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1-13 of 13
- Actor
- Soundtrack
Parley Baer was born on 5 August 1914 in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA. He was an actor, known for License to Drive (1988), A Fever in the Blood (1961) and Dave (1993). He was married to Ernestine Clark. He died on 22 November 2002 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Fewer dames were tougher on the 40s and 50s screen than leggy (5'9") "B" star Adele Jergens, the tough-talking, plump-cheeked peroxide blonde who gave her fair share of tawdry trouble in backstage dramas, film noir, crime potboilers, and adventure yarns. She was just as headstrong at trying to bust out of the chorus lines and cheesecake parts to become a topnotch "A" actress draw. She failed in the latter but nevertheless left a respectable Hollywood legacy for the host of hard-as-nails babes that did leave an impression.
Born on November 26, 1917, in Brooklyn New York, the youngest of four to working class Norwegian parents, she was christened Adele Louisa Jurgens (some sources say Jurgenson) and started her youth as a sports-minded tomboy before setting her young teen sights on an entertainment career as a dancer. After years of study (she earned a scholarship) at a Manhattan dance studio and following her graduation from Grover Cleveland High School, the knockout-looking 18-year-old found her way into the Broadway chorus line (billed as Adele Jurgens, her real name) of the Moss Hart/Cole Porter musical "Jubilee!", which introduced the classic Porter songs "Begin the Beguine" and "Just One of Those Things" and starred Melville Cooper and Mary Boland as the King and Queen and a young Montgomery Clift as Prince Peter.
The John Robert Powers Agency saw in Adele top runway model potential and quickly signed up the gorgeous girl and her gams. She willingly played the starlet game by being squired around town by big Broadway stars and handsome male eligibles, and finding promotional titles to further attract pin-up attention -- "Miss World's Fairest" at the New York 1939 World's Fair, as well as "The Champagne Blonde" and "The Girl with the Million Dollar Legs". She was even dubbed "The Number One Showgirl in New York City" at one point. By this time she had revised the spelling of her last name for the stage (Jergens). In between modeling assignments, Adele found dance work in other in cabaret revues, nightclubs, in the Rockette chorus line, and in such Broadway shows as Cole Porter's "Leave It to Me!" (1938) again starring Gaxton and Moore and co-starring "My Heart Belongs to Daddy" singing star Mary Martin; Cole Porter's "DuBarry Was a Lady" (1939) with Ethel Merman belting out "Well, Did You Evah?" and "Friendship"; "Louisiana Purchase" (in a replacement role) (1940), "Banjo Eyes" (1941) starring Eddie Cantor and the burlesque revue "Star and Garter" (1942) in which Adele had a featured role while understudying one of its headliners, Gypsy Rose Lee. She went on for Ms. Lee, Hollywood took immediate notice with Twentieth Century-Fox signing her up.
Adele started at the bottom rung at Fox with the usual decorative showgirl or good time girl parts in the musicals Hello Frisco, Hello (1943), Sweet Rosie O'Grady (1943), The Gang's All Here (1943)and Pin Up Girl (1944). When Fox dropped her option she was snatched up by Columbia in a seven-year contract. After minor parts again in the musicals Dancing in Manhattan (1944), Tonight and Every Night (1945) and State Fair (1945), she was entrusted with the lead femme role as Princess Armina of Baghdad in the Eastern adventure A Thousand and One Nights (1945) with Phil Silvers and handsome Cornel Wilde as Aladdin. She also displayed a brusque comic flair as the aptly-named Allura in the Rosalind Russell comedy She Wouldn't Say Yes (1945) as an hilariously-accented blonde briefly competing for Russell's man Lee Bowman. She top-lined her own musical albeit the quickly forgotten When a Girl's Beautiful (1947) which co-starred Marc Platt and Stephen Dunne.
After a lull, the former WWII pin-up (once nick-named "The All-American Girl" by the men of the 504th parachute infantry) was now being billed by Columbia as "The Eyeful" and returned to the musical genre with the fantasy Down to Earth (1947). Rita Hayworth plays a heavenly muse who, disturbed by a Broadway musical below the clouds that is mocking Greek mythology. Turning mortal, she takes things in her own hands by turning mortal and (not easily) replacing the show's tough-talking original goddess Adele Jergens in order to manipulate the proceedings. Adele gets to tap and sing (dubbed by Kay Starr) before she is fired.
Outside of musicals, the hard-looking blonde (especially when her hair was let down), Adele started making headway in crime dramas and film noir starting with a nifty featured role as a glamour girl in The Corpse Came C.O.D. (1947). She followed that with hard-boiled roles in I Love Trouble (1948), The Dark Past (1948), Edge of Doom (1950), Armored Car Robbery (1950) and Side Street (1949). For the most part, however, it was the usual over-served hash that, while keeping her busy, also kept her locked in the "B" support ranks -- The Prince of Thieves (1948), Law of the Barbary Coast (1949), Slightly French (1949), Make Believe Ballroom (1949), Aaron Slick from Punkin Crick (1952), Somebody Loves Me (1952) -- when not leading in inconsequential material such as Ladies of the Chorus (1948) (as the mother of Marilyn's Monroe's character), The Mutineers (1949), The Woman from Tangier (1948), The Crime Doctor's Diary (1949) and the serial Radar Secret Service (1950).
Treasure of Monte Cristo (1949) was notable for the casting of Adele and future husband Glenn Langan. One might think that gorgeous Adele would end up a divorcée many times over, but she and Langan, who wed on October 6, 1951, stayed married until his death almost 40 years later. The 1950s, following good parts (Sugarfoot (1951)) but far more routine ones (Beware of Blondie (1950), The Traveling Saleswoman (1950), Blues Busters (1950)), Adele moved into TV work. After having son Tracy in 1953, Adele took a brief break from her career, then resumed it and found work on such programs as "Dangerous Assignment", "The Abbott & Costello Show", "Mr. and Mrs. North", "Make Room for Daddy", "The Public Defender", "I Married Joan", "My Favorite Husband", and "The Burns & Allen Show". Co-starring on film with husband Langan again in The Big Chase (1954), Jergens worked for a couple more years then left the business as the quality of her movies diminished with tawdry roles in Fireman Save My Child (1954), The Miami Story (1954), The Lonesome Trail (1955), Girls in Prison (1956) and Runaway Daughters (1956). She never returned but husband continued his career until the early 1970s; he also dabbled in real estate.
Glenn Langan died of cancer in 1991 and their only child, 48-year-old Tracy, who had become a film technician, died in 2001 of a brain tumor, which devastated the actress. Her health declined quickly after her son's death; she died the following year of pneumonia on November 22, 2002, just days before her 85th birthday.- Born Mary Elizabeth Greear, the actress best known as Joan Barclay came out to Hollywood when her mother, anxious to leave Minnesota's cold climate, put "Florida" and "California" in a hat and let young Mary Elizabeth draw. One of her earliest acting jobs was a role in The Gaucho (1927) with Douglas Fairbanks, who wanted to make her his next leading lady even though she was only 12(!). She was under contract to Warners in the early 1930s and to RKO in the 1940s, and co-starred in many "B" westerns and serials in the interim. She left movies in the mid-'40s to marry a wealthy man in the rent-a-car business, the first of her three husbands.
- Ghislaine Bru was born on 4 August 1913 in Saint-Blimont, Oise, France. She was an actress, known for Le maître de forges (1933), Olive se marie (1931) and Justin de Marseille (1935). She died on 22 November 2002 in La Barben, Bouches-du-Rhône, France.
- Pamela Pitchford trained at RADA 1944-46 and spent more than 50 years working on stage and television. Her only film appearance was an uncredited role in _Ring of Spies (1963)_. She was especially memorable as Amy Kidder in Agatha Christie's Miss Marple: 4:50 from Paddington (1987) in 1987.
- Beatriz de Borbón y Battenberg was born on 22 June 1909 in La Granja, San Ildefonso, near Segovia, Spain. She was an actress, known for Corazón de reina (1926), Sabor a ti (1998) and Crónicas marcianas (1997). She was married to Alessandro Torlonia di Civitella-Cesi. She died on 22 November 2002 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.
- Paco De Osca was born in 1925 in Reus, Barcelona, Spain. He was an actor, known for Fugitivas (2000), La hoz y el Martínez (1985) and La Lola se va a los puertos (1993). He died on 22 November 2002 in Gines, Sevilla, Andalusia, Spain.
- Thunder Sugiyama was born on 23 July 1940 in Itoigawa, Niigata, Japan. He was an actor, known for Mad Mission 3: Our Man from Bond Street (1984), Irresistable Angel: Suck It All Up (2003) and Message from Space (1978). He died on 22 November 2002 in Nagoya, Japan.
- Director
- Producer
- Writer
Richard Mason was born in 1926 in New South Wales, Australia. Richard was a director and producer, known for Moving On (1974), Let the Balloon Go (1976) and Breaking Through (1990). Richard died on 22 November 2002 in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.- Einar F.L. Strand was born on 20 February 1905 in Norway. He was married to Astrid. He died on 22 November 2002 in Norway.
- Gerhard Auer was born on 9 April 1925 in Náchod, Czechoslovakia [now Czech Republic]. Gerhard was a composer, known for Bolo raz priatelstvo (1958). Gerhard died on 22 November 2002 in Bratislava, Slovakia.
- Sound Department
Octavio Morones was born on 16 November 1924 in Chihuahua, Chihuahua, Mexico. He is known for Viento salvaje (1974), Una vez en la noche (1971) and S.O.S. Operation Bikini (1967). He died on 22 November 2002.- Kaarina Vahtonen was born on 10 September 1913 in Turku, Finland. She was an actress, known for Kuolema savolaiseen tapaan (1983), Sinut minä tahdon (1949) and Huijarien huvittavat huiputtajat (1945). She was married to Emil Saarinen. She died on 22 November 2002 in Turku, Finland.