Heston was born John Charles Carter on October 4, 1923, in No Man's Land, Illinois, to Lila (Charlton) and Russell Whitford Carter, who operated a sawmill. He had English and Scottish ancestry, with recent Canadianforebears.
Heston made his feature film debut as the lead character in a 16mm production of Peer Gynt (1941), based on the Henrik Ibsen play. In 1944, Heston enlisted in the United States Army Air Forces. He served for two years as a radio operator and aerial gunner aboard a B-25 Mitchell stationed in the Alaskan Aleutian Islands with the 77th Bombardment Squadron of the Eleventh Air Force. He reached the rank of Staff Sergeant. Heston married Northwestern University student Lydia Marie Clarke, who was six months his senior. That same year he joined the military.
Heston played 'Marc Antony' in Julius Caesar (1950), and firmly stamped himself as genuine leading man material with his performance as circus manager 'Brad Braden' in the Cecil B. DeMille spectacular The Greatest Show on Earth (1952), also starring James Stewart and Cornel Wilde. The now very popular actor remained perpetually busy during the 1950s, both on TV and on the silver screen with audience pleasing performances in the steamy thriller The Naked Jungle (1954), as a treasure hunter in Secret of the Incas (1954) and another barn storming performance for Cecil B. DeMille as "Moses" in the blockbuster The Ten Commandments (1956).
Heston delivered further dynamic performances in the oily film noir thriller Touch of Evil (1958), and then alongside Gregory Peck in the western The Big Country (1958) before scoring the role for which he is arguably best known, that of the wronged Jewish prince who seeks his freedom and revenge in the William Wyler directed Ben-Hur (1959). This mammoth Biblical epic running in excess of three and a half hours became the standard by which other large scale productions would be judged, and its superb cast also including Stephen Boyd as the villainous "Massala", English actor Jack Hawkins as the Roman officer "Quintus Arrius", and Australian actor Frank Thring as "Pontius Pilate", all contributed wonderful performances. Never one to rest on his laurels, steely Heston remained the preferred choice of directors to lead the cast in major historical productions and during the 1960s he starred as Spanish legend "Rodrigo Diaz de Vivar" in El Cid (1961), as a US soldier battling hostile Chinese boxers during 55 Days at Peking (1963),played the ill-fated "John the Baptist" in The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965), the masterful painter "Michelangelo" battling Pope Julius II in The Agony and the Ecstasy (1965), and an English general in Khartoum (1966). In 1968, Heston filmed the unusual western Will Penny (1967) about an aging and lonely cowboy befriending a lost woman and her son, which Heston has often referred to as his favorite piece of work on screen. Interestingly, Heston was on the verge of acquiring an entirely new league of fans due to his appearance in four very topical science fiction films (all based on popular novels) painting bleak futures for mankind.
In 1968, Heston starred as time-traveling astronaut "George Taylor", in the terrific Planet of the Apes (1968) with its now legendary conclusion as Heston realizes the true horror of his destination. He returned to reprise the role, albeit primarily as a cameo, alongside fellow astronaut James Franciscus in the slightly inferior sequel Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970). Next up, Heston again found himself facing the apocalypse in The Omega Man (1971) as the survivor of a germ plague that has wiped out humanity leaving only bands of psychotic lunatics roaming the cities who seek to kill the uninfected Heston. And fourthly, taking its inspiration from the Harry Harrison novel "Make Room!, Make Room!", Heston starred alongside screen legend Edward G. Robinson and Chuck Connors in Soylent Green (1973). During the remainder of the 1970s, Heston appeared in two very popular "disaster movies" contributing lead roles in the far-fetched Airport 1975 (1974), plus in the star-laden Earthquake (1974), filmed in "Sensoround" (low-bass speakers were installed in selected theaters to simulate the earthquake rumblings on screen to movie audiences). He played an evil Cardinal in the lively The Four Musketeers: Milady's Revenge (1974), a mythical US naval officer in the recreation of Midway (1976), also filmed in "Sensoround", an LA cop trying to stop a sniper in Two-Minute Warning (1976) and another US naval officer in the submarine thriller Gray Lady Down (1978). Heston appeared in numerous episodes of the high-rating TV series Dynasty (1981) and The Colbys (1985), before moving onto a mixed bag of projects including TV adaptations of Treasure Island (1990) and A Man for All Seasons (1988), hosting two episodes of the comedy show, Saturday Night Live (1975), starring as the "Good Actor" bringing love struck Mike Myers to tears in Wayne's World 2 (1993), and as the eye patch-wearing boss of intelligence agent Arnold Schwarzenegger in True Lies (1994). He also narrated numerous TV specials and lent his vocal talents to the animated movie Hercules (1997), the family comedy Cats & Dogs (2001) and an animated version of Ben Hur (2003). Heston made an uncredited appearance in the inferior remake of Planet of the Apes (2001), and his last film appearance to date was in the Holocaust-themed drama of My Father (2003).
Heston narrated for highly classified military and Department of Energy instructional films, particularly relating to nuclear weapons, and "for six years Heston [held] the nation's highest security clearance" or Q clearance. The Q clearance is similar to a DoD or Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) clearance of Top Secret.
Heston was married to Lydia Marie Clark Heston since March 1944, and they have two children. His highly entertaining autobiography was released in 1995, titled appropriately enough "Into The Arena". Although often criticized for his strong conservative beliefs and involvement with the NRA, Heston was a strong advocate for civil right many years before it became fashionable, and was a recipient of the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, plus the Kennedy Center Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2002, he was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, and did appear in a film or TV production after 2003. He died in April 2008, a memorable figure in the history of US cinema.- Actor
- Producer
- Director
Richard Attenborough, Baron Attenborough of Richmond-upon-Thames, was born in Cambridge, England, the son of Mary (née Clegg), a founding member of the Marriage Guidance Council, and Frederick Levi Attenborough, a scholar and academic administrator who was a don at Emmanuel College and wrote a standard text on Anglo-Saxon law. The family later moved to Leicester where his father was appointed Principal of the university while Richard was educated at Wyggeston Grammar School for Boys in Leicester and at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA).
His film career began with a role as a deserting sailor in In Which We Serve (1942), a part that contributed to his being typecast for many years as a coward in films like Dulcimer Street (1948), Operation Disaster (1950) and his breakthrough role as a psychopathic young gangster in the film adaptation of Graham Greene's novel, Brighton Rock (1948). During World War II, Attenborough served in the Royal Air Force.
He worked prolifically in British films for the next 30 years, and in the 1950s appeared in several successful comedies for John Boulting and Roy Boulting, including Private's Progress (1956) and I'm All Right Jack (1959). Early in his stage career, Attenborough starred in the London West End production of Agatha Christie's "The Mousetrap", which went on to become one of the world's longest-running stage productions. Both he and his wife were among the original cast members of the production, which opened in 1952 and (as of 2007) is still running.
In the 1960s, he expanded his range of character roles in films such as Seance on a Wet Afternoon (1964) and Guns at Batasi (1964), for which he won the BAFTA Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of the regimental Sergeant Major. He appeared in the ensemble cast of The Great Escape (1963), as Squadron Leader "Roger Bartlett" ("Big X"), the head of the escape committee.
In 1967 and 1968, he won back-to-back Golden Globe Awards in the category of Best Supporting Actor, the first time for The Sand Pebbles (1966), starring Steve McQueen, and the second time for Doctor Dolittle (1967), starring Rex Harrison. He would win another Golden Globe for Best Director, for Gandhi (1982), in 1983. Six years prior to "Gandhi", he played the ruthless "Gen. Outram" in Indian director Satyajit Ray's period piece, The Chess Players (1977). He has never been nominated for an Academy Award in an acting category.
He took no acting roles following his appearance in Otto Preminger's The Human Factor (1979), until his appearance as the eccentric developer "John Hammond" in Steven Spielberg's Jurassic Park (1993). The following year, he starred as "Kris Kringle" in Miracle on 34th Street (1994), a remake of the 1947 classic. Since then, he has made occasional appearances in supporting roles, including the historical drama, Elizabeth (1998), as "Sir William Cecil".
In the late 1950s, Attenborough formed a production company, "Beaver Films", with Bryan Forbes and began to build a profile as a producer on projects, including The League of Gentlemen (1960), The Angry Silence (1960) and Whistle Down the Wind (1961), also appearing in the first two of these as an actor.
His feature film directorial debut was the all-star screen version of the hit musical, Oh! What a Lovely War (1969), and his acting appearances became more sporadic - the most notable being his portrayal of serial killer "John Christie" in 10 Rillington Place (1971). He later directed two epic period films: Young Winston (1972), based on the early life of Winston Churchill, and A Bridge Too Far (1977), an all-star account of Operation Market Garden in World War II. He won the 1982 Academy Award for Directing for his historical epic, Gandhi (1982), a project he had been attempting to get made for many years. As the film's producer, he also won the Academy Award for Best Picture. His most recent films, as director and producer, include Chaplin (1992), starring Robert Downey Jr. as Charles Chaplin, and Shadowlands (1993), based on the relationship between C.S. Lewis and Joy Gresham. Both films starred Anthony Hopkins, who also appeared in three other films for Attenborough: "Young Winston", "A Bridge Too Far" and the thriller, Magic (1978).
Attenborough also directed the screen version of the hit Broadway musical, "A Chorus Line" (A Chorus Line (1985)), and the apartheid drama, Cry Freedom (1987), based on the experiences of Donald Woods. He was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Director for both films. His most recent film as director was another biographical film, Grey Owl (1999), starring Pierce Brosnan.
Attenborough is the President of RADA, Chairman of Capital Radio, President of BAFTA, President of the Gandhi Foundation, and President of the British National Film and Television School. He is also a vice patron of the Cinema and Television Benevolent Fund.
He is also the patron of the UWC movement (United World Colleges), whereby he continually contributes greatly to the colleges that are part of the organization. He has frequented the United World College of Southern Africa(UWCSA) Waterford Kamhlaba. His wife and he founded the "Richard and Sheila Attenborough Visual Arts Center". He also founded the "Jane Holland Creative Center for Learning" at Waterford Kamhlaba in Swaziland in memory of his daughter, who died in the Tsunami on Boxing Day, 2004. He passionately believes in education, primarily education that does not judge upon color, race, creed or religion. His attachment to Waterford is his passion for non-racial education, which were the grounds on which Waterford Kamhlaba was founded. Waterford was one of his inspirations for directing Cry Freedom (1987), based on the life of Steve Biko.
He was elected to the post of Chancellor of the University of Sussex on 20 March 1998, replacing the Duke of Richmond and Gordon. A lifelong supporter of Chelsea Football Club, Attenborough served as a director of the club from 1969-1982 and, since 1993, has held the honorary position of Life Vice President. He is also the head of the consortium, "Dragon International", which is constructing a film and television studio complex in Llanilid, Wales, often referred to as "Valleywood".
In 1967, he was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE). He was knighted in 1976 and, in 1993, he was made a life peer as Baron Attenborough, of Richmond-upon-Thames in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames.
On 13 July 2006, Attenborough and his brother, David Attenborough, were awarded the titles of Distinguished Honorary Fellows of the University of Leicester "in recognition of a record of continuing distinguished service to the University". Lord Attenborough is also listed as an Honorary Fellow of Bangor University for his continued efforts to film making.
Attenborough has been married to English actress Sheila Sim, since 1945. They had three children. In December 2004, his elder daughter, Jane Holland, as well as her daughter Lucy and her mother-in-law, also named Jane, were killed in the tsunami caused by the Indian Ocean earthquake. A memorial service was held on 8 March 2005, and Attenborough read a lesson at the national memorial service on 11 May 2005. His grandson, Samuel Holland, and granddaughter, Alice Holland, also read in the service.
Attenborough's father was principal of University College, Leicester, now the city's university. This has resulted in a long association with the university, with Lord Attenborough a patron. A commemorative plaque was placed on the floor of Richmond Parish Church. The university's "Richard Attenborough Centre for Disability and the Arts", which opened in 1997, is named in his Honor.
His son, Michael Attenborough, is also a director. He has two younger brothers, the famous naturalist Sir David Attenborough and John Attenborough, who has made a career in the motor trade.
He has collected Pablo Picasso ceramics since the 1950s. More than 100 items went on display at the New Walk Museum and Art Gallery in Leicester in 2007; the exhibition is dedicated to his family members lost in the tsunami.- Actress
- Soundtrack
She was truly one mother of a mom...on stage, on film and on TV. A favorite firecracker on 80s and 90s television, tiny character player Estelle Getty became best known for her carping, meddlesome moms -- complete with bemused, cynical looks, irreverent digs and dead-pan Henny Youngman-like one-liners. Blunt and down-to-earth off-stage as she was on-, she scored big points with both the young and the old...and all those who fell in between. The middle-class masses and society's underdogs deemed Estelle one of their own. The star who had a hard time playing the star card also taught an earnest lesson to the millions of actor wannabes that it was never too late to get into the big leagues, pursue your dream and come out a winner. After nearly five decades of stage work, she achieved "overnight" stardom at age 62. Ill health forced her retirement in 2000 after only a decade and a half of celebrity. Yet even something as sinister as Lewy body dementia, a degenerative brain disease, couldn't take away her indomitable spirit and feistiness. The affliction, which slowly clouds then erases the memory banks, should have claimed her a couple of years after its detection, but she proved the doctors wrong and lived nearly eight years from its onset, dying peacefully in her Hollywood home on July 22, 2008.
Getty was born Estelle Scher on July 25, 1923, on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in New York City, the daughter of Sarah (Lacher) and Charles Scher, Polish Jewish immigrants who worked in the glass business. Starry-eyed as a very young child when her father first took her to see a vaudeville show at the New York Academy of Music, Estelle already had a mindset about her future. She almost immediately started taking singing, dancing and acting lessons and, following her graduation from Seward Park High School, she began building up experience in the Yiddish theater. She even attempted the stand-up comedy stage on the Catskills "borscht belt" circuit in upstate New York, but it was a time of rampant sexism and women comics were a rarity and seldom successful. She wasn't. Her young life took an abrupt, post-World War II turn when she married New York businessman Arthur Gettleman at age 24 in December of 1947 (she went on to use a derivative of her married last name for the stage). Not your typical domesticated wife by any stretch of the imagination, Estelle nevertheless raised two children, sons Barry and Carl, and worked as a secretary for various companies.
Determined as ever to be an actress, she found moderate compensation performing in community theatre plays. Adept at playing abrasive, insinuating types, she had an innate gift for comedy and stole many scenes in such light-hearted plays as "Arsenic and Old Lace," "Blithe Spirit," "6 Rms Riv Vu," "Light Up the Sky" and "Lovers and Other Strangers". On the flip side, Estelle demonstrated surprising dramatic stamina in such classics as "All My Sons," "The Glass Menaqerie" and "Death of a Salesman." Following decades of obscurity, it was her connection to the actor/playwright Harvey Fierstein that turned the tide and started the ball rolling. Forging a deep friendship in the late 70s after appearing in small New York theaters together, and after considerable prodding by Estelle, Harvey wrote a part for his diminutive friend in the ground-breaking, autobiographical "Torch Song Trilogy". Playing Harvey's recalcitrant mother, the show eventually made it to Broadway and Estelle's big debut was a resounding success. Winning the Helen Hayes Award for her performance, she played the feisty foil to Fierstein's raspy-voiced drag queen for five years.
While on tour with the play in Los Angeles, Estelle secured an audition for and won the role of viper-tongued Sicilian mama Sophia Petrillo on The Golden Girls (1985). She nearly lost out on the part when it was thought that she appeared too young to play Bea Arthur's mother. In truth, Estelle was 14 months younger than Bea. Given another go-around, and this time donning a grey wig, age makeup and frumpy apparel, Estelle fully convinced the powers-that-be that she WAS Sophia and the rest is history. The role was a breath of fresh air during an era of strong political correctness. A seven-time consecutive Emmy Award nominee for "Best Supporting Actress Award," she took home the trophy in 1988. In both 1991 and 1992 Estelle won the American Comedy Award for "Best Supporting Actress" in a series. The Sophia character was so popular she even went on to play the impish octogenarian in several other shows, including two "Golden Girls" spin-offs -- the short-lived The Golden Palace (1992) and "Empty Nest". Estelle went on to mother other stars on the big screen as well, including Cher in Mask (1985) and Sylvester Stallone in Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot (1992), in the latter of which she received second billing. The one maternal film role she wanted more than anything did not come her way. When Torch Song Trilogy (1988) was made into a film, actor Fierstein needed star power surrounding him. Anne Bancroft replaced Estelle in the part and she was heartbroken. The movie itself lost much of its impact in its transition from the stage. At the peak of her TV fame, Estelle wrote a 1988 autobiography entitled "If I Knew Then, What I Know Now... So What?" with Steve Delsohn.
The diminutive dynamo (4'10") with a big heart was an outspoken activist for gay rights and she regularly involved herself in AIDS causes, part of it propelled by a nephew who was diagnosed and later succumbed to the disease. She also became a spokesperson for Alternative Living for the Aging, a nonprofit organization that locates cooperative housing for senior citizens. In 2000, Getty stopped making public appearances after her health and mind began its slow decline. One of her last sightings was in the L.A. audience of "The Vagina Monologues," which starred "Golden Girls" co-star Rue McClanahan. Misdiagnosed as having both Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases, it was later learned she was suffering from advanced dementia. Estelle died of complications from her disease just three days before her 85th birthday. Long-time husband Arthur, who was only 5'3" tall himself, never adjusted to Estelle's meteoric rise and the media attention that had accompanied it. He quietly maintained her parents' glass business far from the Hollywood glitz...in Florida. He died in 2004. Lifetime television hosted a "Golden Girls" reunion, but by this time Estelle was too ill to appear. Shortly after her death on July 22, 2008, and in tribute to Ms. Getty, Lifetime, which shows reruns of "The Golden Girls" almost on a daily basis, announced that it would air ten episodes of the series featuring the "best of Sophia". A simple, unadorned service was conducted, as she would have wanted, and she was interred at Hollywood Forever Memorial Park in Los Angeles.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Linda Darnell, one of five children of a postal clerk, grew up fast. At 11, she was modeling clothes, giving her age as 16. At 13, she was appearing on the stage with little theater groups. Her mother encouraged her to audition when Hollywood talent scouts came to Dallas. She went to California and when the studio found out how young she really was, she was sent home and told to come back when she was 15. Her fourth film, Star Dust (1940), was based on this real life experience. It was Star Dust (1940) that Darnell was watching the night of April 9, 1965, at the home of her former secretary, located in Glenview, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. The house caught on fire in the early hours of the next morning and Darnell died that afternoon in Cook County Hospital. The character she played in one of her best known roles, Forever Amber (1947) survived the London fire, the plague and the perils of being the mistress of the English king, Charles II.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Gloria Grahame Hallward, an acting pupil of her mother (stage actress and teacher Jean Grahame), acted professionally while still in high school. In 1944 Louis B. Mayer saw her on Broadway and gave her an MGM contract under the name Gloria Grahame. Her debut in the title role of Blonde Fever (1944) was auspicious, but her first public recognition came on loan-out in It's a Wonderful Life (1946). Although her talent and sex appeal were of star quality, she did not fit the star pattern at MGM, who sold her contract to RKO in 1947. Here the same problem resurfaced; her best film in these years was made on loan-out, In a Lonely Place (1950). Soon after, she left RKO. The 1950s, her best period, brought her a Best Supporting Actress Oscar and typecast her as shady, inimitably sultry ladies in seven well-known film-noir classics.
Rumors of being difficult to work with on the set of Oklahoma! (1955) helped sideline her film career from 1956 onward. She also suffered from marital and child-custody troubles. Eight years after divorce from Nicholas Ray, who was 12 years her senior (and reportedly had discovered her in bed with his 13 year old son), and after a subsequent marriage to Cy Howard ended in divorce, in 1960 she married her former stepson Anthony Ray (who was almost 14 years younger than she was.) This led former husbands Nicholas Ray and Cy Howard to sue Grahame; each man seeking custody of his respective child, putting gossip columnists and scandal sheets into overdrive. Grahame herself underwent electroconvulsive therapy after the ensuing stress caused a nervous breakdown. Surprisingly, however, Grahame and Anthony "Tony" Ray proved a happy couple. The union would be Grahame's longest marriage, lasting almost 14 years (10 years longer than her previous union with Ray's father); the couple had two children, Anthony Jr. and James.
In 1960, Grahame resumed stage acting, combined with TV work and, from 1970, some mostly inferior films. She was described as a serious, skillful actress; spontaneous, honest, and strong-willed; imaginative and curious; incredibly sexy but insecure about her looks (prompting plastic surgery on her famous lips); loving appreciative male company; "a bit loony". In 1975, she was treated for breast cancer. Five years later, she was diagnosed with cancer again, although it is unclear if this was a new cancer or a metastasis of her breast cancer. Grahame eventually moved to England in 1978. Her busiest period of British and American stage work ended abruptly in 1981 when she collapsed from cancer symptoms during a rehearsal. She wished to remain in Liverpool with her partner, Peter Turner (almost 30 years her junior), but after Turner notified her children of her health condition and impending death, two of her children flew to England to retrieve her, insisting she return to the United States. She died a few hours later that same day of stomach cancer and peritonitis at St. Vincent's Hospital in Manhattan on October 5, 1981 at age 57.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Glynis Johns was the daughter of actor Mervyn Johns. Best known for her light comedy roles and often playful flirtation, Glynis was born in South Africa while her parents were on tour there (her mother was a concert pianist) but was always proud of her Welsh roots and took delight in playing the female lead (opposite Richard Burton) in the classic Under Milk Wood (1971). She was probably best known for her role as the suffragette mother in Mary Poppins (1964) although she is probably best loved for her fishy roles in Miranda (1948) and Mad About Men (1954). She had earlier showed she could take on the serious roles as well as in Frieda (1947). Most recently seen (at the time of writing) in Superstar (1999). Johns died in 2024, aged 100, having never received the damehood she had richly deserved for decades. Predeceased by her only son, she was survived by a grandson,Thomas Forwood, and three great-grandchildren.- Actor
- Additional Crew
- Soundtrack
Dale Robertson, the actor who made his name in television Westerns in the 1950s and '60s, was born on July 14, 1923, in Harrah, Oklahoma. After serving in a tank crew and in the combat engineers in North Africa and Europe during World War II, the twice-wounded Robertson started his acting career while still on active duty in the U.S. Army. While stationed at San Luis Obispo, California, had a photograph taken for his mother. A copy of the photo displayed in the photo shop window attracted movie scouts, and the six foot tall, 180-lb. Robertson soon was on his way to Hollywood. Will Rogers Jr., whose father is the most famous son of Oklahoma, told him to avoid formal training and keep his own persona. Robertson took his advice and avoided acting classes.
Robertson was typecast in Western movies and TV shows when the genre was still America's favorite. He headlined two TV series, Tales of Wells Fargo (1957), in which he played the roving trouble-shooter Jim Hardie, and Iron Horse (1966), in which he won a railway in a poker game. He also served as one of the hosts, along with Ronald Reagan, of the syndicated series Death Valley Days (1952) during the 1960s. Robertson later appeared in the inaugural season of Dynasty (1981).
Robertson is a recipient of the Golden Boot Award in 1985, and was inducted into the Hall of Great Western Performers and the Cowboy Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City. He is retired on a ranch near Oklahoma City, not far from his birthplace of Harrah.- Actor
- Producer
- Additional Crew
American leading man famed as the star of one of the longest-running shows in U.S. television history, Gunsmoke (1955). Born of Norwegian heritage (the family name, Aurness, had formerly been Aursness) in Minneapolis, Minnesota, to Rolf and Ruth Duesler Aurness. His father was a traveling salesman of medical supplies and his mother later became a newspaper columnist. James attended West High School in Minneapolis. Although he appeared in school plays, he had no interest in performing, and dreamed instead of going to sea. After high school, he attended one semester at Beloit College before receiving his draft notice in 1943. He entered the army and trained at Camp Wheeler, Georgia, before shipping out for North Africa. At Casablanca, Arness joined the 3rd Infantry Division in time for the invasion of Anzio. Ten days after the invasion, Arness was severely wounded in the leg and foot by German machine-gun fire. His wounds, which plagued him the rest of his life, resulted in his medical discharge from the army.
While recuperating in a hospital in Clinton, Iowa, Arness was visited by his younger brother Peter (later to gain fame as actor Peter Graves), who suggested he take a radio course at the University of Minnesota. James did so, and a teacher recommended him for a job as an announcer at a Minneapolis radio station. Though seemingly headed for success in radio, he followed a boyhood friend's suggestion and went with the friend to Hollywood to find work as a film extra. Arness studied at the Bliss-Hayden Theatre School under actor Harry Hayden, and while appearing in a play there was spotted by agent Leon Lance. Lance got the actor a role as Loretta Young's brother in The Farmer's Daughter (1947). The director of that film, H.C. Potter, recommended that he drop the "u" from his last name and soon thereafter the actor was officially known as James Arness.
Little work followed this break, and Arness became sort of beach bum, living on the shore at San Onofre and spending his days surfing. He began taking his acting career more seriously when he began to receive fan mail following the release of the Young picture. He appeared in a production of "Candida" at the Pasadena Community Playhouse, and married his leading lady, Virginia Chapman. She pressed him to study acting and to work harder in pursuit of a career, but Arness has been consistent in ascribing his success to luck. He began to act small roles with frequency, often due to his size, and mostly villainous characters. Most notable among these was that of the space alien in The Thing from Another World (1951).
While playing a Greek warrior in a play, Arness was spotted by agent Charles K. Feldman, who represented John Wayne. Feldman introduced Arness to Wayne, who put the self-described 6', 6" actor under personal contract. Arness played several roles over the next few years for and with Wayne, whom he considered a mentor. In 1955, Wayne recommended Arness for the lead role of Matt Dillon in the TV series Gunsmoke (1955). (Contrary to urban legend, Wayne himself was never offered the role.) Arness at first declined, thinking a TV series could derail his growing film career, but Wayne argued for the show, and Arness accepted. His portrayal of stalwart Marshal Dillon became an iconic figure in American television and the series, aired for 20 seasons, is, as of 2008, the longest-running dramatic series in U.S. television history. Arness became world-famous and years later reprized the character in a series of TV movies.
After the surprising cancellation of "Gunsmoke" in 1975, Arness jumped immediately into another successful (though much shorter-lived) Western project, a TV-movie-miniseries-series combination known as "How The West Was Won." A brief modern police drama, McClain's Law (1981), followed, and Arness played his mentor John Wayne's role in Red River (1988), a remake of the Wayne classic.
Following the aforementioned "Gunsmoke" TV movies (the last in 1994, when Arness was 71), Arness basically retired. His marriage to Virginia Chapman ended in divorce in 1960. They had three children, one of whom, Jenny Lee, committed suicide in 1975. Arness subsequently married Janet Surtrees in 1978.- Actor
- Soundtrack
A man of all mediums, this veteran, Manhattan-born character actor was named after his great-grandfather, Lincolnesque Congressman William Windom. Born in 1923, the son of Paul Windom, an architect, and the former Isobel Wells Peckham, Bill attended Williams College and the University of Kentucky, among others, before serving in the Army during WWII. After the war, he studied at both Fordham and Columbia universities in New York City before settling on an acting career. Trained at the American Repertory Theatre (1946-1961), he made his minor Broadway debut with the company in November of 1946 with revolving productions of "Henry VIII", "What Every Woman Knows", "John Gabriel Borkman" and "Androcles and the Lion". The following year, he continued building up his Broadway resume with roles in "Yellow Jack" and as the "White Rabbit" in a production of "Alice in Wonderland".
In the early 1950s, a new avenue opened up to Bill: television. For the duration of the decade, he shifted between stage, which included Broadway roles in "A Girl Can Tell" (1953), "Mademoiselle Colombe" (1954), "Fallen Angels" (1956), "The Greatest Man Alive" (1957) and "Viva Madison Avenue!" (1960), and TV drama, with stalwart work in such programs as Robert Montgomery Presents (1950) and Hallmark Hall of Fame (1951).
Major attention came Windom's way on TV moving into the following decade. In addition to hundreds of guest appearances on the most popular shows of the day (Combat! (1962), The Fugitive (1963), All in the Family (1971), Dallas (1978), Highway to Heaven (1984)), his standout work included a co-starring role opposite the luminous Inger Stevens in the popular light comedy series The Farmer's Daughter (1963). On the show, Windom portrayed widower "Glen Morley", a decent congressman who eventually falls in love with his pert and pretty Swedish governess "Katy Holstrum" (played by Stevens). Prior to this success, both he and Ms. Stevens had been singularly recognized for their sterling performances on various episodes of The Twilight Zone (1959). Following this success, Windom enjoyed critical notice as the cartoonist/protagonist whose vivid imagination causes problems on the homefront on the Thurberesque weekly series My World and Welcome to It (1969). Despite the show's critical merit and Windom's "Best Actor" Emmy win, the show, years ahead of its time, lasted only one season. Decades later, Windom would play James Thurber on stage in one-man shows.
The native New Yorker went on to essay a number of loungy Southerners and down-home types with incredible ease--both heroes and villains. He offered strong support in his film debut as Gregory Peck's opposing counsel in the Alabama-based To Kill a Mockingbird (1962), and went on to play prelate Norman Vincent Peale's father in One Man's Way (1964) starring Don Murray. Windom demonstrated the maturity to carry off the character even though he was only 5 years older than Murray. He also delivered a variety of pungent roles in such films as The Detective (1968) (as a closeted gay married man), Robert Altman's Brewster McCloud (1970) (as a political blowhard facing a series of murders) and The Man (1972) (as a racist politician).
Growing slier and stockier over the years, Windom provided TV audiences with a colorful gallery of characters, ranging from avuncular and ingratiating, to cantankerous and unscrupulous. He became a regular for over a decade on the Angela Lansbury whodunit series Murder, She Wrote (1984), joining the show in its second season as "Dr. Seth Hazlitt". He briefly left "Murder" to work on another series, Parenthood (1990), which was based on the highly popular 1989 movie starring Steve Martin. Here, Ed Begley Jr. took over the Martin part and Windom assumed Jason Robards's patriarchal role as Begley's father. The show was off the air within a few months, however, and Windom was invited back to the mystery series -- a semi-regular until the show folded in 1997.
In addition, Windom reprised a Star Trek (1966) portrayal as "Commodore Matt Decker," appeared in scores of mini-movies, has given voice to various book readings, presented a second one-man show (this time that of combat reporter Ernie Pyle), and continued to film at age 80+, his latest being Yesterday's Dreams (2005).
The five-times-married Windom was wed (for 36 years) to writer Patricia Veronica Tunder at the time of his death of congestive heart failure at age 88. A chess, tennis and sailing enthusiast, he is survived by four children: Rachel, Heather Juliet, Hope and Rebel Russell.Two step-daughters, Debora and Maggie as well as four grandchildren. He died at his home in Woodacre, California, on August 16, 2012.- Actress
- Soundtrack
A native-born Californian, Rhonda Fleming attended Beverly Hills public and private schools. Her father was Harold Cheverton Louis (1896-1951). Her mother, Effie Olivia Graham (1891-1985), was a famous model and actress in New York. She has a son (Kent Lane), two granddaughters (Kimberly and Kelly) and four great-grandchildren (Wagner, Page, Lane and Cole). She has appeared in over 40 films, including David O. Selznick's Spellbound (1945), directed by Alfred Hitchcock; Jacques Tourneur's Out of the Past (1947); and Robert Siodmak's The Spiral Staircase (1946). She later got starring roles in such classics as A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1949), Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957), Home Before Dark (1958), Pony Express (1953), Slightly Scarlet (1956), While the City Sleeps (1956) and The Big Circus (1959). While she was always a competent actress, she was more renowned for her exquisite beauty, and the camera absolutely adored her. One time a cameraman on one of her films remarked on how he was so struck by her beauty that, as a gag, he intentionally tried to photograph her badly; he was astonished to discover that no matter how deliberately he botched it, she still came out looking ravishing.
Among her co-stars over the years were Gregory Peck, Robert Mitchum, Kirk Douglas, Charlton Heston, Glenn Ford, Burt Lancaster, Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, Rock Hudson and Ronald Reagan (with whom she made four films). In addition to motion pictures, Fleming made her Broadway debut in Clare Boothe Luce's "The Women", essayed the role of "Lalume" in "Kismet" at the Los Angeles Music Center and toured as "Madame Dubonnet" in "The Boyfriend". She made her stage musical debut in Las Vegas at the opening of the Tropicana Hotel's showroom. Later she appeared at the Hollywood Bowl in a one-woman concert of Cole Porter and Irving Berlin compositions. She also starred in a national ten-week concert tour with Skitch Henderson, featuring the music of George Gershwin. She has guest-starred on numerous television series, including Wagon Train (1957), Police Woman (1974), The Love Boat (1977), Last Hours Before Morning (1975) and a two-hour special of McMillan & Wife (1971). Waiting for the Wind (1991) reunited her with former co-star Robert Mitchum.
In private life she resides in Century City, California, and was married for 23 years to Ted Mann, a producer and chairman of Mann Theatres, until his death in January 2001. She is a member and supporter of Childhelp USA, ARCS (Achievement Rewards For College Scientists); a Life Associate of Pepperdine University; a Lifetime Member of the Freedoms Foundation at Valley Forge; a Founding Member of the French Foundation For Alzheimer Research; a Benefactor of the Los Angeles Music Center: and a Member of the Center's Blue Ribbon Board of Directors. She is a Member of the Advisory Board of Olive Crest Treatment Centers for Abused Children and serves as a Board of Directors Trustee of World Opportunities International. Along with her husband she helped build the Jerusalem Film Institute in Israel. She also is a member of the Board of Trustees of The UCLA Foundation and a member of the Board of Advisors of the Revlon/UCLA Women's Health Research Program. In addition, she created at the City of Hope Hospital The Rhonda Fleming Mann Research Fellowship to further advance research and treatment associated with women's cancer.
In 1991, she and her husband established the Rhonda Fleming Mann Clinic for Women's Comprehensive Care at UCLA Medical Center. This clinic provides a full range of expert gynecologic and obstetric care to women. Since 1992, she has devoted her time to a second facility at UCLA - the Rhonda Fleming Mann Resource Center for Women with Cancer, which opened in early 1994. This Center is the fulfillment of her vision to create a safe, warm place where women cancer patients and their families might receive the highest quality psychosocial and emotional care as well as assistance with the complex practical problems that arise with cancer. In August 1997, the Center opened "Reflections", a unique retail store and consultation suite that carries wigs, head coverings, breast prostheses and other items to help men, women and children deal with the physical appearance changes brought on by cancer and its treatments. The staffs of the clinic, center and store are guided by her belief that caring, compassion, communication and commitment are essential components of the healing process.- Actress
- Producer
It would have been pretty difficult for willowy actress/model Dina Merrill to have pulled off playing a commoner on stage, film or TV in her day. She reeked of elegance and class. The epitome of style, poise and glamour, the New York-born socialite and celebrity was born Nedenia Marjorie Hutton on December 29, 1923, the daughter of E.F. Hutton, the financier and founder of the Wall Street firm that bore his name, and heiress Marjorie Merriweather Post, of the Post cereal fortune. Although Dina made elegant, elaborate use of her upbringing over the decades, she handled it all positively and graciously without tabloid incidents, instilling these same refined credentials into a large portion of her characters.
Dina did not originally intend on an acting career. After studying at George Washington University, she suddenly dropped out after only a year (to the chagrin of her disapproving parents) after demonstrating a late desire to perform. Enrolling at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and studying with Uta Hagen among others, Dina appeared in the comedy "The Man Who Came to Dinner" before taking her first Broadway curtain call in "The Mermaids Singing" in 1945. She took some time off to play wife and mother to three children after marrying Stanley Rumbough, Jr., heir to the Colgate toothpaste fortune.
Dina finally made an official film debut with a smart and stylish support role in the Spencer Tracy/Katharine Hepburn vehicle Desk Set (1957). She continued to charm in the same upper crust vein playing some version of the model wife or blue-blooded maven in frequent posh outings. Some of her more noticeable roles came with Operation Petticoat (1959) with the equally classy Cary Grant; BUtterfield 8 (1960) starring Elizabeth Taylor and Laurence Harvey; and The Young Savages (1961) opposite Burt Lancaster.
Following her divorce to Rumbough after 20 years, Dina married ruggedly handsome actor Cliff Robertson in 1966. The pair had one daughter and were a popular Hollywood fixture for nearly 20 years. With her film career on the wane in the mid 1960's, Dina gravitated toward TV guest spots on such popular shows as "Dr. Kildare," "Alfred Hitchcock Presents," "Burke's Law," "Rawhide," "Daktari," "Bonanza," "Daniel Boone," "Batman" (as the villainous "Calamity Jan" alongside Robertson's western bad guy "Shame"), "The Name of the Game," "The Virginian," "Night Gallery," "Marcus Welby," "The Love Boat" and "The Odd Couple." She also graced a number of TV-movie dramas beginning with The Sunshine Patriot (1968) co-starring husband Robertson and Seven in Darkness (1969) (as a blind survivor of a plane crash), and continuing with The Lonely Profession (1969), Mr. and Mrs. Bo Jo Jones (1971), Family Flight (1972), The Letters (1973), The Tenth Month (1979), and a featured part in the mini-series sequel Roots: The Next Generations (1979).
Dina returned to Broadway as the co-star of the drama "Angel Street" (1975) and again with the revival of the musical "On Your Toes" in which she played "Peggy Porterfield" in both the 1983 Broadway revival and 1986 national tour. In the same year that Dina divorced second husband Cliff Robertson (1989), she married actor/investment banker Ted Hartley. Together the couple bought RKO Studios and renamed it RKO Pavilion. He serves as chairman and she vice chairperson/creative director. The studio produced such popular efforts as Milk & Money (1996) and the remake of Mighty Joe Young (1998).
Admired for her tireless philanthropic contributions, Dina was a moderate Republican (vice chair of the Republican Pro-Choice Coalition), and an active lobbyist for women's health issues. She also devoted much time working for the disadvantaged, particularly for the New York City Mission Society. She remained active and was an avid tennis and golf player for quite some time. Broaching age 90, the ever-glamorous actress appeared in a summer stock production of "Only a Kingdom" (2004) and continued to appear in occasional movie and television productions until developing dementia. Dina died on May 22, 2017, at age 93, survived by her third husband.- Actor
- Additional Crew
- Soundtrack
WWII veteran, dance instructor and diversely talented stage & screen actor were all inclusions on the resume of this perpetually busy US actor who didn't get in front of the cameras until around the time of his fortieth birthday. The stockily built Charles Durning was one of Hollywood's most dependable and sought after supporting actors.
Durning was born in Highland Falls, New York, to Louise Marie (Leonard), a laundress, and James Gerald Durning. His father was an Irish immigrant and his mother was of Irish descent. Durning first got his start in guest appearances in early 1960's TV shows. He scored minor roles over the next decade until he really got noticed by film fans as the sneering, corrupt cop "Lt. Snyder" hassling street grifter 'Robert Redford' in the multi award winning mega-hit The Sting (1973). Durning was equally entertaining in the Billy Wilder production of The Front Page (1974), he supported screen tough guy Charles Bronson in the suspenseful western Breakheart Pass (1975) and featured as "Spermwhale Whalen" in the story of unorthodox police behavior in The Choirboys (1977).
The versatile Durning is equally adept at comedic roles and demonstrated his skills as "Doc Hopper" in The Muppet Movie (1979), a feisty football coach in North Dallas Forty (1979), a highly strung police officer berating maverick cop Burt Reynolds in Sharky's Machine (1981), and a light footed, dancing Governor (alongside Burt Reynolds once more) in The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (1982). Durning continued a regular on screen association with Burt Reynolds appearing in several more feature films together and as "Dr. Harlan Elldridge" in the highly popular TV series Evening Shade (1990). On par with his multitude of feature film roles, Durning has always been in high demand on television and has guest starred in Everybody Loves Raymond (1996), Monk (2002) and Rescue Me (2004). Plus, he has appeared in the role of "Santa Claus" in five different television movies.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Harold Gould earned a Ph.D. in theater and taught speech and drama at Cornell University.
Pursuing off-Broadway work in the 1950s, he decided to practice what he preached and became a full-time professional actor in the 1960s.
He appeared in hundreds of TV programs during his distinguished performing career, usually playing a father, grandfather, or other varieties of authority figures.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Jean Stapleton was born Jeanne Murray in Manhattan, New York City, to Marie A. (Stapleton), an opera singer, and Joseph Edward Murray, a billboard advertising salesman. Her paternal grandparents were Irish. She was a cousin of actress Betty Jane Watson. Other relatives in show business were her uncle, Joseph E. Deming, a vaudevillian; and her brother Jack Stapleton, a stage actor. She graduated from Wadleigh High School, NYC, in 1939. She worked as a secretary before becoming an actress. Stapleton made her stage debut at the Greenwood Playhouse, Peaks Island, Maine, in the summer of 1941, and her New York stage debut in "The Corn Is Green" (1948). She appeared on Broadway in the musicals "Damn Yankees" (1955) and "Bells Are Ringing" (1956), and later repeated her roles in the movie versions (Damn Yankees (1958) and Bells Are Ringing (1960)). Her other Broadway roles included the original companies of "Rhinoceros" (1961) and "Funny Girl" (1964). Stapleton also played Abby Brewster in the 1986-87 revival of "Arsenic and Old Lace".- Actress
- Soundtrack
Jean Shirley Verhagen (later shortened to Hagen) was born in Chicago, Illinois on August 3, 1923. Her father was a Dutch immigrant. Hagen and her family moved to Elkhart, Indiana when she was twelve; she subsequently graduated from Elkhart High School. Afterwards, she graduated from Northwestern University, where she studied drama and was a roommate of fellow actress Patricia Neal.
Hagen began her show business career in the late 1940s, performing in radio programmes. She also dabbled in Broadway plays. She made her film debut in 1949 with a role as a comical femme fatale in the Katharine Hepburn-Spencer Tracy pairing Adam's Rib (1949). She had her first leading role the following year, when she starred opposite Sterling Hayden in the film noir classic The Asphalt Jungle (1950), a performance which gained her considerable attention and praise.
The performance for which Hagen is best remembered today came about in 1952, when she lent her support to the classic musical Singin' in the Rain (1952). Hagen's portrayal of the helium-voiced silent film star Lina Lamont earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress; she lost to Gloria Grahame for The Bad and the Beautiful (1952).
Following her 'Singin' in the Rain' success, Ms. Hagen joined the cast of the television sitcom The Danny Thomas Show (1953). She was nominated for three Emmys for her role as Margaret Williams, but grew tired of the role after three seasons and subsequently left the show.
For the rest of her career, Hagen mostly made guest appearances on numerous television shows, including Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955), The Andy Griffith Show (1960), Wagon Train (1957), and Starsky and Hutch (1975). She also had supporting roles in Sunrise at Campobello (1960) and Dead Ringer (1963).
Sadly, by the 1960s, Ms. Hagen's health had declined and she spent many years under medical care. She died of esophageal cancer on August 29, 1977 at the age of 54.- Actor
- Director
- Writer
Clifford Parker Robertson III became a fairly successful leading man through most of his career without ever becoming a major star. Following strong stage and television experience, he made an interesting film debut in a supporting role in Picnic (1955). He then played Joan Crawford's deranged young husband in Autumn Leaves (1956) and was given leads in films of fair quality such as The Naked and the Dead (1958), Gidget (1959) and The Big Show (1961).
He was born to Clifford Parker Robertson Jr. and Audrey Olga (nee Willingham) Robertson. Robertson Jr. was described as "the idle heir to a tidy sum of ranching money". They have divorced when he was a year old, and his mother died of peritonitis a year later in El Paso, Texas. Young Cliff was raised by his maternal grandmother, Mary Eleanor Willingham as well as an aunt and uncle.
He supplemented his somewhat unsatisfactory big-screen work with interesting appearances on television, including the lead role in Days of Wine and Roses (1958). Robertson was effective playing a chilling petty criminal obsessed with avenging his father in the B-feature Underworld U.S.A. (1961) or a pleasant doctor in the popular hospital melodrama The Interns (1962). However, significant public notice eluded him until he was picked by President John F. Kennedy to play the young JFK during the latter's World War II experience in PT 109 (1963).
Moving into slightly better pictures, Robertson gave some of his best performances: a ruthless presidential candidate in The Best Man (1964), a modern-day Mosca in an updated version of Ben Jonson's "Volpone", The Honey Pot (1967), and most memorably as a mentally retarded man in Charly (1968), for which he won an Academy Award for Best Actor. His critical success with Charly (1968) allowed him to continue starring in some good films in the 1970s, including Too Late the Hero (1970), The Great Northfield Minnesota Raid (1972), and Obsession (1976).
He starred in, directed and co-produced the fine rodeo drama J W Coop (1971) and, less interestingly, The Pilot (1980). He remained active mostly in supporting roles, notably playing Hugh Hefner in Star 80 (1983). More recently, he had supporting parts in Escape from L.A. (1996) and Spider-Man (2002).
Robertson died on September 10, 2011, just one day after his 88th birthday in Stony Brook, New York.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Actor Ted Knight paid his dues with nearly two decades of relatively obscure dramatic, often villainous television work, before finding enduring fame in a scene-stealing supporting turn on a classic 1970s sitcom, hilariously overplaying a silver-haired, self-important imbecile. Although the conceited "stuffed shirt" typecast plagued him for the rest of his career, the self-proclaimed "Polish Prince of Comedy" continued on good-naturedly, earning lead status on his own comedy series. The Connecticut-born actor was christened Tadeusz (Theodore) Wladyslaw Konopka, the son of a Polish-American family in his native town of Terryville, Connecticut. A high school dropout, he enlisted for World War II duty and eventually became a decorated member of the A Company, 296th Combat Engineer Battalion.
During his tour of duty, Ted developed an interest in acting, returning home in the post-war years to study his craft in Hartford, Connecticut, at the Randall School of Dramatic Arts. A fascination with puppetry and ventriloquism led to his first steady paycheck, as the host of a children's radio show (WJAR) in Providence, Rhode Island (1950-1955). Following this, Ted found more work (WROW-TV) in Albany, New York, hosting a children's variety show while playing radio announcer for its sister radio station, WROW.
Heading west to Los Angeles, California in 1957, Ted spent most of his early years providing slick commercial voiceovers and earning minor roles on television (Sea Hunt (1958)) and film (Psycho (1960)). He appeared regularly on the short-lived, The New Loretta Young Show (1962), and the daytime soap opera, The Young Marrieds (1964). Other television guest appearances sprouted including dramatic (The Twilight Zone (1959), The Fugitive (1963), Gunsmoke (1955), Highway Patrol (1955), Bonanza (1959), Combat! (1962)) as well as occasional comedic parts (McHale's Navy (1962), Gomer Pyle: USMC (1964), Get Smart (1965)). But nothing monumental pushed his career forward.
Ted's well-modulated voice was his moneymaker during the lean years, whether as an announcer/narrator or cartoon voice character. However, this anonymity ended went he copped the role of inept, pearly-toothed WJM anchorman "Ted Baxter" on The Mary Tyler Moore Show (1970). The arrogant but highly insecure character earned Knight two supporting Emmy trophies (1973, 1976) but severely pigeon-holed him for the rest of his career. However, the genial actor made the best of it and continued on stage ("Some of My Best Friends") and in commercials and TV spots that were similar in persona. In 1975, a musical album entitled "Hi, Guys!" (a catchphrase of the Baxter character) was released, which included a series of bizarre novelty songs.
Knight eventually starred opposite Nancy Dussault in his own television series, Too Close for Comfort (1980), which had a healthy run despite the fact that Knight, as the lead, was more subdued than on the Mary Tyler Moore classic. Renamed "The Ted Knight Show" after it became a syndicated series, the series finally ended in 1986 only due to Knight's terminal illness. The actor's sole post-Ted Baxter movie role was as a judge in the golf-themed comedy, Caddyshack (1980), in which he continually bumped heads with the film's star, Rodney Dangerfield.
Knight was initially diagnosed with cancer in 1977, for which he was treated over an extended period of time. In 1985, the television star's conditioned worsened and the 62-year-old actor died on August 26, 1986, following surgery for a growth in his urinary tract. He was interred in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California (his marker reads Theodore C. Konopka), and was survived by his wife of 38 years, Dorothy Knight (nee Smith), and their three children, Ted Knight Jr., Elyse Knight and Eric Knight.- Constance Ford began her career in television in the 1950s, performing in live television dramas on Studio One (1948), Armstrong Circle Theatre (1950), Goodyear Playhouse (1951), and other acclaimed series, and playing recurring characters in four afternoon serials; "Rose Peabody" in Search for Tomorrow (1951), "Lynn Sherwood" in Woman with a Past (1954), "Eve Morris" in The Edge of Night (1956) and "Ada Davis Downs Hobson" in Another World (1964).
Ford's assertive style made her a favorite of TV casting directors, and she was often featured in episodes of Ponds Theater (1953), Bat Masterson (1958), Rawhide (1959), Gunsmoke (1955), Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955), The Twilight Zone (1959), and other series, as tough but sensible career women. - Actress
- Soundtrack
Born and raised in Alabama as Ann Steely, O'Donnell attended high school and college in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, then worked as a stenographer to finance a trip to Hollywood, where she was spotted by a talent scout, leading to her being signed to a contract by producer Samuel Goldwyn.
Recognizing her talent and appeal through a thick Southern accent, Goldwyn arranged rigorous voice & theatrical training at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and elsewhere, bestowed on her a winsome Irish stage name, and cast her in The Best Years of Our Lives (1946). This film's success boded well for Cathy's career, and soon she was starring in the now-classic They Live by Night (1948). However, her rise in films was checked when, on Sunday, April 11th, 1948, at age 24, she married 48-year-old producer Robert Wyler, older brother of one of Hollywood's most accomplished directors, William Wyler, whose own long-term contract with Goldwyn had recently ended acrimoniously. The irate Goldwyn abruptly canceled her contract; thereafter she had no lasting association with any studio or producer. Her most memorable roles of the 1950s were in classic films noir, such as Detective Story (1951), where her sincere, sweet girl-next-door persona was at odds with those films' dark, gritty milieu. Her last and most famous film was Ben-Hur (1959), after whose enormous success she worked on TV until 1961. Belying Goldwyn's opinion, her marriage to Wyler proved happy, though childless. Her death on their 22nd wedding anniversary, Saturday, April 11th, 1970, followed a long struggle with cancer.- Actor
- Soundtrack
A true character actor in the best sense of the word, offbeat British thespian Peter Vaughan's hefty frame could appear intimidating or benevolent; his mere presence menacing or avuncular. Adept at playing both sides of the law, his characters usually possessed a strange, somewhat wary countenance that seemed to keep his audience slightly off balance. This veteran actor has been a stalwart presence for nearly fifty years. Born Peter Ohm in 1923, he began on the stage and didn't enter films until 1959, well into his thirties.
Married in 1952 to rising actress Billie Whitelaw, Peter was primarily in the background at first, offering a cheapjack gallery of thugs, unsmiling cops, and foreign agents in movies. An easily unsympathetic bloke, he played unbilled policemen in his first two films, then slowly gravitated up the credits list. He appeared as the chief of police in the spy drama The Devil's Agent (1962), which also featured his wife, and then gained a bit more attention in a prime part as an offbeat insurance investigator in the B movie Smokescreen (1964), a role that propelled him into the higher ranks. Noticeably shady roles came with playing Tallulah Bankhead's seedy handyman who meets a fatal end in the Gothic horror Die! Die! My Darling! (1965) [aka Die! Die! My Darling!]; his villainous roles in the spy thrillers The Naked Runner (1967) opposite Frank Sinatra and The Man Outside (1967); a German thug in A Twist of Sand (1968); and Sgt. Walker in The Bofors Gun (1968).
Divorced from Whitelaw in 1966, he later married actress Lillias Walker, who had roles in a couple of his pictures: Malachi's Cove (1973) and Intimate Reflections (1975). TV became a large source of income for Vaughan in the 1970s, particularly in his role of Grouty in Porridge (1974) on both the large and small screen, and his quirky demeanor fitted like a glove for bizarre director Terry Gilliam, who cast him as the Ogre in Time Bandits (1981) and then as Mr. Helpman in Brazil (1985). For the past few decades he has maintained a healthy balance between film (including standout roles in Zulu Dawn (1979), The Remains of the Day (1993) and The Life and Death of Peter Sellers (2004)) and TV mini-movies, both contemporary and period. He was still performing into his 90s: his final role was Maester Aemon Targaryen in HBO's Game of Thrones (2011).
He died at age 93 on December 6, 2016, in Sussex, England.- Actress
- Additional Crew
- Soundtrack
Kathleen Freeman's introduction to show business came very early in life. Her parents were vaudevillians, and she made her debut at age 2 in their act. Later she attended UCLA with intentions of becoming a pianist, but was bitten by the acting bug and never looked back. She gained experience on stage in various stock and repertory companies, and made her film debut in 1948. One of the most memorable character actresses in recent memory, her stocky build, incredibly expressive face and hearty laugh have kept audiences convulsed for decades, playing a variety of neighborhood gossips, busybodies and eccentrics. Memorable as Sister Mary Stigmata ("The Penguin"), Dan Aykroyd's and John Belushi's nemesis, in The Blues Brothers (1980). She was used as a comic foil by Jerry Lewis in many of his films, always to great advantage. She did much television work, playing in everything from The Dick Van Dyke Show (1961) to Gomer Pyle: USMC (1964) to Hogan's Heroes (1965) to Married... with Children (1987), where she was the voice of Peg's monstrous but never-seen mother, Al Bundy's nemesis. She was working on Broadway in a production of "The Full Monty" when she died of lung cancer in 2001.- Actor
- Soundtrack
As a kid in the 1930s growing up in a tough New York neighborhood, kinetic wiseguy Larry Storch took in the multi-ethnic flavor of his surroundings and started blurting out various accents as a juvenile to provoke laughs and earn attention. Little did he know that this early talent would take him on a six-decade journey as a prime actor and comedian.
The 5'8" actor was born on January 8, 1923, in New York City, the son of a realtor and telephone operator. Although he attended DeWitt Clinton High School in the Bronx, he never graduated, earning money as a stand-up comic. Larry's gift as an impressionist paid off early during those teen years in vaudeville houses. Following military duty during WWII as a seaman (1942-1946), a happenstance meeting with comedian Phil Harris in Palm Springs led to an opening act gig at Ciro's for Lucille Ball's and Desi Arnaz' show.
Larry received his biggest break on radio with "The Kraft Music Hall" when he was asked to sub for an ailing Frank Morgan. He not only delivered his patented star impersonations, he did a devastating one of Morgan himself that went over famously.
Moving to the small screen, a summer hosting replacement on the TV variety show Cavalcade of Stars (1949) was followed by Larry's own variety series, The Larry Storch Show (1953). In musical revues from the early 1950s with such showcases as "Red, Hot and Blue" and "Curtain Going Up," he also became a fixture on the nightclub circuit. He made a leap into legit acting with the musical "You Never Know" (1955) and comedies "The Tender Trap" (1956) and "Who Was that Lady I Saw You With?" (1958), in which he played a hyper Russian spy.
A long-lasting friendship with Tony Curtis that formulated during his Navy days paid off in spades. Curtis started finding work for his buddy in his films, beginning with an unbilled bit in the Universal costumer The Prince Who Was a Thief (1951). When Larry's career was going through a noticeable lull in the early 1960s, Curtis again came to the rescue by giving him top supporting roles in some of his prime cinematic fluff--Who Was That Lady? (1960) (in which he recreated his stage role), 40 Pounds of Trouble (1962), Sex and the Single Girl (1964) and Wild and Wonderful (1964).
TV audiences soon started seeing his manic-looking mug regularly on episodic TV, including The Phil Silvers Show (1955) and Car 54, Where Are You? (1961). Larry's biggest claim to fame would come via his Emmy-nominated role as Forrest Tucker's loyal but not particularly bright sidekick Cpl. Randolph Agarn in the western comedy F Troop (1965).
While continuing to make an "impression" in nightclubs, Larry found a lucrative outlet in animation, too, giving vocal life to four decades' worth of cartoons, including the series Tennessee Tuxedo and His Tales (1963), Underdog (1964), The Pink Panther Show (1969) and Scooby Doo, Where Are You! (1969). He also provided the voice of Koko the Clown in the syndicated cartoon show Out of the Inkwell (1961).
Beginning in the 1980s Storch made a comic resurgence of sorts under the theater lights with a healthy run opposite Jean Stapleton and Marion Ross in "Arsenic and Old Lace" from 1986-1988, and in the musicals "Oklahoma!" (1990) and "Annie Get Your Gun" (2000), the latter as Chief Sitting Bull. He also appeared with his friend Curtis again, this time in a musical stage version of Curtis' classic film Some Like It Hot (1959).
Larry went on to appear in typical oddball form in such films as Airport 1975 (1974), The Happy Hooker Goes to Washington (1977), Record City (1977), Without Warning (1980) (as a scoutmaster), S.O.B. (1981) (as a guru), Fake-Out (1982), Sweet Sixteen (1983), A Fine Mess (1986), The Perils of P.K. (1986), The Silence of the Hams (1994), Funny Valentine (2005) and Bittersweet Place (2005). TV guest appearances included "The Fall Guy," "Knight Rider," "Out of This World," "Married ... with Children," "Days of Our Lives," and his last, a 2010 appearance on "Medium Rare."
He was married to actress Norma Storch from 1961 until her death from cancer in 2003.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Whether portraying a glum, withering wallflower, a drab and dowdy housewife, a klutzy maid or a cynical gossip, eccentric character comedienne Alice Ghostley had the ability to draw laughs from the skimpiest of material with a simple fret or whine. Making a name for herself on the Tony-winning Broadway stage, her eternally forlorn looks later evolved as an amusingly familiar plain-Jane presence on TV sitcoms and in an occasional film or two during the 50s, 60s and 70s.
Alice was born in a whistle-stop railroad station in the tiny town of Eve, Missouri, where her father was employed as a telegraph operator. She grew up in various towns in the Midwest (Arkansas, Oklahoma) and began performing from the age of 5 where she was called upon to recite poetry, sing and tap-dance. Spurred on by a high school teacher, she studied drama at the University of Oklahoma but eventually left in order to pursue a career in New York with her sister Gladys.
Teaming together in an act called "The Ghostley Sisters", Alice eventually went solo and developed her own cabaret show as a singer and comedienne. She also toiled as a secretary to a music teacher in exchange for singing lessons, worked as a theater usherette in order to see free stage shows, paid her dues as a waitress, worked once for a detective agency, and even had a stint as a patch tester for a detergent company. No glamourpuss by any stretch of the imagination, she built her reputation as a singing funny lady.
The short-statured, auburn-haired entertainer received her star-making break singing the satirical ditty "The Boston Beguine" in the Broadway stage revue "New Faces of 1952", which also showcased up-and-coming stars Eartha Kitt, Carol Lawrence, Hogan's Heroes co-star Robert Clary and Paul Lynde to whom she would be invariably compared to what with their similarly comic demeanors. The film version of New Faces (1954)_ featured pretty much the same cast. She and "male counterpart" Lynde would appear together in the same films and/or TV shows over the years.
With this momentum started, she continued on Broadway with the short-lived musicals "Sandhog" (1954) featuring Jack Cassidy, "Trouble in Tahiti" (1955), "Shangri-La" (1956), again starring Jack Cassidy, and the legit comedy "Maybe Tuesday" (1958). A reliable sketch artist, she fared much better on stage in the 1960s playing a number of different characterizations in both "A Thurber Carnival" (1960), and opposite Bert Lahr in "The Beauty Part" (1962), for which she received a Tony nomination. She finally nabbed the Tony trophy as "featured actress" for her wonderful work as Mavis in the comedy play "The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window" (1965).
By this time Alice had established herself on TV. She and good friend Kaye Ballard stole much of the proceedings as the evil stepsisters in the classic Julie Andrews version of Cinderella (1957), and she also recreated her Broadway role in a small screen adaptation of _Shangri-La (1960) (TV)_. Although it was mighty hard to take away her comedy instincts, she did appear in a TV production of "Twelfth Night" as Maria opposite Maurice Evans' Malvolio, and graced such dramatic programs as "Perry Mason" and "Naked City", as well as the film To Kill a Mockingbird (1962). She kept herself in the TV limelight as a frequent panelist on such game shows as "The Hollywood Squares" and "The Match Game".
Enjoying a number of featured roles in such lightweight comedy fare as My Six Loves (1963) with Debbie Reynolds, With Six You Get Eggroll (1968) starring Doris Day, and the Joan Rivers starrer Rabbit Test (1978), she also had a small teacher role in the popular film version of Grease (1978). Alice primarily situated herself, however, on the sitcom circuit and appeared in a number of recurring 'nervous Nellie" roles, topping it off as the painfully shy, dematerializing and accident-prone witch nanny Esmeralda in Bewitched (1964) from 1969-1972 (replacing the late Marion Lorne, who had played bumbling Aunt Clara), and as the batty friend Bernice in Designing Women (1986).
In 1978 Alice replaced Dorothy Loudon as cruel Miss Hannigan in "Annie", her last Broadway stand. Alice would play the mean-spirited scene-stealer on and off for nearly a decade in various parts of the country. Other musicals during this time included "Take Me Along", "Bye, Bye Birdie" (as the overbearing mother), and the raucous revue "Nunsense".
A series of multiple strokes ended her career come the millennium and she passed away of colon cancer on September 21, 2007. Her long-time husband of fifty years, Italian comedic actor Felice Orlandi died in 2003. The couple had no children.- Murray Hamilton was one of those character actors whose face would be familiar to most movie buffs at an instant, yet his name may not. That's a shame, because Hamilton was one of the most versatile and prolific of performers who was never anything less than completely convincing in any role he took on, from priests to gangsters, soldiers to politicians, ordinary men to aliens. His characters would rarely fail to evoke emotion, whether that be sympathy or dislike. He particularly excelled at hard-edged, street-wise tough guys on either side of the law. His own dictum was to be always "true to the part as it is written".
Born and schooled in Washington, North Carolina, he had originally studied graphic design but had an early yearning for the acting profession. Barely out of his teens, he took a bus to Los Angeles, eventually arriving in Hollywood with just $50 to his name. He gained a foothold at Warner Brothers (his favorite studio) through the back door, as a messenger boy, earning $22 a week. He soon found work as an extra in films, but by 1945, returned to New York making his debut on Broadway as "a mill hand" in 'Strange Fruit', directed by 'Jose Ferrer (I)'.
His breakthrough came three years later, when he appeared with Henry Fonda in the long-running play 'Mister Roberts' (1948-51), first playing the role of a shore patrol officer, later taking over from David Wayne in the key part of Ensign Pulver. Over the years, Murray became quite comfortable with playing more comedic roles on stage and made good impressions as the over-zealous director Dion Kapakos in 'Critic's Choice' (1960-61), and as Otis Clifton in his Tony Award-nominated performance in 'Absence of a Cello' (1964-65), co-starring with Fred Clark and Charles Grodin. Of his enactment as Robert E. Lee Prewitt in the short-lived military drama 'Stockade' (1954), critic Brooks Atkinson remarked: "Modest of manner, pleasant of voice, he has a steel-like spirit that brings Prewitt honestly to life" (New York Times, September 17, 1986).
Murray began in films properly as a credited screen actor from 1951, alternating with guest starring roles on television (by the end of his life he had appeared in more than 100 TV shows). His expressive face and gravelly voice became an adaptable combination for playing surly gangsters (Perry Mason (1957)), authority figures with integrity (James Stewart's ill-fated colleague in The FBI Story (1959)), or without (pompous mayor Larry Vaughn in Jaws (1975)). He was particularly good as Irving Blanchard in the comedy No Time for Sergeants (1958), giving an excellent drunk impersonation; as obtuse barkeeper Al Paquette in Anatomy of a Murder (1959), the key witness to the crime who keeps mum out of misguided loyalty; cocky Kentuckian millionaire Findley who thinks he can take Fast Eddie in The Hustler (1961); and Anne Bancroft's complacent, cuckolded husband, Mr. Robinson, in The Graduate (1967), a role for which Marlon Brando was at one time considered. Of Murray's performance in the iconic 1960s film, Bosley Crowther posited that "Murray Hamilton is piercing ... a seemingly self-indulgent type who is sharply revealed as bewildered and wounded in one fine, funny scene" (New York Times, December 22, 1967).
On the small screen, he was memorable as "Mr. Death" in the 'One for the Angels' episode of Rod Serling's The Twilight Zone (1959), who is seemingly sweet-talked by salesman Lew Bookman (Ed Wynn) to remain on earth just long enough to make his big "pitch to the angels". As Lewis Dunn in the episode 'The Condemned' of The Invaders (1967), he was a very different type of visitor to earth, a sinister alien. In addition to numerous portrayals of harassed or cynical cops, he is also remembered for his recurring TV role, Captain Rutherford T. Grant, in B.J. and the Bear (1978).
Unlike other busy actors, Hamilton was not a part of the established Hollywood set, preferring to spend his life in his native North Carolina, and in Manhattan. He counted George C. Scott, Jason Robards, and Walter Matthau, among his close friends.
When the actor was suffering from the effects of cancer and found film roles harder to come by, Scott helped out by getting him a part in the made-for-television movie The Last Days of Patton (1986).
Murray Hamilton died, aged 63, in September 1986 in his native North Carolina. - Actor
- Director
- Writer
Don Adams was born in New York, to a father of Hungarian Jewish descent, and a mother of German and Irish ancestry. He had a sister, Gloria, and a brother, Dick Yarmy. He served in the U.S. Marines in World War II and contracted malaria during the fighting on Guadalcanal island. After the war he began a career as a stand-up comic. He married singer Adelaide Adams and adopted her last name as his stage surname. He had seven children altogether, (four with his first wife, two with his second, one with his third): Caroline Adams, Christine, Catherine, Cecily Adams, Stacey Adams, Sean, Beige. His television career began when he won the Ted Mack & the Original Amateur Hour (1948) talent contest. His most famous role, of course, is as bumbling, incompetent, clueless yet endearing secret agent Maxwell Smart in the classic sitcom/spy spoof Get Smart (1965), although he also had a career as a television director and a Broadway and theatrical dramatic actor.- Linda Christian was born Blanca Rosa Welter, to a Dutch father, Gerardus Jacob Welter, and a Mexican-born mother, Blanca Rosa Vorhauer. Her Father was an executive with Royal Dutch Shell and Christian traveled extensively as a result living in South Africa, Romania, Germany, France, Switzerland, England, and Palestine at various times during her childhood This was beneficial in that the little girl - a very good pupil at school - eventually was able to speak seven languages. She also turned into a shapely young lady who won a beauty contest. She started studying medicine in Palestine but had to be repatriated to the USA due to the international situation. She landed in Los Angeles and naturally considered a movie career there. She studied drama but got only minor parts for years. She really became famous when she married Tyrone Power, and her career somewhat improved. But it is scandal more than her film roles that long made her a favorite of the celebrity press rather than of specialized movie magazines.
- Actress
- Additional Crew
- Soundtrack
Ann Miller was born Johnnie Lucille Ann Collier on April 12, 1923 in Chireno, Texas. She lived there until she was nine, when her mother left her philandering father and moved with Ann to Los Angeles, California. Even at that young age, she had to support her mother, who was hearing-impaired and unable to hold a job. After taking tap-dancing lessons, she got jobs dancing in various Hollywood nightclubs while being home-schooled. Then, in 1937, RKO asked her to sign on as a contract player, but only if she could prove she was 18. Though she was really barely 14, she managed to get hold of a fake birth certificate, and so was signed on, playing dancers and ingénues in such films as Stage Door (1937), You Can't Take It with You (1938), Room Service (1938) and Too Many Girls (1940). In 1939, she appeared on Broadway in "George White's Scandals" and was a smash, staying on for two years. Eventually, RKO released her from her contract, but Columbia Pictures snapped her up to appear in such World War II morale boosters as True to the Army (1942) and Reveille with Beverly (1943). When she decided to get married, Columbia released her from her contract. The marriage was sadly unhappy and she was divorced in two years. This time, MGM picked her up, showcasing her in such films as Easter Parade (1948), On the Town (1949) and Kiss Me Kate (1953). In the mid-1950s, she asked to leave to marry again, and her request was granted. This marriage didn't last long, either, nor did a third. Ann then threw herself into work, appearing on television, in nightclubs and on the stage. She was a smash as the last actress to headline the Broadway production of "Mame" in 1969 and 1970, and an even bigger smash in "Sugar Babies" in 1979, which she played for nine years, on Broadway and on tour. She has cut back in recent years, but did appear in the Paper Mill Playhouse (Millburn, New Jersey) production of Stephen Sondheim's "Follies" in 1998, in which she sang the song "I'm Still Here", a perfect way to sum up the life and career of Ann Miller. On January 22, 2004, Ann Miller died at age 80 of lung cancer and was buried at the Holy Cross Cemetary in Culver City, California.- Director
- Cinematographer
- Actor
Irvin Kershner was born on April 29, 1923 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. A graduate of the University of Southern California film school, Kershner began his career in 1950, producing documentaries for the United States Information Service in the Middle East. He later turned to television, directing and photographing a series of documentaries called "Confidential File". Kershner was one of the directors given his first break by producer Roger Corman, for whom he shot Stakeout on Dope Street (1958). The main theme that runs through many of his films is social alienation and human weaknesses - although his biggest commercial success was the science fiction blockbuster Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980). Irvin Kershner died at age 87 of lung cancer in his home in Los Angeles, California on November 27, 2010.- The ever-impressive, chameleon-like British character actor Roy Dotrice was born on the Island of Guernsey, which is part of the United Kingdom, one of the Channel Islands off the coast of France. He was the first-born child of Louis and Neva Dotrice who prospered as bakers. The Germans occupied the island in 1940 and he and his mother and brother escaped to England.
Advancing his real age, Roy joined the Royal Air Force at age 16 and was trained as a wireless operator and air gunner. In 1942 his plane was shot down and he was captured where he served out the remainder of WWII (over three years) as a prisoner of war in Germany. He was introduced to the idea of performing when he took part in various makeshift concerts in order to raise the spirits of his fellow captives.
Following WWII and his release, Roy decided to pursue his acting ambitions. After studying at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, he began appearing in English repertory where he met and married (1947) actress Kay Dotrice who at the time was performing under her given name of Katherine (Kay) Newman. Throughout the early post-war years, the couple performed together in repertory with Charles Denville and the Denville Players. At different times he was a member of the Liverpool, Manchester and Oldham repertory theatres. Also during this great time of productivity, Roy produced and directed some three hundred stage plays. He formed his own troupe, the Guernsey Theatre Company, in 1955. The highlight of his theatrical career, however, began in 1957 when Roy became a member of the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre at Stratford, England, (later the Royal Shakespeare Company). For the next nine years he performed in a lengthy succession of the Bard's works, first in small parts as various players, officers and gentlemen. He subsequently went on to become a notable Iago, Falstaff and Julius Caesar, among others. A popular performer, he had an uncanny ability to play much older than he was. He later went on to perform with the American Shakespearean Festival.
The notoriety he received from his abundant classical theatre experience led directly to radio, film, television and Broadway offers. Roy has appeared in a number of Broadway productions over the years, receiving a Tony nomination for his work in "A Life" and finally winning the trophy for his heralded performance in the 2000 revival of "A Moon for the Misbegotten" starring Cherry Jones and Gabriel Byrne. Known for his considerable success in one-man shows such as Abraham Lincoln, Charles Dickens, Will Rogers and Winston Churchill, his superb one-person show "Brief Lives", drawn from the Elizabethan diaries of John Aubrey, played for over 1,700 performances over a period of nearly a decade. At one time this set a record for a solo performance and was listed in the "Guinness Book of World Records".
Dotrice made his credited feature movie debut supporting Kirk Douglas and Richard Harris in The Heroes of Telemark (1965), and has since lent class and distinction to a spattering of films. Among his list of credits include the bawdy comedy Lock Up Your Daughters! (1969); the sumptuous biopic Nicholas and Alexandra (1971); the Oscar-winning Amadeus (1984), Milos Forman's adaptation of composer Mozart's life in which Roy portrayed Mozart's stern and domineering father Leopold; and The Cutting Edge (1992) as an Olympic skating coach.
Perhaps better remembered on the small screen, he appeared magnanimously as a host of monarchs including his Edward IV in The Wars of the Roses (1965) and King George IV in the syndicated miniseries Shaka Zulu (1986). To American audiences he is probably best known as Jacob Wells, the Beast's surrogate father, in the dramatic series Beauty and the Beast (1987). Dotrice was also cast in the recurring role of Father Barrett, a Catholic priest and confidante of Judge Henry Bone (played by Ray Walston), on the acclaimed Emmy-winning drama Picket Fences (1992).
Since the end of the 1970s he has lived and worked primarily in America. More recently he appeared on stage reviving his outstanding 1993 role as George Bernard Shaw in "The Best of Friends" in 2006. Millennium work included the films Alien Hunter (2003), These Foolish Things (2006), Played (2006), Go Go Tales (2007). Enjoying a recurring role on the British TV series Life Begins (2004), Roy made his last TV appearances on two 2012 episodes of "Game of Thrones" as Hallyne.
Roy's devoted wife Kay died on August 2, 2007, after 60 years of marriage. The couple has three daughters (Michele Dotrice, Karen Dotrice and Yvette Dotrice), all whom at one time or another were actresses. Karen, who is now primarily out of the business, became the best known perhaps for her childhood Disney portrayals, notably in Mary Poppins (1964). Combined, his daughters have presented him with seven grandchildren. Roy died on October 16, 2017. - Actor
- Writer
- Soundtrack
Allan Melvin was born on 18 February 1923 in Kansas City, Missouri, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for Flash Gordon (1979), Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends (1981) and Archie Bunker's Place (1979). He was married to Amalia Faustina Sestero. He died on 17 January 2008 in Brentwood, Los Angeles, California, USA.- William Campbell was born on 30 October 1923 in Newark, New Jersey, USA. He was an actor, known for Escape from Fort Bravo (1953), The High and the Mighty (1954) and Dementia 13 (1963). He was married to Tereza Pavlovic, Barbara Bricker and Judith Campbell Exner. He died on 28 April 2011 in Woodland Hills, California, USA.
- Actor
- Additional Crew
- Soundtrack
Barney Martin was born on 3 March 1923 in Queens, New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for Arthur (1981), The Producers (1967) and Seinfeld (1989). He was married to Catherine Martin. He died on 21 March 2005 in Studio City, California, USA.- Actress
- Additional Crew
Daughter of Pathe screenwriter Peggy Prior and adopted daughter of the poet, essayist, author, and screenwriter Joseph Moncure March. Lori March began acting on stage in the 1940s. She later married the vocal performer Alexander Scourby, best known for his famous reading of "The Bible". Lori March Williams passed away in Connecticut in 2013. She is buried in the Church of the Transfiguration Columbarium Manhattan, New York County (Manhattan), New York, USA.- American juvenile leading man. A native of Texas, Martin entered the theatre in 1946 and within three years was tapped to play one of the young toughs in Knock on Any Door (1949). After minor roles in several minor films, he was given a larger role in The Thing from Another World (1951) by producer Howard Hawks. Hawks followed this with one of the two lead roles in his great Western The Big Sky (1952). Despite this and a few other prominent parts in big pictures, Martin's appearances became more and more infrequent and less and less stellar. He did, however, become a familiar face on television into the 1970s. He was married to singer Peggy Lee in the late 50s.
- Actor
- Producer
- Director
Born in London, England and son of a British World War I hero, Lawford had spent most of his childhood in Paris, France and began his acting career at a very young age. His parents were not married when their son was born. As a result of the scandal, The Lawfords fled to America.
As a young child, the young Peter injured his arm by in his own words, "attempt to run through a glass door." Lawford's arm was badly injured however, the doctors could save it. The injury was so bad, it was slightly deformed and bothered him throughout life. But such was his luck, the injury kept him off the draft for World War II, which became the biggest boon of his acting career.
When Lawford was signed to MGM, his mother approached studio head, Louis B. Mayer, to pay her a salary as her son's personal assistant. However, Mayer declined. She then claimed that her son was "homosexual" and needed to be "supervised". This damaged the relationship between her and her son.
Lawford starred in his first major movie called A Yank at Eton (1942) , co-starring Mickey Rooney, Ian Hunter and Freddie Bartholomew. His performance was widely praised. During this time, Lawford started to get more leads when major MGM star Clark Gable was drafted into the war. Later, it was Good News (1947), co-starring June Allyson that became Lawford's greatest claim to fame.
Probably Lawford's most controversial affair, amongst many, was with African-American actress Dorothy Dandridge. It was rumored that both Lawford and Dandridge were planning to get married but canceled fearing it would jeopardize their careers.
Besides his successful career and being a socialite, Lawford was also part of the Rat Pack, with Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, Joey Bishop and Sammy Davis Jr. .- Actor
- Writer
- Producer
Veteran Broadway, TV and film actor James Karen was encouraged as a young man to take up an acting career by U.S. Congressman Daniel J. Flood, who was an amateur actor himself. In 1947 Karen made his Broadway debut in "A Streetcar Named Desire", which led to appearances in over 20 Broadway productions. His television work began in 1948 with the telecast of "A Christmas Carol", directed by pioneer television producer / director Fred Coe. Since then he has acted in over 100 television shows, including a stint as as Chief Justice Michael Bancroft on First Monday (2002) for CBS. In 1965 he began his film work in the low-budget sci-fi "epic" Frankenstein Meets the Spacemonster (1965) and now has an impressive resume of over 80 movies to his credit. He has also filmed a record-breaking 5,000+ television commercials, most while a spokesperson for the Pathmark Supermarket chain in the northeast US. He has been honored with the "Saturn Award" for Lifetime Achievement given by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films. He has also been presented "The Buster Award", by The International Buster Keaton Society. This award is given to the person who has demonstrated professional excellence in the tradition of Buster Keaton.- Actor
- Writer
- Soundtrack
One-of-a-kind comedian Dick Shawn was as intriguingly clever and off-the-wall as they came. As such, he proved to be rather an acquired taste on film and TV. A counterculture favorite far ahead of his time, it became a hit-and-miss effort in proper vehicles for this man's eccentric genius. He certainly found his element on the live comedic stage, however, in between his offbeat on-camera assignments.
Born Richard Schulefand on December 1, 1923, in Buffalo, New York, Dick was raised in nearby Lackawanna where his father owned a clothing store. The family, including a brother, lived in the back room of the store. Athletics dominated his youth and, following high school, he tried out and won a contract with the Chicago White Sox. Before he could join the team, however, he was drafted into the Army where he sang and did comedy in USO shows. Following his discharge, he briefly attended the University of Miami, but the stand-up comedy stage seemed to beckon and he moved to New York City to follow his wacky desire.
Dick auditioned for Arthur Godfrey's "Talent Scouts" show (he didn't win) and changed his sir name to an easier sounding "Shawn" at this point. He began appearing at all the New York clubs and even played the New York Palace. He also found work on the Vegas comedy stage, and finally made his TV debut in 1955 guesting on "The Ed Sullivan Show," making eight appearances in total over the years. Other late 1950's and 60's variety shows came his way, increasing his popularity on "The Tonight Show," "The Kraft Music Hall," "The Eddie Fisher Show," "The Dinah Shore Chevy Show," "The Jimmy Dean Show," "The Jerry Lewis Show," "The Judy Garland Show," "The Andy Williams Show," "The Pat Boone Show" and "The Joan Rivers Show," among others.
Dick slowly moved into the forefront during the be-bop 50s and early 60s with a comical penchant for playing cool, hip cats, Dick made his film debut featured in The Opposite Sex (1956), the musical remake of "The Women," in which he had a cameo in "The Psychiatrist" sketch. A few years later he returned to co-star with equally "way out" comic idol Ernie Kovacs in the military spoof Wake Me When It's Over (1960) as a hustling soldier out to make a buck in the Far East. During this mild bid for film stardom, he found himself top-billed as a hip, laid back genie in the thoroughly anemic satire The Wizard of Baghdad (1960).
Dick made a distinct impression when he replaced the legendary Zero Mostel in the bawdy Broadway musical "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum." On film, he stole a small scene as a deadbeat character in the all-star epic chase comedy It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World (1963). By far, the one role that would completely overshadow all of his other film work was his mock, hammy portrayal of a singing Adolf Hitler in the show-within-a-show The Producers (1967), written and directed by Mel Brooks. In the film, which also starred Mostel and Gene Wilder as two con artists deliberately producing a stage "bomb" called "Springtime for Hitler," Shawn sang the absurdly narcissistic song "Love Power." This stroke of genius of matching actor to role would not happen again for him, but he certainly tried. For the most part, Dick's slick and smarmy persona got caught up too much in mediocre material.
On TV, Dick stepped up his visibility appearing on the well-oiled comedy shows of the day, including "The Lucy Show," "That's Life," "Love, American Style," "Mary," "Laverne & Shirley," "Private Benjamin," "Three's Company," and a regular role as Russian Premier Zolotov in the short-lived political satire Hail to the Chief (1985) starring Patty Duke as a female U.S. president. He also could show a serious, dramatic side on such programs as "The Bold Ones," "Medical Center," Magnum P.I.," "The Fall Guy" and "St. Elsewhere."
Dick seemed to be best taken in smaller doses. He provided a gallery of over-the-top oddballs during his three-decade career: a nerdy fiancé in the Rock Hudson battle-of-the-sexes comedy A Very Special Favor (1965); a wacky West Point captain alongside James Coburn in the slapstick war comedy What Did You Do in the War, Daddy? (1966); a Russian counterpart to Brian Keith's space-chosen civilian in the sci-fi comedy Way... Way Out (1966); an unhappy husband married to Tina Louise in The Happy Ending (1969); a psychiatrist to Natalie Wood's title character in Penelope (1966); an adulterous Jewish husband in the family drama Looking Up (1977); an investigating officer in the vampire spoof Love at First Bite (1979) starring George Hamilton as Dracula; a very rare lead as a suicide-prone anchorman in the black comedy Good-bye Cruel World (1982); a rock-and-roller character called Weevil, King of Evil in Rock 'n' Roll Hotel (1983); an annoying college professor in Young Warriors (1983); an aging drag queen in the crime thriller Angel (1983); a patient of Bud Cort's title character in The Secret Diary of Sigmund Freud (1984); a smug talk show host in Beer (1985); an equally smug psychiatrist in The Perils of P.K. (1986); an eccentric blueblood who hires Ally Sheedy in Maid to Order (1987); and a documentary filmmaker who, with Martin Mull, is forced to make porn in the comedy farce Rented Lips (1987). This final film of his was released posthumously.
The comedian's biggest fan base, however, was the result of his one-man stage tours which contained a weird mix of songs, sketches, satire, philosophy and even pantomime. A bright, innovative wit, one of Dick's most notorious shows was called "The Second Greatest Entertainer in the World." During the show's intermission, Shawn would lie visibly on the stage floor absolutely still during the entire time. By freakish coincidence, the 63-year-old Shawn was performing at the University of California at San Diego on the evening of April 17, 1987, when, during the show, he suddenly collapsed on stage. The audience, at first laughing and thinking it was part of his odd shtick, had suffered a fatal heart attack. A not surprising end for this thoroughly intriguing character, Dick was survived by his four children from a previous marriage.- Actress
- Soundtrack
The daughter of stage actress Laura R. Parrish, lovely slim-eyed brunette Helen Parrish was born on March 12, 1923 (references sometimes vary between 1922 and 1924), in Columbus, Georgia. She started out in movies at the ripe old age of four playing Babe Ruth's daughter in the silent movie Babe Comes Home (1927). She was also featured in "Our Gang" comedy shorts and was sometimes cast to play the lead character as a child/youngster. A couple of those femme stars were Loretta Young in Beau Ideal (1931) and Mary Brian in Song of the Eagle (1933).
Into her teens, Helen became established as a cinematic kid sister, neighborhood friend or rich young girl in such films as There's Always Tomorrow (1934), Straight from the Heart (1935) and A Dog of Flanders (1935). She was most notable, however, as the bane of sweet Deanna Durbin's existence in several of the singing star's musical vehicles -- usually a jealous, spiteful rival. In their first film, Mad About Music (1938), the two worked so well together that Universal decided to form a sort of teen Shirley Temple/Jane Withers stand-off between the two in a couple of other movie confections as well -- Three Smart Girls Grow Up (1939) and First Love (1939).
Most of Helen's film offerings were quite pleasant but rather unexceptional and nominally in the "B" category, including X Marks the Spot (1931), When a Feller Needs a Friend (1932), A Dog of Flanders (1935), I'm Nobody's Sweetheart Now (1940), Too Many Blondes (1941) and X Marks the Spot (1942) (same name, different plot from her earlier film). By her mid-20s Helen filmed her last picture as the second lead in the "B" western The Wolf Hunters (1949). Focusing on the smaller screen into the 1950's, she appeared in a number of TV anthologies, including "Fireside Theatre" and "Chevon Theatre," and ended her on-camera career as a guest on "Leave It to Beaver" and "The Danny Thomas Show."
Helen's older brother, Robert Parrish, was a minor child actor who later earned respect as a film editor and director; older sister, child actress Beverly Parrish, died suddenly at the age of 10 after filming only one movie. Helen married twice. Her first husband was actor/screenwriter Charles Lang and her second, TV producer, John Guedel, survived her. She had no children.
Helen's untimely death from cancer in February 22, 1959, at age 35, robbed Hollywood of a glowing actress with true potential.- Actress
- Additional Crew
- Soundtrack
Rose Marie was a legend of show business, with a career stretching 90 years, since her debut as her self in a Vitaphone musical short that appeared on the bill with The Jazz Singer (1927) at its premiere in 1927. According to Rose Marie, when she approached Al Jolson at the Winter Garden Theater in New York on the night of the premiere that made movie history and told him, "You were wonderful, Mr. Jolson!", his reply was, "Get away, you little brat!"
"He didn't like kids," Rose Marie explained. Her first credited appearance was in another musical short, Baby Rose Marie the Child Wonder (1929) in 1929.
The legendary performer was born Rose Marie Mazetta on August 15, 1923 in New York City, the daughter of an Italian-American father, Frank Mazetta (known as Frank Curley), and Polish-American mother, Stella (Gluszcak). Blessed with a remarkable singing voice for a child that allowed her to belt out jazz songs in the "coon shouter" style of the 1920s (as exemplified by Sophie Tucker), she began performing when she was three years old as "Baby Rose Marie." By the time she was five, she had her own radio show on NBC, appearing after 'Amos and Andy' (1949)_, the most popular show in the country. Many people could not believe the voice they were hearing actually belonged to a child.
Baby Rose Marie made many appearances in films in the 1930s, most famously in International House (1933), a movie about television, the medium in which Rose Marie would win her everlasting fame. In addition to her film performances, Baby Rose Marie also appeared on records and performed in vaudeville as a headliner. One of the acts she appeared with was Edgar Bergen before his Charlie McCarthy ventriloquism act, when he was still a small-timer. A half century later, when she appeared on Murphy Brown (1988), she told star Candice Bergen, "I worked with your father in vaudeville when he was doing a doctor sketch."
When Bergen replied that she couldn't have played the nurse in the act as she was too young, Rose Marie told her that she was the headliner and he was her opening act. "She didn't care for that too much," Rose Marie remembered.
She also appeared in vaudeville with Dick Powell, Rudy Vallee and Jimmy Durante, who mentored her. She also entertained at the White House three separate times at the request of three presidents. They were Calvin Coolidge, Herbert Hoover and Franklin D. Roosevelt.
She transitioned to becoming a nightclub chanteuse as a teenager, playing all the big night clubs and hotels in New York, Chicago, Atlantic City, Las Vegas and Miami, Florida, usually in Mob-controlled venues. (Prominent mobsters, who called her "The Kid", liked her and protected her.) A young Milton Berle, whom she had known since she was a child, wrote some of her material, as did Morey Amsterdam, her future "Dick Van Dyke" co-star whom she knew since she was nine years old.
After the war she married trumpeter Bobby Guy of the Kay Kyser Orchestra, in 1946. She made her Broadway debut in 1951, co-starring with Phil Silvers in the hit show Top Banana (1954) (she also appeared in the 1954 film adaptation). Rose Marie also appeared on radio on "The Phil Harris - Alice Faye Show", playing the sister of Sheldon Leonard, who would later hire her for The Dick Van Dyke Show (1961) in his capacity as executive producer.
Rose Marie had a career resurgence as an actress in the 1960s, starring in three sitcoms during the decade: First, My Sister Eileen (1960) in the 1960-1961 season. Second: as comedy writer "Sally Rogers" on The Dick Van Dyke Show (1961) from 1961 to 1966, and on The Doris Day Show (1968) from 1969 to 1971. She also appeared frequently on The Hollywood Squares (Daytime) (1965). She was the center square at least once, and had a recurring role on Murphy Brown (1988) and Wings (1990). She appeared in a Remington Steele episode "Steele in the Spotlight (1986).
She also kept her singing career going, touring as part of the musical revue "4 Girls 4" from 1977 to 1981 with Rosemary Clooney, Helen O'Connell and Margaret Whiting. In her latter years, she continued to make occasional appearances.
She died on December 28, 2017 in Van Nuys, California, at 94 years old.- Jean Willes is best known for her roles in a number of B-movies in the 1950s and 1960s, as well as on the small screen. Lovely and curvaceous, she usually played hard-boiled gold-diggers, party girls, gun molls, and saloon girls. She came off as a wily, smarter version of Barbara Nichols or Iris Adrian, and although she was versatile, she never rose to the first tier of stardom; in retrospect, she seems to have been capable of much more than she was given during her three-decade-plus career.
Born in Los Angeles on April 15, 1923, she was raised in Utah and in Seattle. Interested in an acting career, she returned to the town of her birth and in 1942 started showing up in comedy film shorts for Columbia under her birth name. She was a smart and sexy foil to, among others, such enjoyable comics as Harry Langdon, Andy Clyde, Eddie Foy Jr., Joe DeRita, Sterling Holloway, and Hugh Herbert. After bit parts in such feature-length films as So Proudly We Hail! (1943), Here Come the Waves (1944), and Salty O'Rourke (1945), she began earning co-star status in such post-war feature-length programs as Revenue Agent (1950) opposite Douglas Kennedy, in A Yank in Indo-China (1952), and in one of Johnny Weissmuller's "Jungle Jim" outings.
Willes became a cheesecake fixture in Hollywood, and film and TV work was steady. But when she was lucky enough to score a role in an "A" film, she was barely glimpsed, as in the Bob Hope comedy Son of Paleface (1952) and the "Best Picture" war epic From Here to Eternity (1953). She had the most screen time in an "A" film as Dr. Miles Bennell (Kevin McCarthy)'s beautiful nurse and, reading between the lines, former paramour, in the sci-fi cult classic, Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956). (SPOILER: She succumbs to the aliens, like everyone else aside from Bennell, in the fictional California town of Santa Mira.) She was one of the four women vying for an aging Clark Gable's attentions in The King and Four Queens (1956), one of his lesser efforts. Guest spots on TV gave her greater visibility, and she frequently was seen in westerns (The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp (1955), Maverick (1957)) and crime dramas (Perry Mason (1957)), usually playing unsympathetic women although occasionally playing more agreeable or respectable characters. Her last feature films roles were in McHale's Navy (1964), The Cheyenne Social Club (1970), and Bite the Bullet (1975). After a few more TV roles, she retired in 1976.
Willes died of liver cancer on January 3, 1989 at the age of 65. Her second husband, NFL football player Gerard Cowhig, died at their Van Nuys, California, home in 1995. They had one son, Gerry. - Actor
- Soundtrack
Usually sized up as an erudite gent, advice-spouting father or uptight, pompous neighbor, the acting talents of Conrad Bain were best utilized on stage and on TV. Born in Lethbridge, Alberta, on February 4, 1923, Conrad Stafford Bain was a twin son (the other was named Bonar) born to Stafford Harrison Bain, a wholesaler, and Jean Agnes (née Young). He enjoyed Canadian sports growing up (ice hockey, speed skating), but picked up an interest in acting while in high school.
Electing to train at Alberta's Banff School of Fine Arts after graduating, he met Monica Marjorie Sloan, an artist, while there. His acting pursuit was interrupted by WWII when he subsequently joined the Canadian army. Picking up here he left off following his discharge, he studied at New York's American Academy of Dramatic Arts. He also married Ms. Sloan in 1945 and became a naturalized U.S. citizen the following year. The couple went on to have three children -- Jennifer, Mark and Kent.
Making his stage debut in a Connecticut production of "Dear Ruth" in 1947, Bain also appeared in "Jack and the Beanstalk" and a tour of "The Barretts of Wimpole Street" before making his off-Broadway debut in a 1956 Circle-in-the-Square revival of Eugene O'Neill's "The Iceman Cometh," a production that made a star out of Jason Robards. Following an inauspicious Broadway bow in "Sixth Finger in a Five Finger Glove", which closed after only one day, he joined the Stratford (Ontario) Shakespeare Festival for their 1958 season, appearing in "A Winter's Tale," "Much Ado About Nothing" and "Henry IV, Part I."
Fair in complexion and exceedingly genial in demeanor, the wry and witty blond actor graduated into other Broadway work, particularly drama, with strong roles in "Candide," "Advise and Consent," "An Enemy of the People," "Twigs" and "Uncle Vanya." He also built up his regional and repertory credits during the early 1960s with parts in "King Lear," "The Firebugs," "Death of a Salesman" and "The Shadow of Heroes" at Seattle Rep. Later in the decade he began to focus more intently on TV, usually playing cerebral, white-collar types (district attorneys, stock brokers, doctors, politicos).
Bain eventually found an "in" with daytime drama, which included a recurring role on Dark Shadows (1966) (as an innkeeper), and a part on The Edge of Night (1956) in 1970. He broke completely away, however, from his trademark dramatics when the 49-year-old actor was "discovered" for prime-time TV by Norman Lear and offered a supporting role opposite Bea Arthur and Bill Macy in Norman Lear's landmark, liberally-sliced comedy series Maude (1972), a spin-off of Lear's equally landmark All in the Family (1971) sitcom. Conrad was cast as Rue McClanahan's stuffy, conservative doctor/husband, Arthur Harmon, who usually was at political odds with free-wheeling feminist Maude Finlay.
The role moved Bain into the prime TV comedy character ranks. Following the show's lengthy run (1972-1978), he was given the green light by Lear to move into his own comedy series with Diff'rent Strokes (1978) as the wealthy father of a girl and adoptive father of two African-American children. While young Gary Coleman, the compact, precocious, mouthy dynamo, may have stolen the show, the good-humored Bain remained a strong center and voice of reason until the show's demise in 1986. Three was not a charm when Bain went into a third new comedy series, Mr. President (1987), with Conrad as a loyal aide-de-camp to "President" George C. Scott. The show, created not by Lear but by Johnny Carson, lasted only 24 episodes.
During and after his lengthy 70s and 80s TV success, Conrad would continue to return to his first love, the stage, in such productions as "Uncle Vanya," "The Owl and the Pussycat," "On Golden Pond," "The Dining Room" and "On Borrowed Time", the last being a 1992 return to Broadway after nearly two decades. Films, on the other hand, were a non-issue at this point. Earlier minor turns included Clint Eastwood's Coogan's Bluff (1968), Gene Hackman's I Never Sang for My Father (1970), Woody Allen's Bananas (1971), Sean Connery's The Anderson Tapes (1971) and Barbra Streisand's Up the Sandbox (1972). His last stop in films was an engaging part as a befuddled grandpa opposite the perennially crusty Mary Wickes in Postcards from the Edge (1990) starring Meryl Streep and Shirley MacLaine. One of Bain's last on-camera appearances was recreating his Phillip Drummond role from Diff'rent Strokes (1978) on a 1996 episode of "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air".
Other than a stage role in "Ancestral Voices" in 2000, Conrad turned for a time to screen-writing but later comfortably retired to the Brentwood area of Los Angeles. Moving to a Livermore California retirement home in 2008, wife Monica died a year later. Bain passed away there quietly of natural causes on January 14, 2013, less than a month short of his 90th birthday. His twin brother Bonar died in 2005.- Actor
- Writer
- Director
'Eric Sykes' started as a radio scriptwriter but he soon found he could perform as well as write. The slight handicap of being very hard of hearing doesn't interfere with his wonderful comic timing. The spectacles he wears have no lenses but contain a bone conducting hearing aid.- Prior to breaking into films, Philadelphia native Julius Harris worked as a bouncer in New York City. It was due to his many associations with struggling actors, that on a dare, Harris auditioned for his first role, in the well-received picture Nothing But a Man (1964), in which he played a father in the South, alongside Ivan Dixon and Abbey Lincoln. After, this, Harris' impressive physique and deep voice helped enable him to rack up numerous appearances in the then popular blaxploitation genre.
His strong appearance in supporting roles in such low-budget films as Shaft's Big Score! (1972), Super Fly (1972), and Black Caesar (1973), which helped springboard him into better quality productions. Harris scored a co-starring role in the first Roger Moore James Bond film Live and Let Die (1973), in which his portrayal of the bald-headed, grinning villain "Tee Hee", with the menacing artificial arm, was one of the more iconic heavies of the entire franchise.
More work quickly followed for Harris, including NYPD "Inspector Daniels" in the original The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974), King Kong (1976), and Looking for Mr. Goodbar (1977). In addition to his film work, he was guest-starring in numerous TV shows, including Harry O (1973), Sanford and Son (1972), Cannon (1971), Good Times (1974), and Kojak (1973). Harris continued working throughout the 1980s in a mixture of different character roles, although the 1990s proved to be a leaner period for him.
Julius Harris passed away on October 17, 2004 from heart failure, at the age of 81. He was cremated and then interred in his hometown, and is survived by his daughter (Kimberly) and his son (Gideon). - Actress
- Soundtrack
She was born Adelaide Delgado on August 28, 1923 (some references list 1925) to Spanish-speaking parents. The future Adela Mara began dances lesson at age 6 and was discovered as a young teenager by the legendary Xavier Cugat. Singing and dancing with his in the Detroit area, Cugat took the beautiful, brown-eyed brunette to New York where she performed in his shows at such esteemed clubs as the Copacabana.
While touring as a singer/dancer, she was spotted in Florida by a Columbia talent scout and signed to a Hollywood contract in 1942 at age 19. Starting off in bit exotic roles in such films as Honolulu Lu (1941), she quickly grew to alluring co-starring status opposite top banana Glynis Ahearn in Shut My Big Mouth (1942). There continued playing brisk leading ladies in a series of standard, uneventful "B" films including Vengeance of the West (1942) with Tex Ritter and Alias Boston Blackie (1942) starring Chester Morris.
A couple of years later she was transformed into a sexy platinum blonde pin-up after signing with Republic Studios and kept herself quite busy predominantly cast as senorita-types opposite cowboy stars Roy Rogers in Bells of Rosarita (1945) and Gene Autry in Twilight on the Rio Grande (1947). She was also fetching fodder in crime dramas including Blackmail (1947) and Web of Danger (1947) and a pleasant diversion in adventure pictures such as Wake of the Red Witch (1948) with John Wayne and The Avengers (1950).
Arguably Adele's best parts would come with Angel in Exile (1948) and Sands of Iwo Jima (1949), the latter again starring Duke Wayne. Seldom was she given the chance to capitalize on her acting talents, however, and her film career waned in the mid 1950s. Her last screen appearance would be in The Big Circus (1959) with Victor Mature. Adele subsequently moved into TV and was featured in a number of guest spots, primarily in westerns. She eventually abandoned her career and settled down to raise her three sons from her 1952 marriage to TV mogul Roy Huggins who produced many hit shows including 77 Sunset Strip (1958) and Maverick (1957). On a rare occasion, she would appear as a guest in one of his efforts, including an episode of the TV series Cool Million (1972).
Huggins died in 2002 and Adele passed away eight years later of natural causes in Los Angeles on May 7, 2010. The 87-year-old actress was interred at San Fernando Mission Cemetery.- Actor
- Writer
Born in Franklin, Indiana on December 28, 1923, he was raised in Texas and went to college at Indiana University. There, on a speech and drama scholarship, he began to act and perform however this was interrupted by being called into the service. In World War II where he saw action overseas, he was befriended by actor Melvyn Douglas, who led his division. With such encouragement, as well as meeting and becoming familiar with some Broadway folks, Duggan went into acting. From 1953 onward, he was a fixture in both movies and television.
Most notably, he played General Ed Britt on 12 O'Clock High (1964), he was Cal Calhoun in Bourbon Street Beat (1959) and his most famous role as "Murdoch Lancer" in Lancer (1968) and the original John Walton opposite Patricia Neal in The Homecoming: A Christmas Story (1971). He was "Howitzer Al Houlihan", the father of "Hotlips Houlihan" (Loretta Swit) in M*A*S*H (1972). In 1954, he wed Broadway actress Elizabeth "Betty" Logue. After their deaths, they were cremated and their ashes scattered at Lake Arrowhead, California.- Additional Crew
- Production Designer
- Director
Franco Zeffirelli is an Italian director and producer of operas, films and television. He was also a senator from 1994 until 2001 for the Italian center-right Forza Italia party. Some of his operatic designs and productions have become worldwide classics.
He was known for several of the movies he directed, especially the 1968 version of Romeo and Juliet (1968), for which he received an Academy Award nomination. His 1967 version of The Taming of The Shrew (1967) with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton remains the best-known film adaptation of that play as well. His mini-series Jesus of Nazareth (1977) won both national and international acclaim.
In 1999, Zeffirelli received the Crystal Globe award for outstanding artistic contribution to world cinema at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. In November 2004, he was awarded an honorary knighthood by the United Kingdom. He was awarded the Premio Colosseo in 2009 by the city of Rome.- Actor
- Soundtrack
In the late 1920s, Lewis worked as a circus performer, but ultimately decided on college, earning a Ph.D. in child psychology from Columbia University. He taught school and wrote two children's books. In 1949, at the suggestion of a friend, Lewis turned to acting and joined the Paul Mann Actor's Workshop in New York. Lewis worked in burlesque and vaudeville theaters across the country, which eventually led to Broadway. By the 1950s, television was booming, and Lewis took advantage of the work appearing on almost every live show out of his home base of New York City. His most famous regular TV roles were Officer Leo Schnauser on Car 54, Where Are You? (1961) and Grandpa on The Munsters (1964). When these shows ended, he opened a restaurant in New York called "Grampa's" in Greenwich Village. He has since produced a home video for children and appeared on WTBS in a series of Saturday morning programs for children.- Producer
- Actor
For 35 years, Bob Barker had been the host of The Price is Right (1972) game show. Not only is it the highest-rated daytime program, it is also the longest-running game show in TV history, surpassing the prime-time hit What's My Line? (1950), which ran for 18 years. He also served as the executive producer of the program, since 1988, until his retirement in 2007. Named the most popular game show host of all time in a national poll, he received the Lifetime Achievement Award for Daytime Television in 1999. Although he has graced our television screens for more than four decades, his career continued at full circle, until he left the show, in 2007, only to be replaced by comedian Drew Carey.
In 1996, he made his motion picture debut in Universal Pictures' Happy Gilmore (1996), in which he played himself with Adam Sandler. His real acting debut, however, came when he was asked to play Mel Harris' father in NBC's Something So Right (1996). Another honor came when one of the most historic sites in the history of television, Stage 33 at CBS Television City in Los Angeles, was re-dedicated as the Bob Barker Studio in ceremonies following the taping of the 5,000th episode of "The Price is Right", on March 11, 1998. Barker was the first performer to whom CBS has ever dedicated a stage.
Barker was born in Darrington, Washington, and spent most of his youth on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota, where his mother was a schoolteacher. His family eventually moved to Springfield, Missouri, where he attended high school and Drury College on a basketball scholarship. World War II interrupted his studies and he joined the US Navy, becoming a fighter pilot, but the war ended before he was assigned to a seagoing squadron.
Following his discharge, Barker returned to Drury and took a job at a local radio station to help finance his studies. It was there he discovered what he did best being to host audience participation shows. After graduating summa cum laude with a degree in economics, he went to work for a radio station in Palm Beach, Florida. A year later he moved to Los Angeles, and within a week he was the host of his own radio program, "The Bob Barker Show". He made his debut, at the end of 1956 on national television as the host of the popular The All New Truth or Consequences (1950). Ralph Edwards, the show's originator, had sold the show to NBC as a daytime strip, but he had not chosen a host. He auditioned other hosts in Hollywood and New York for weeks, but when he heard "The Bob Barker Show" on his car radio, he knew he had found the man for the job. Proving that Edwards had chosen him wisely, Barker hosted "Truth or Consequences" for an unbelievable 18 years, until the show ended in 1975, and he and Edwards remained close friends, until Edwards's death in 2005. They drank a toast at lunch every December 21st to celebrate the day in 1956, when Edwards notified him he was going to become the host of "Truth or Consequences".
Barker had been twice named in the Guinness Book of World Records as Television's "Most Durable Performer," at 3,524 shows, and "Most Generous Host in Television history" for awarding $55 million in prizes on his various shows. During the ensuing years, the $55-million figure had increased to more than $200 million. He had won 11 Emmys as a Game Show Host, more than any other performer, and 2 more as Executive Producer of "The Price is Right". He also was given the Lifetime Achievement Award in 1999, for a total of 14, and won 2 additional awards, for a total of 16 Emmys. He had also received the coveted Carbon Mike Award of the Pioneer of Broadcasters.
In 1978, he developed "The Bob Barker Fun & Games Show", a series of personal appearances that attracted record-breaking audiences throughout the US and Canada. He also established the DJ&T Foundation in Beverly Hills, California, the purpose of which is to help control the dog and cat population. He was funding the foundation through his own resources to support low-cost or free spay/neuter clinics. This foundation is named in memory of his late wife, Dorothy Jo, and his mother, Matilda (Tilly) Valandra, both of whom loved animals. Barker's work on behalf of animals has garnered him a long list of awards from prestigious humane organizations across the country. In fact, a columnist wrote Bob had become a part-time television host and a full-time animal rights activist. However, he assured his audiences there was room in his busy life for both television and animals.
After his retirement, Barker had made 3 more appearances, on "The Price is Right", the first being to promote his autobiography, " Priceless Memories :, then, on his 90th birthday, in 2013 he briefly replaced Drew Carey, at the show's intro, for an April Fools' Day joke, which was his last appearance. In 2010, The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society announced it had purchased and outfitted a ship to interdict with Japanese whaling operations in the Southern Ocean using $5 million dollars, provided by him, the same year, he donated $2.5 million, toward the purchase of office space for the organization in Los Angeles. The "Bob Barker Building" opened in 2012.
Bob Barker passed away on August 26, 2023, in Hollywood Hills, California, after a long battle against Alzheimer's disease. He was 99.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Gordon Cameron Jackson was born on December 19, 1923, in Glasgow, Scotland, the youngest of five children, whose father taught painting in the city. His interest in acting began during his school years, when he took part in many amateur productions. This led to him being spotted by the BBC, and that led to work in such radio shows such as "Children's Hour" followed. However, by age 15 he left school and went to work for Rolls-Royce. However, when some film producers were looking for a young Scot for a role in Somewhere in France (1942), "The Beeb" hadn't forgotten Gordon (even if he had forgotten them) and recommended him.
His abilities as an actor really came to the forefront at age 20 with his appearance as an airman in Millions Like Us (1943). Although his roles were limited by his Scottish accent, his versatility won him many film and TV roles in a career spanning almost 50 years. He was a very prolific actor and, although not always starring in high-profile films, he was rarely out of work. His early career also included work in radio and repertory theater in Glasgow, Worthing and Perth. He made his London stage debut in 1951, in the long-running farce "Seagulls Over Sorrento". Later stage roles included Horatio in "Hamlet", Banquo in "Macbeth", Ishmael in "Moby Dick" directed by Orson Welles and a range of other parts both classical and modern.
In 1949 he starred in the film Floodtide (1949) alongside Rona Anderson, whom he married two years later. The couple had two children, Graham and Roddy. His film work remained steady throughout the 1950s and 1960s. In 1969 he played Horatio in Tony Richardson's production of "Hamlet" at the Round House, and won the Clarence Derwent Award for Best Supporting Actor. However, the public didn't really "discover" him until 1971 with London Weekend Television's classic Upstairs, Downstairs (1971). This series set in the 1910s and 1920s concerned the contrast between the lives of a wealthy family (upstairs) and their servants (downstairs). He played the "middleman" butler, Hudson. The series lasted five years and aired in dozens of countries worldwide, and was particularly popular in the US.
In 1974 he was awarded British Actor of the Year award and a Supporting Actor Emmy in 1975 for "Upstairs, Downstair". In 1977 came the long-running The Professionals (1977), an action-based crime series in which he played the tough, ruthless, wily head of a government agency called Criminal Intelligence (essentially a cross between MI6, Special Branch and the SAS). This was a complete (if temporary) change of direction for his career and he appeared to relish the challenge of playing an entirely different role. Despite the controversial depiction of violence, the series was hugely successful all over the world (except America, as the TV network executives there felt it too violent). Reportedly the British royal family were fans of the series, and in 1979 he was awarded OBE (Officer of the Order of the British Empire) for his services to drama. Shortly after completion of the series in 1981, he appeared in the Australian mini-series A Town Like Alice (1981).. He won Australia's Logie award for this role. Yet despite his success, he claimed that he did not enjoy his own performances and never watched himself on screen, stating that he never felt very confident or comfortable in front of the camera or on stage.
Throughout the remainder of the 1980s he generally took small roles in TV and film projects. Tragically his career was cut short when, in 1989, it was discovered he had irreversible bone cancer. He passed away on 14 January 1990 at the Cromwell Hospital in South Kensington, London.