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1-50 of 245
- Actress
- Producer
Best known as "Lacey Underall" in Caddyshack (1980), and "Yori" in Tron (1982), Cindy Morgan was born Cynthia Ann Cichorski on September 29, 1954 in Chicago, Illinois, not far from Wrigley Field. The daughter of a Polish factory worker and a German mother, Cindy attended 12 years of Catholic school and was the first in her family to attend college.
While studying communications at Northern Illinois University, Cindy spun records on the radio. A commercial station in town wanted her to report the news for them as well, so a slight deception was needed. She used the name Cindy Morgan, taken from a story she read about Morgan le Fay when she was 12 years old.
After graduation, Cindy gave all the latest meteorological news on a TV station in Rockford, Ill. She also kept her hand in radio by working the graveyard shift at a local rock station. Then she returned to Chicago and deejayed on WSDM (now WLUP). During a labor dispute at the station, she literally quit on the air and walked out with a record still spinning on the turntable.
Cindy found employment at auto shows for Fiat, which took her to both coasts. She moved to Los Angeles in 1978 and became the Irish Spring girl. While she did TV commercials, she studied acting, and was rewarded with her first screen role in "Caddyshack", playing the role of "Lacey Underall", an over-amorous ingénue.- Actor
- Soundtrack
When someone told Brad Johnson he'd come a long way, his usual response was, "Well, I had a long way to come." Born on a small ranch in Tucson, Johnson, the son of a horse trainer/used car salesman, did everything from shoeing horses to repossessing cars to serving as a hunting and fishing guide. His humble beginnings nurtured his modesty and quiet strength and had critics comparing him to John Wayne, Clint Eastwood and James Stewart.
Brad's route to stardom was speedy, dramatic and somewhat circuitous. He joined the Pro Rodeo circuit in 1984 and was spotted wrestling steers in Wyoming by a casting director looking for cowboys to use as extras in a beer commercial. After this first break came a three-year run as the Marlboro Man, then numerous Calvin Klein print ads and more commercials. After a serious knee injury sidelined his rodeo career, Johnson headed for Hollywood.
Within five months of his arrival, Roger Corman cast him to star in Nam Angels (1989). Soon after, Steven Spielberg discovered Johnson and offered him the coveted role of Ted Baker, Holly Hunter's love interest in Always (1989). When asked about her co-star, Holly described Brad as "all twisted steel and sex appeal." The Spielberg film led Johnson to Paramount for John Milius's Flight of the Intruder (1991). An exclusive three-picture deal at Paramount followed.
With 60 hours of television, 11 pilots and over 25 films to his credit, there was no slowing down. Johnson's Los Angeles-based High Lonesome Productions and his producing partner Lou Pitt had several projects in different stages of production.
Brad lived with his wife Laurie and their eight children on a ranch in the mountains of Colorado.- Actor
- Director
- Writer
Raised in Dallas, Texas, James Hampton attended John H. Reagan Elementary, N.R. Crozier Technical High School and the University of North Texas (Theatre Arts Major). He studied acting with Michael Howard in New York and Leonard Nimoy in Los Angeles. He worked with Baruch Lumet at Knox Street Theatre in Dallas and did summer stock at Casa Manana in Fort Worth (1961). He performed off-Broadway in "Easy Does It" with Tom Poston and Elizabeth Allen Rosenbaum, and toured with Burt Reynolds in "Rainmaker". He starred in "Tender Trap" with Reynolds at Arlington Park Theatre in Chicago and played the title role in "Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter" at the same theatre with Mamie Van Doren and Rick Jason. Onscreen, he has played in films as diverse as The Longest Yard (1974) and Teen Wolf (1985), and is probably best remembered as the eager but inept bugler Private Hannibal Dobbs in the classic sitcom F Troop (1965). James Hampton died at age 84 of Parkinson's disease at his home in Fort Worth, Texas.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Joseph Patrick Cranshaw was an American character actor from Oklahoma. He is well-known for playing fraternity brother Blue from the Todd Phillips comedy film Old School. He had minor roles in many other shows and films including Seinfeld, Air Bud, Herbie: Fully Loaded and The Dukes of Hazzard. He passed away in December 28, 2005 due to natural causes.- Liz Smith found fame as an actress at an age when most people are considering retirement. It was a long road to eventual stardom, during which she struggled to raise a family after a broken marriage. She became best known for her roles in The Vicar of Dibley (1994) and The Royle Family but her talents encompassed serious drama too. And while she made something of a name playing slightly dotty old ladies, the real Liz Smith was far removed from these on-screen personas. She was born Betty Gleadle in Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire. Her early life was not happy. Her mother died in childbirth when she was just two years old and her father abandoned her when he remarried. "My father was a bit of a sod, really. He just went off with loads of women and then married one who said he had to cut off completely from his prior life and that meant me." She started going to the local cinema with her grandfather when she was four and she quickly gained a fascination for acting.
By the age of nine, she was appearing in local dramatic productions, often playing the part of elderly ladies. World War Two thwarted her plans and she joined the WRNS because, as she later told the BBC's Desert Island Discs, she loved the cut of the naval uniform. She continued appearing in plays and entertainments while serving in the Royal Navy. She met her future husband Jack Thomas while she was stationed in India and the couple married at the end of the war. Her grandmother had left her enough money to buy a house in London. Smith later remembered that she had picked it at random from a magazine and bought it without crossing the threshold.
But what had been an idyllic marriage failed shortly after the family moved to Epping Forest in Essex and she was left to bring up her two children alone. With money tight, she worked in a number of jobs including delivering post and quality control in a plastic bag factory. But her love for acting remained and she began buying the theatrical magazine, The Stage, and sending her photograph to casting agents. Eventually she became part of a group studying method acting under a teacher who had come to the UK from America.
She performed at the Gate Theatre in west London and spent many years in repertory, as well as spells as an entertainer in Butlins holiday camps. In 1970, she was selling toys in London's Regent Street when she got a call from the director Mike Leigh to play the downtrodden mother in his film Bleak Moments. Leigh cast her again in Hard Labour, part of the BBC's Play for Today series, a role that allowed her to shine. She received critical acclaim as the middle-aged housewife who endures a life of domestic drudgery, constantly at the beck and call of her demanding husband and daughter.
It was the breakthrough she had sought for years and, as she later recalled: "I never went back to grotty jobs again." She was seldom off the screen over the next 20 years, with appearances in a number of TV programmes including Last of the Summer Wine, The Sweeney, The Duchess of Duke Street and The Gentle Touch. She was cast as Madame Balls in the 1976 film The Pink Panther Strikes Again, but her scenes were left on the cutting-room floor. However, she did appear in the role six years later in The Curse of the Pink Panther. In 1984 she received a Bafta for Best Supporting Actress when she played Maggie Smith's mother in the film A Private Function.
Two years later she appeared as Patricia Hodge's alcoholic mother in the BBC drama The Life and Loves Of A She Devil. It was a part, she said, that she really enjoyed as it gave her the chance to wear more glamorous outfits than her usual roles required. And she was able to dress up again for her next film appearance, this time in the role of Grace in Peter Greenaway's film The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover. She was still much in demand at the beginning of the 1990s, appearing in the sitcom 2point4 Children and in the series Lovejoy and Bottom.
In 1994 she became a household name with her portrayal of Letitia Cropley in the series The Vicar of Dibley (1994). The character was famous for her idiosyncratic recipes such as parsnip brownies and lard and fish paste pancakes, but was killed off in 1996. Two years later Liz Smith starred as Nana in The Royle Family, a sitcom that ran for nearly four years. She took the part again in 2006 in a special edition in which Nana died. Typically, she attributed her success to Caroline Aherne's scripts rather than her own talent.
"They were great roles," she later remembered. "I was so lucky that things did come my way then." Unlike some actors, she watched recordings of her own performances looking for ways in which she could improve her acting. She continued to appear in feature films, playing Grandma Georgina in Tim Burton's 2005 version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and she was the voice of Mrs Mulch in Wallace & Gromit -The Curse of the Were-Rabbit. In 2006 she published her autobiography Our Betty and moved into a retirement home in north London but continued acting. She appeared in the BBC's Lark Rise to Candleford, finally announcing her retirement in 2008 at the age of 87. It was a belief in her own talent that drove Liz Smith on when her life was at a low ebb. "All I wanted was a chance," she told the BBC. "It was wonderful when it did happen."
Smith died on Christmas Eve 2016. She was 95. - Sydney Bromley was born on 24 July 1909 in London, England, UK. He was an actor, known for The NeverEnding Story (1984), An American Werewolf in London (1981) and Dragonslayer (1981). He died on 14 August 1987 in Worthing, Sussex, England, UK.
- Actor
- Additional Crew
- Soundtrack
John Forgeham was born on 14 May 1941 in Kidderminster, Worcestershire, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Mean Machine (2001), The Italian Job (1969) and Kiss of the Dragon (2001). He was married to Arlene Garciano, Fiesta Mei Ling and Georgina Hale. He died on 10 March 2017 in Worthing, West Sussex, England, UK.- Cindy Crawford was born on 13 January 1947 in Dyersburg, Tennessee, USA. She died on 14 October 2007 in Fort Worth, Tarrant County, Texas, USA.
- Actor
- Writer
- Music Department
Hugh Lloyd was born on 22 April 1923 in Chester, Cheshire, England, UK. He was an actor and writer, known for You Rang, M'Lord? (1988), Alice in Wonderland (1999) and Father Came Too! (1964). He was married to Shän Davies, Carole Wilkinson, Anne Rodgers and José Stewart. He died on 14 July 2008 in Worthing, Sussex, England, UK.- Actor Brian Hall was best known for his role as Terry the cook in the BBC comedy series Fawlty Towers (1975). He began acting while still in his teens in amateur shows where his burly frame made him ideal casting for villains and heavies.
After leaving school he worked as a taxi driver before he was spotted by theatrical agent Richard Ireson who persuaded him that his talent lay in theatre.
He went on to appear in stage plays at The Royal Court Theatre in London, notably in Peter Gill's production of Crete and Sergeant Pepper and at the Royal Shakespeare Company he starred in Afore Night Comes, directed by Ron Daniels.
With John Chapman he co-wrote Made It Mad (based on the famous James Cagney line in the film White Heat) which was staged at the Royal Court as well as Bit of Business, co-written and directed with John Burgess at the National Theatre.
He had a highly successful TV career, notably in series such as Softly Softly (1966) (as the corrupt police officer Sergeant Ted Drake).
He played a bodyguard to Bob Hoskins in the cult gangster classic film The Long Good Friday (1980), the same year he was cast as a villain in McVicar (1980).
He struck up a close friendship with the actor John Cleese when they appeared in the BBC comedy series Fawlty Towers. Some years after the series had finished Cleese sent Hall a personally signed autographed picture as a joke. Hall wrote back and demanded a signed Rolls-Royce car instead. Three day later, one arrived in the post - it was a children's toy.
In 1994 he was diagnosed as having cancer. - Writer
- Actor
Martin Amis was born on 25 August 1949 in Oxford, Oxfordshire, England, UK. He was a writer and actor, known for The Zone of Interest (2023), London Fields (2018) and Saturn 3 (1980). He was married to Isabel Fonseca and Antonia Phillips. He died on 19 May 2023 in Lake Worth, Florida, USA.- Patrick Gottsch was a producer, known for Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom Protecting the Wild (2023), The Rural Americans (2020) and Inspired by Wild Kingdom (2021). He died on 18 May 2024 in Fort Worth, Texas, USA.
- Actress
Fran Bennett was born in Texas to Eugenia Gibbons Bailey and Bryan Andrew Leonard. She was apparently adopted by Darwin Marx Benedum, taking his last name, when her mother married Benedum in 1941. Ms. Bennett attended the University of Miami where she majored in mathematics.She married Dr. John E. Williams of Beverly Hills, California in June 1957. She subsequently withdrew from the film industry.- Kathryn Kates was born on 29 January 1948 in Queens, New York City, New York, USA. She was an actress, known for Greetings from Sarajevo (2021), Shades of Blue (2016) and The Many Saints of Newark (2021). She was married to Joseph Pershes. She died on 22 January 2022 in Lake Worth, Florida, USA.
- Actress
- Additional Crew
Mary Dees was born on 3 June 1911 in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, USA. She was an actress. She was married to Cornelius William Foster. She died on 4 August 2004 in Lake Worth, Florida, USA.- Peter Tuddenham, actor, born November 27 1918; died July 9 2007.
The amiable actor Peter Tuddenham died aged 88, he was always content to remain in supporting roles; in fact, he was most recognised for his off-screen work. He provided the contrasting voices of the computers in the science-fiction series Blake's 7 (BBC, 1978-81).
Tuddenham, who was born in Ipswich, Suffolk, and brought up in the seaside resort of Felixstowe, had made his professional debut before the second world war, in repertory on the pier at Hastings. In the wartime Royal Army Service Corps, he was one of many who honed their performing skills appearing with Stars in Battledress.
Demobbed after the war, he joined a production of Ivor Novello's The Dancing Years; later, in 1959, BBC productions of this and another Novello musical, Perchance to Deam, were among his early television appearances. In 1950, he appeared in Noel Coward's Ace Of Cards, but although the play was well received on tour, it had negative reviews in London's West End.
Tuddenham's small-screen debut was in The Granville Melodramas (1955), one of ITV's earliest productions, starring then husband and wife Hattie Jacques and John Le Mesurier. He took a regular role in Anglia Television's Weavers Green (1966), a short-lived, twice-weekly soap that made an early use of location videotape recording. As an expert on the Suffolk accents, he became Anglia's regular dialect coach.
Characteristically, Tuddenham was heard but not seen as the spirit of East Anglia, in Akenfield (1974), Sir Peter Hall's film adaptation of Ronald Blythe's book, which had an otherwise amateur cast. In a now commonplace move, most of the funding came from London Weekend Television in exchange for the cinema rights; unlike subsequent cinema crossovers it was first screened on television and then released theatrically. This led to good ratings but poor box office. Still, Tuddenham became the dialogue coach for Hall's 1985 production at Glyndebourne of Benjamin Britten's opera, Albert Herring, which was televised on BBC2.
After much radio work, including the soaps Mrs Dale's Diary and Waggoner's Walk, Tuddenham became an off-screen voice in the Doctor Who stories The Ark in Space and The Masque of Mandragora, in 1975 and 1976, both starring Tom Baker. He was then cast in Blake's 7, the adventures of interplanetary rebels fighting an omnipotent Federation. This was created by Terry Nation, who had previously given the world the Daleks.
Tuddenham provided the voices of the computers (eventually three of them - Zen, Orac and Slave) in the show that featured the ship which Clive James, in the Observer, described as "a tasteless light-fitting known as the Liberator". James's view that the series was "flaring nonsense from beyond the galaxy" was widespread among critics. Jokes about the sets and special effects were frequent, and even the large audiences who enjoyed the series generally viewed it as nothing more than hokum.
However, it developed a passionate and vocal cult following, and many maintain that it and Doctor Who represent the pinnacle of British television. Tuddenham reprised his roles in revivals for radio, and in audio tapes made by fans.
Not that he lacked for work in serious drama, generally playing doctors and authority figures. He was in North and South (1975), after the novel by Elizabeth Gaskell, and supported Ian Holm as JM Barrie in The Lost Boys (1978), and Eileen Atkins in The Burston Rebellion (1985), about two Norfolk teachers in 1914 who were dismissed for their leftwing beliefs: their pupils went on strike. Anything More Would Be Greedy (1989), again for Anglia, a six-part critique of the 1980s by Malcolm Bradbury, gave Tuddenham the small but vital role of the returning officer at the local elections.
His lighter guest appearances included Nearest and Dearest, Only Fools and Horses, and One Foot in the Grave. He appeared regularly as the friend of academic dropout Michael Williams in the gentle comedy Double First (1988).
Tuddenham remained a genial character, and was an unfailingly popular guest at sci-fi conventions. Rosie, his second wife, and their son Julian survived him in 2007, together with a son from his first marriage. Another son had predeceased him. - Helen Christie was born on 22 October 1914 in India. She was an actress, known for The Beggar's Opera (1953), Melissa (1964) and The Queen of Spades (1949). She was married to John Barron, Mark Dignam and Patrick Crean. She died on 17 August 1995 in Worthing, Sussex, England, UK.
- Lillian Moore was born on 2 April 1916 in Fort Worth, Texas, USA. She was an actress, known for Judge Faith (2014). She was married to Roy Roberts. She died on 25 October 2001 in Fort Worth, Texas, USA.
- Tobar Mayo was born on 19 March 1945 in Dallas, Texas, USA. He was an actor, known for Escape from New York (1981), Abar (1977) and Mannix (1967). He died on 11 December 2003 in Fort Worth, Texas, USA.
- Helene Whitney was born in 1914 as Kenyon Fortescue and was the grandniece of Alexander Graham Bell and cousin once removed of President Theodore Roosevelt. She married Julian Louis Reynolds, heir to the R.J. Reynolds tobacco fortune in 1936. But they divorced in 1939 and she started her acting work using stage names of Joyce Gardner, Helene Whitney and Helene Reynolds. After her theatrical work ended she became the proprietor of a Manhattan Art Gallery. She passed away on March 28, 1990 at the John F. Kennedy Medical Center of pneumonia.
- Actor
- Music Department
- Soundtrack
Bob Wills, fiddler and band leader of Bob Wills & his Texas Playboys, was an influential developer of the western swing music style in the late 1930s through the 1940s. Recorded extensively for Columbia, Decca, MGM and others. Hit recordings included "San Antonio Rose, " "Faded Love, " and "Steel Guitar Rag." He was inducted into Country Music Hall of Fame in 1968. Many country music artists cite him as a major influence, including Merle Haggard, George Strait, and Willie Nelson.- British writer, novelist and ornithologist William Henry Hudson was born in 1841 in Argentina. His parents were English, though born in the New England area of the US (his grandfather came to the US from Exeter, England, on the Mayflower). His father eventually moved the family to Argentina, where William was born, to raise sheep. Young William roamed the pampas--as the Argentine plains were called--becoming an expert on the plant and animal life of the area. At 15 years old he took part in a cattle drive that was caught in a severe blizzard and he contracted rheumatic fever, which adversely affected his health for the rest of his life. While recovering from the illness, he read "The Origin of Species" by Charles Darwin (V), which made a lasting impression on him.
After his parents' death he began to travel extensively, but in 1869 he moved to England and settled there. In 1876 he married a much older woman, and they lived on the edge of poverty, even though they had income from two boarding houses, until his wife inherited a house in the Bayswater section of London, where Hudson spent the rest of his days.
His early novels were influenced by his life on the South American plains, being mainly romances in that exotic setting, but were not particularly successful at the time. He is probably best known for his 1904 novel "Green Mansions" (filmed in 1959 as Green Mansions (1959)). Although not as successful as many of his contemporaries, such as Joseph Conrad and Ford Madox Ford, Hudson became close friends with them. He soon began writing books with ornithological themes, and began to gain recognition. Several of his books helped to bring about the "back-to-nature" movement, such as "Afoot in England" (1909), "A Shepherd's Life" (1910) and "A Friend in Richmond Park" (1922).
Hudson died in London, England, after a bout with heart disease, in 1922. - Additional Crew
- Actor
Don Reynolds was born on 29 May 1937 in Odell, Texas, USA. He was an actor, known for The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) and The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002). He died on 9 January 2019 in Fort Worth, Texas, USA.- Toni Mooney was born on 23 August 1956 in Opa Locka, Florida, USA. She was an actress, known for Smokey and the Bandit Part 3 (1983), So Fine (1981) and Cocaine Cowboys: Reloaded (2014). She was married to George Hurley . She died on 13 January 2024 in Lake Worth, Florida, USA.
- Actor
- Director
- Producer
Patrick Garland was born on 10 April 1935 in England, UK. He was an actor and director, known for A Doll's House (1973), The Snow Goose (1971) and An Age of Kings (1960). He was married to Alexandra Bastedo. He died on 19 April 2013 in Worthing, Sussex, England, UK.