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1-50 of 783
- Actor
- Writer
- Director
William Claude Dukenfield was the eldest of five children born to Cockney immigrant James Dukenfield and Philadelphia native Kate Felton. He went to school for four years, then quit to work with his father selling vegetables from a horse cart. At eleven, after many fights with his alcoholic father (who hit him on the head with a shovel), he ran away from home. For a while he lived in a hole in the ground, depending on stolen food and clothing. He was often beaten and spent nights in jail. His first regular job was delivering ice. By age thirteen he was a skilled pool player and juggler. It was then, at an amusement park in Norristown PA, that he was first hired as an entertainer. There he developed the technique of pretending to lose the things he was juggling. In 1893 he was employed as a juggler at Fortescue's Pier, Atlantic City. When business was slow he pretended to drown in the ocean (management thought his fake rescue would draw customers). By nineteen he was billed as "The Distinguished Comedian" and began opening bank accounts in every city he played. At age twenty-three he opened at the Palace in London and played with Sarah Bernhardt at Buckingham Palace. He starred at the Folies-Bergere (young Charles Chaplin and Maurice Chevalier were on the program).
He was in each of the Ziegfeld Follies from 1915 through 1921. He played for a year in the highly praised musical "Poppy" which opened in New York in 1923. In 1925 D.W. Griffith made a movie of the play, renamed Sally of the Sawdust (1925), starring Fields. Pool Sharks (1915), Fields' first movie, was made when he was thirty-five. He settled into a mansion near Burbank, California and made most of his thirty-seven movies for Paramount. He appeared in mostly spontaneous dialogs on Charlie McCarthy's radio shows. In 1939 he switched to Universal where he made films written mainly by and for himself. He died after several serious illnesses, including bouts of pneumonia.- Actor
- Soundtrack
His grim, beady-eyed, sharp-nosed, weatherbeaten face was always familiar despite the small roles he appeared in. Every once in a while character actor Russell Simpson would stand out in a small scene, but his main purpose seemed to be adding rustic authenticity to his westerns or small-town dramas. Born on June 17, 1880 in San Francisco, California, Simpson was involved in the Alaska gold rush as a teenager before settling upon an acting career. A member of a number of touring companies, he eventually made it to Broadway. His silent film debut in The Virginian (1914) was unbilled, but he went on to appear in occasional leads and top support roles in many others, with such roles as Trampas in the remake of The Virginian (1923) and President Andrew Jackson in The Frontiersman (1927) highlighting his silent era. Simpson's parts grew smaller with the advent of sound and his gents grew increasingly grizzled, stubborn and cranky. In the late 1930s he became a stock player in director John Ford's company of actors, which culminated in one of his finest roles as Pa Joad in the classic The Grapes of Wrath (1940). He appeared in other Ford pictures, including Drums Along the Mohawk (1939), Tobacco Road (1941), They Were Expendable (1945), My Darling Clementine (1946) and The Sun Shines Bright (1953). He would continue acting to the very end, making his last film (naturally) for Ford: The Horse Soldiers (1959). Appearing in hundreds of films over a span of four decades, he graced TV westerns as well with roles on The Lone Ranger (1949) and Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok (1951) to his credit. His more than 40-year marriage to Gertrude Aller produced a daughter, Roberta. Simpson passed away on December 12, 1959 of natural causes in Woodland Hills, California at the age of 79.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Delightful character actress who held her own against such acting heavyweights as Charles Laughton, Boris Karloff, Tyrone Power, Barbara Stanwyck, and Sydney Greenstreet. Often cast by studio heads as comic relief thanks to her thick Irish accent and rubber-faced expressions, most notably in Universal's horror classics, Bride of Frankenstein (1935) and The Invisible Man (1933). Her final role was as the devoted housekeeper in Billy Wilder's Witness for the Prosecution (1957), a role she originated on stage. Her hilarious testimony during the trial is one of the film's highlights.- Actor
- Director
- Writer
The son of a lumberman, Tom Mix joined the army as a young man and was an artillery sergeant during the Philippine campaign from 1898 to 1901, though he never saw action. In fact, Mix deserted from the army and carefully kept the facts about his military service a closely guarded secret. About 1903 he was drum major with the Oklahoma Cavalry Band, playing in the St. Louis World's Fair. In 1904 he was a bartender and sheriff/marshal in Dewey, Oklahoma. He was in a series of Wild West shows, such as The Miller Bros. Wild West Show, from 1906-1909; the Widerman show in Amarillo, Texas; with wife Olive Mix in Seattle's Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition; and Will A. Dickey's Circle D Ranch. The latter supplied Selig Pictures with cowboys and Indians for movies and, in 1910, Mix was hired by Selig to provide and handle horses. His first movie was Ranch Life in the Great Southwest (1910). He continued with Selig until 1917, writing and directing as well as acting. He was signed by Fox Films in 1917 and remained with them until 1928, averaging five or so films a year. His popularity eclipsed all other great cowboy stars (Hoot Gibson and even the legendary William S. Hart) of the silent era and he earned--and spent--millions.
In addition to Mix's riding and shooting skills, the films also showcased the talents of his amazing horse, Tony the Horse. Sound and encroaching middle age were not favorable to Mix, and after making a handful of pictures during the sound era he left the film industry after 1935's serial, The Miracle Rider (1935) (a huge hit for lowly Mascot Pictures, grossing over $1 million; Mix earned $40,000), touring with the Sells Floto Circus in 1930 and 1931 and the Tom Mix Circus from 1936 to 1938. While Mix was a great showman, the combination of the Depression and the high overhead of his traveling shows conspired against his success. Mix developed a comical style, emphasizing fast action thrills to a greater extent than had been common in earlier westerns, and he did his own stunts. He was king of the cowboys during the 1920s and remained popular on radio and in comic books for more than a decade after his death. He died in an auto accident in 1940.- Director
- Actor
- Writer
Belonging to a well-situated family, Charles Browning fell in love at the age of 16 with a dancer of a circus. Following her began his itinerary of being clown, jockey and director of a variety theater which ended when he met D.W. Griffith and became an actor. He made his debut in Intolerance (1916). Working later on as a director, he had his first success with The Unholy Three (1925) (after about 25 unimportant pictures) which had his typical style of a mixture of fantasy, mystery and horror. His biggest hit was the classic Dracula (1931), in which he also appears as the voice of the harbor master.- Actor
- Writer
- Director
It was Lionel Barrymore who gave Louis Wolheim (Cornell '07) his start as an actor. Wolheim had had his face more or less smashed in and his nose nicely fractured while playing on a scrub Cornell football team. Later as a Cornell Instructor he found life none too easy. He had worked off and on as an extra in the Wharton studio but never received much attention. Barrymore had only to look at him once to realize that Wolhelm's face was his fortune. Through Barrymore, Wolheim gained an entree into New York theatrical life. On the legitimate stage he made a great success in "Welcome Wing" and "The Hairy Ape," climaxing these plays by his triumph in "What Price Glory". ~ Cornell Daily Sun, Issue 70, 5 January 1932, Page 2- Dublin-born Sara Allgood started her acting career in her native country with the famed Abbey Theatre. From there she traveled to the English stage, where she played for many years before making her film debut in 1918. Her warm, open Irish face meant that she spent a lot of time playing Irish mothers, landladies, neighborhood gossips and the like, although she is best remembered for playing Mrs. Morgan, the mother of a family of Welsh miners, in How Green Was My Valley (1941), for which she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Her sister Maire O'Neill was an actress in Ireland, and famed Irish poet William Butler Yeats was a family friend.
Sara Allgood died of a heart attack shortly after making her last film, Sierra (1950). - Campbell was born in Sale, Cheshire on 26th April 1880 and began acting as a boy. He married fellow music hall performer Fanny Gertrude Robotham on March 30, 1901 and was later hired by English music hall impresario Fred Karno for his "Fun Factory" comedy troupes that featured other comics like a young Charlie Chaplin and Stan Laurel. Campbell arrived in New York with a Karno troupe in July, 1914 and was soon hired by Broadway producer Charles Frohman. In late 1915 fellow Karno alum Chaplin and his brother Sid found Eric working in a George M. Cohan play "Pom Pom" and in March, 1916, brought him to Hollywood. Built like a wrestler, over 6' tall and over 250 pounds, topped by small shaved head. Chaplin smeared his face with exaggerated eyebrows and darkened eyes, with a scraggly and long beard. He was the menacing bearded ogre opposite Chaplin in his most famous silents. His first Chaplin film was The Floorwalker (1916), playing the role of the villainous heavy, reprised in subsequent classics like The Rink (1916), The Pawnshop (1916), The Adventurer (1917), The Cure (1917), The Immigrant (1917), Easy Street (1917) and Chase me Charlie (1917). By the summer of 1917 Campbell was Chaplin's favorite co-star and foil, and almost as famous as the little comedian. In early 1917 Campbell filmed his last Chaplin Mutual, The Adventurer, after which Chaplin began construction on his own studio on LaBrea Avenue in Hollywood (which still stands today). During the five-month construction period, Chaplin lent Campbell to Mary Pickford, the world's biggest star, to appear in her film Amarilly of Clothes-Line Alley (1917). He was on the verge of becoming a world-wide star as filming began. But at the same time that he was becoming famous his personal life was beset by tragedy and scandal. On July 9, 1917 his wife died suddenly of a heart attack after dinner at a Santa Monica restaurant near their home. Walking to a nearby store to buy a mourning dress, his 16-year-old daughter Una was hit by a car a seriously injured. At a September 12th party given for Artcraft Studio publicity man Pete Schmid, Campbell met Pearl Gilman, a diminutive vaudeville comedienne with a family reputation for gold-digging. She had been married to candy heir Charles W. Alisky in 1912, and a few years later divorced and married another wealthy man, Theodore Arnreiter. Her sister Mabelle was married to elderly steel magnate William E. Corey, the owner of U.S. Steel. Just five days after they met, Campbell and Gilman Alisky-Arnreiter were married at the home of Elaine Hardy at 824 5th Street in Santa Monica. His daughter Una, still recuperating at a friend's home in Santa Monica canyon, was not told of the wedding for several weeks. Less than two months after marrying the gentle giant, Gilman Alisky-Arnreiter sued him for divorce. He moved out of the Santa Monica bungalow and into the Los Angeles Athletic Club, taking a room next to his best friend Chaplin. A month later later on December 20, Campbell attended a Christmas party at the Vernon Country Club, and drove back to L.A. in a drunken stupor. Approaching the intersection of Wilshire Blvd. and Vermont Ave. at over 60 m.p.h., he lost control of his car, crossed Wilshire and hit another car head-on. He was killed instantly, his massive body locked in the crumpled wreckage for over five hours. Heartbreak never left Campbell, even in death. After his remains were cremated, his ashes were sent to the Rosedale Cemetery, where they remained for six months while the cemetery waited in vain for someone to pay for his funeral. When the bill remained unpaid, the urn was returned to the Handley Mortuary, where it sat unnoticed in a closet from 1917 until late 1938. When the mortuary closed the urn was sent back to Rosedale, where it sat in another closet for still another 13 years. In 1952 a kindhearted office worker arranged for Campbell's remains to finally be buried. But, unfortunately, he forgot to record exactly where Campbell was buried, so the burly Scotsman is lost among the markers and statues in the quiet cemetery. In conjunction with a Scottish film about Campbell's life, a memorial plaque was laid in 1996. Campbell's death had a profound effect on Chaplin, and a quieter effect on movie history. After that time, Chaplin's movies lost some of their comic mystery; that certain something that his Mutual films had but subsequent films did not. His later works were much more self-centered and missing the comic give-and-take of his work with Campbell. There's no telling how famous Eric Campbell would have become, or what different films Chaplin may have done with his burly best friend.
- Director
- Actor
- Producer
American actor-director-writer-producer Gilbert M. Anderson, father of the movie cowboy and the first Western star, was born Maxwell Henry Aronson in Little Rock, Arkansas. His parents, Esther (Ash) and Henry Aronson, were from New York. His father was from a German Jewish family, and his mother was the daughter of Russian Jewish parents. He had worked as a photographer's model and newspaper vendor before drifting into acting. He performed in vaudeville before joining forces with Edwin S. Porter as an actor and occasional script collaborator. In Porter's startling early film The Great Train Robbery (1903), Anderson played several roles (among them, the train passenger shot by bandits as he tries to escape). The success of that film prompted Anderson to begin writing, directing and starring in his own series of Westerns. In 1907 he and George K. Spoor founded Essanay Film Manufacturing Co., destined to be one of the predominant early film studios. Anderson gained enormous popularity in hundreds of Western shorts, playing the first real cowboy hero, "Broncho Billy." Writing and directing most of the films, Anderson also found time to direct a series of "Alkali Ike" comedy Westerns starring Augustus Carney. In 1916 Anderson sold his ownership in Essanay and retired from acting. He returned to New York and bought the Longacre Theatre and produced plays there, though not achieving the same kind of success he enjoyed in films. He made a brief comeback as a producer with a series of shorts starring Stan Laurel for Metro Pictures. However, a series of conflicts with the studio led him retire again after 1920. He continued to produce films as owner of Progressive Pictures into the 1950s. In his 70s, he came out of retirement for a cameo role in The Bounty Killer (1965). He had been presented with an honorary Oscar in 1957 as a "motion picture pioneer, for his contributions to the development of motion pictures as entertainment." Anderson died in 1971 at the age of 90.- Producer
- Actor
- Director
Mack Sennett was born Michael Sinnott on January 17, 1880 in Danville, Quebec, Canada, to Irish immigrant farmers. When he was 17, his parents moved the family to East Berlin, Connecticut, and he became a laborer at American Iron Works, a job he continued when they moved to Northampton, Massachusetts. He happened to meet Marie Dressler in 1902, and through her went to New York City to attempt for a career on the stage. He managed some burlesque and chorus-boy parts. In 1908, he began acting in Biograph films. His work there lasted until 1911; it included being directed by D.W. Griffith and acting with Mary Pickford and Mabel Normand. By 1910, he was directing.
In 1912, he and two bookies-turned-producers--Adam Kessel and Charles Bauman--formed the Keystone Film Company. Sennett brought Mabel Normand with him and soon added Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle, Chester Conklin Al St. John, Slim Summerville, Minta Durfee and Charles Chaplin (who was directed by Sennett in 35 comedies during 1914). He told Chaplin, "We have no scenario--we get an idea, then follow the natural sequence of events until it leads up to a chase, which is the essence of our comedy." To the slapstick chase gags of the Keystone Kops were gradually added the Bathing Beauties and the Kid Komedies. In 1915 he, Griffith and Thomas H. Ince formed Triangle Films.
Comedy moved from improvisational slapstick to scripted situations. Stars like Bobby Vernon and Gloria Swanson joined him. In 1917, he formed Mack Sennett Comedies, distributing through Paramount--and later Pathe--and launching another star, Harry Langdon. When Sennett returned to Paramount in 1932, he produced shorts featuring W.C. Fields and musical ones with Bing Crosby. After directing his only Buster Keaton film, The Timid Young Man (1935), he returned to Canada a pauper. In 1937, he was awarded a special Oscar--"to the master of fun, discoverer of stars... for his lasting contribution to the comedy technique of the screen."
Mack Sennett died at age 80 on November 5, 1960 in Woodland Hills, California, and was interred at the Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, California. For his contributions to the motion picture industry, he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and a star on Canada's Walk of Fame.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Montague Love - certainly an intriguing name - but his own - started his working life as a newspaper man in London. His primary expertise centered on being a field illustrator and cartoonist who covered the Boer War (1899-1902). His realistic battle sketches gained him popularity among readers, but he was bound for a different career. He decided to become an actor. A robust man with a massive head of noble bearing and brooding lower lip, these were ingredients well suited to this goal. Love honed basic stage talents in London, and then made an early departure for the US in 1913 with a road-company production of Cyril Maude's "Grumpy." An early stop was Broadway, and he returned many times to appear in a laundry list of important plays from 1913 to 1934.
Silent film studios of the early days were originally based in the East, and Love started his film career at World Studios, New Jersey in 1914. His silent career alone was prodigious-nearly a hundred films. His look and bearing were perfect for authoritative figures. And, though certainly taking on a whole spectrum of roles (sultan, native chiefs, many a doctor and military officer, among many others) he became famous for his bad guy characterizations through the 1920s. Some historians credit him as the best villain of the silent era.
In 1926 he was nemesis to Rudolf Valentino in The Son of the Sheik (1926) and 'John Barrymore' in Don Juan (1926). The latter movie had the particular fame of sporting the longest sword duel in silent history between Love's Count Giano Donati and Barrymore's Don Juan. The fight filming was unique and realistic with middle and close shots looking directly at the individual combatants-with the appropriate blood in their eyes. The duel was all the more complex choreography for being one with swords and daggers (historically correct but rarely seen in film history). But Love was just as effective as the Roman centurion in The King of Kings (1927) by 'Cecil B DeMille'. Starting with Synthetic Sin (1929), Love's movies followed the trend of an increasing number of silent films using recorded music and some snatches of dialogue or background sound with the several incipient audio systems. Some movies originally issued as silent were released again with the process added. `Sin' was one of 11 films of 1929 featuring Love given the semi-sound treatment. The last of these was Jules Verne's The Mysterious Island (1929), very loosely adapted to the point of being hokey, but one of the first films also using the primitive two-color process.
Love had a commanding, puckered-lip British delivery of speech which he could believably weld to any part, but it particularly fit characters of authority, as in the silent era. Into the 1930s, these were increasingly benign rather than despotic-always colonels and generals, prime ministers, American presidents - even Zorro's father. Perhaps his best known character tour de force displaying his genuine acting power was his Henry VIII in Prince and the Pauper (1937). It is hard to forget him in purple as the Bishop of the Black Canons in The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938). Sometimes, as with other veteran character actors, his roles were almost as featured extra-but his very costumed presence was all that was needed to lend realism. A very apt example was his Detchard, noble henchmen to 'Raymond Massey', in The Prisoner of Zenda (1937), in which he has little more than one line. He was still in demand in the early 1940s - ten roles in 1940 alone. But these slowed into the war years. By his passing in 1943, an actor who was considered as noble on screen as off, he had lent his voice as well as virtuoso acting skills to eighty-one additional films.- Mabel Paige was born on 19 December 1880 in New York City, New York, USA. She was an actress, known for Someone to Remember (1943), Johnny O'Clock (1947) and Johnny Belinda (1948). She was married to C.W. Ritchie. She died on 9 February 1954 in Van Nuys, California, USA.
- Mitchell Lewis was born on 26 June 1880 in Syracuse, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ (1925), Salomé (1922) and The Mutiny of the Elsinore (1920). He was married to Rosabel Morrison and Nan Frances Ryan. He died on 24 August 1956 in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Percy Waram was born on 28 October 1880 in Kent, England, UK. He was an actor, known for The Late George Apley (1947), ...One Third of a Nation... (1939) and Mutiny on the Bounty (1935). He was married to Lucia Cole. He died on 5 October 1961 in Huntington, Long Island, New York, USA.
- Brecher was a 1900 graduate of the University of Heidelberg in Germany and then toured Austria and Germany acting on the stage. He also served as the chief director of the Stadts Theatre in Vienna before going to the U.S. in 1921. He became a naturalized American citizen on 9 May, 1927, along with his wife Essie and 8-year-old daughter Suse. In 1929, Brecher moved to Hollywood and appeared in foreign language versions of American films. He played in a number of horror films and espionage films during the 30s and 40s. Probably best remembered for his role in So Dark the Night (1946), Brecher died of a heart attack that same year.
- Actor
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Tom Wilson was born on 27 August 1880 in Helena, Montana, USA. He was an actor and assistant director, known for The Yankee Way (1917), Ham and Eggs at the Front (1927) and The Children Pay (1916). He died on 19 February 1965 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Helen Keller contracted a virulent childhood disease which resulted in complete loss of sight and hearing at nineteen months. Her parents futilely sought help for her, as did family friend Alexander Graham Bell. Finally, when Keller was seven, Annie Sullivan, a young teacher, was hired by the family. Through a system involving a constant physical contact with Sullivan, a touch alphabet "spelled" into Keller's hand, persistence, faith, and love - detailed in The Miracle Worker (1962) - Keller suddenly and amazingly understood; she quickly and efficiently learned language, and the world opened to her. She asked to be taught to speak at the age of ten. With Sullivan's important emotional and intellectual support, Keller's development took off. Keller graduated - cum laude - from Radcliffe College in 1904. Sullivan was her companion until her death in 1936. Helen Keller wrote prolifically, traveled widely, lectured on various personal, political, and academic topics, and was awarded numerous honorary degrees from universities around the world. She died in 1968, one of the most famous and widely-admired women of our time.
- Harry Baur was born on 12 April 1880 in Paris, France. He was an actor, known for Life Dances On (1937), The Golem: The Legend of Prague (1936) and Les Misérables (1934). He was married to Rika Radifé and Rose Grane. He died on 8 April 1943 in Paris, France.
- May Beatty was born on 4 June 1880 in Christchurch, New Zealand. She was an actress, known for I Wake Up Screaming (1941), Pride and Prejudice (1940) and Mad Love (1935). She was married to Edward Lauri (born Edward James Lowe) actor). She died on 1 April 1945 in Covina, California, USA.
- Director
- Producer
- Writer
A businessman and operetta director, Joe May, one of the founders of the German cinema, started directing films in 1911 and started his own production company a few years later. He gave famous German director Fritz Lang his start in films, employing him as a screenwriter in his early films. After the Nazi takeover, May fled to the United States where he directed several excellent action films for Universal, but never could quite break into the ranks of the "A" picture directors. May never bothered to completely learn the English language and was never popular with his casts and crews due to his dictatorial nature. He ended his career by directing his last film for Monogram in 1944 at the age of 64. He later briefly owned a restaurant in Hollywood that failed because, in keeping with his Teutonic roots, told customers what they should order.- Director
- Actor
- Writer
J.P. McGowan was born on 24 February 1880 in Terowie, South Australia, Australia. He was a director and actor, known for The Lost Express (1917), Hills of Missing Men (1922) and Do or Die (1921). He was married to Mrs. Kaye Swart Northrop, Leona (Lorna) Haviland and Helen Holmes. He died on 26 March 1952 in Hollywood, California, USA.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Cecil Cunningham was born on 2 August 1880 in St. Louis, Missouri, USA. She was an actress, known for The Awful Truth (1937), Playboy of Paris (1930) and Daughter of Shanghai (1937). She was married to Jean C. Havez. She died on 17 April 1959 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Jane Morgan was born on 6 December 1880 in Warmley, Gloucestershire, England, UK. She was an actress, known for Our Miss Brooks (1952), Our Miss Brooks (1956) and The Web (1950). She was married to Leo Cullen Bryant. She died on 1 January 1972 in North Hollywood, California, USA.- Douglas MacArthur (26 January 1880 - 5 April 1964) was an American military leader who served as General of the Army for the United States, as well as a field marshal to the Philippine Army. He was Chief of Staff of the United States Army during the 1930s, and he played a prominent role in the Pacific theater during World War II. MacArthur received the Medal of Honor for his service in the Philippines campaign. This made him along with his father Arthur MacArthur Jr. the first father and son to be awarded the medal. He was one of only five to rise to the rank of General of the Army in the U.S. Army, and the only one conferred the rank of field marshal in the Philippine Army.
- Actor
- Director
- Writer
Howard Hickman was born on 9 February 1880 in Columbia, Missouri, USA. He was an actor and director, known for Gone with the Wind (1939), Kitty Kelly, M.D. (1919) and Nobody's Kid (1921). He was married to Bessie Barriscale. He died on 31 December 1949 in San Anselmo, California, USA.- Writer
- Actor
- Producer
Born out of wedlock in Manhattan, Kansas, but grew up in Denver. A close friend of fellow New York sportswriter--and former western gunfighter--William Barclay 'Bat' Masterson, who knew the Runyan family in Denver. In the late teens and early 1920s both Ed Sullivan and Walter Winchell worked as Runyon's leg men. Buried in New York's Woodlawn Cemetery.- Edie Martin was born on 1 January 1880 in Marylebone, London, England, UK. She was an actress, known for The Man in the White Suit (1951), Great Expectations (1946) and Kidnapped (1960). She was married to Felix William Pitt (actor). She died on 21 February 1964 in Brixton, London, England, UK.
- Actor
- Writer
Jack was born in San Francisco in 1880 in to the well-known Curtis family. Chris Curtis was himself well-known in the financial circles. His uncle William was a lawyer in New York City in the early 1900s. Jack and Lil met on a ship heading to Hong Kong in 1904 and were married sometime in 1904. Both had toured with Vaudeville companies. They had one child born April 7, 1914, a daughter named Laura Ann Curtis, later becoming Hurst in 1935. Jack started in films in 1915 and lasted until 1951 when a stroke slowed him down. He was a great grandfather and a wonderful story teller.- Auriol Lee was born on 13 September 1880 in London, England, UK. She was an actress, known for Suspicion (1941) and A Royal Divorce (1938). She was married to Frederick Lloyd. She died on 2 July 1941 in Hutchinson, Kansas, USA.
- Producer
- Additional Crew
- Director
Thomas H. Ince was born into a family of stage actors. He appeared on the stage at age six and worked with a number of stock companies, making his Broadway debut at 15. Vaudeville work was inconsistent, so he was a lifeguard, a promoter and part-time actor. His stage career was a failure but by 1910 he joined Biograph, and after one film, Carl Laemmle's Independent Motion Pictures hired Ince as a director. Ince went to Cuba to make films out of the reach of the Motion Pictures Patent Company -- the trust that attempted to crush all independent production companies and corner the market on film production -- but his output was small. In 1911 he joined the New York Motion Picture Corp. [NYMPC] and headed to California to make Westerns. Ince insisted that all scripts be thoroughly planned out before filming began, which would give him the opportunity to film several scenes at the same time with assistant directors. One of those directors was Francis Ford, the brother of John Ford.
In 1912, NYMPC and other independent studios merged to form Universal Pictures. Ince built a city of motion picture "sets" on a stretch of land in Santa Monica Mountains called "Inceville" where he shot many of the outdoor locales for his films. At the end of 1912, Ince hired William Desmond Taylor to act in his film Counterfeiters (1914). In 1913 Ince made over 150 films, mostly Westerns and Civil War dramas. He would also employ directors Frank Borzage, Fred Niblo, Jack Conway, and Henry King. In 1914 Ince hired William S. Hart as an actor who could also direct his own films. Ince made the epic The Battle of Gettysburg (1913) and thereafter concentrated on longer films as he moved from director to producer. He employed thousands of technicians and made movies on an assembly-line method. In 1915 he joined D.W. Griffith and Mack Sennett to form the Triangle Motion Picture Company built in Culver City on Washington Boulevard (now the site of Sony Pictures). Fortunately, Hart was a profitable star who kept the company afloat. In 1916 Ince produced and directed the anti-war film Civilization (1915), which cost $100,000 and returned $800.000. Always looking for new talent, Ince signed Olive Thomas, the rising young star of the Ziegfeld Midnight Frolic, to star in his films.
At the end of World War I, Ince broke with Triangle and joined his nemesis Adolph Zukor to form Paramount/Artcraft and built yet another studio in Culver City which had a southern mansion facade of Mount Vernon (and later was bought by David O. Selznick). Ince developed a series of comedies pairing Douglas MacLean and Doris May, and their first picture, 23 1/2 Hours' Leave (1919), was successful. When William S. Hart's contract ended, however, he left the company and Zukor forced Ince out of Paramount/Artcraft. In December 1919 Thomas Ince, Mack Sennett, Marshall Neilan, Maurice Tourneur, Allan Dwan and other directors joined to form Associated Producers, an independent film alliance. 'Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle' had been approached, but he had no desire to join the group. In 1922 Associated Producers merged with First National. On February 1, 1922, Paramount director William Desmond Taylor was shot to death in his bungalow and one of the suspects, although never a serious one, was Mack Sennett, who stated that he spent the night at the home of Ince.
In 1924 Ince was one of several Hollywood people aboard the yacht of newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst when he suddenly fell ill. Ince was rushed aboard a train bound for Del Mar where his wife, her son, and a physician met him and accompanied him home where he died. The Los Angeles Times supposedly released the headline "Movie producer Shot on Hearst yacht!" but other papers including the New York Times said that Ince died of heart failure. One of the stories that sensationalized Ince's sudden death said that Hearst shot Ince and that the bullet wasn't meant for Ince but for Charles Chaplin, whom Hearst had long suspected of carrying on a secret affair with his mistress, actress Marion Davies. Supposedly, Hearst inadvertently walked into Davies' cabin and caught her and Chaplin in bed together and fired several shots, missing Chaplin but hitting Ince. Another rumor circulated that columnist Louella Parsons was also on board that day and witnessed the shooting, although other sources say Parsons was in New York at the time. Supposedly, in exchange for keeping quiet, Hearst promised Parsons a lifetime job as the Hollywood reporter for his newspaper chain (she was already employed by Hearst in 1923 as a reporter). Ince biographers have disputed the Hearst conspiracy and argued that Ince had been ill for some time with ulcers and had suffered from angina with a previous heart attack.- True Boardman was born on 21 April 1880 in Oakland, California, USA. He was an actor, known for Tarzan of the Apes (1918), Stingaree (1915) and The Further Adventures of Stingaree (1917). He was married to Virginia True Boardman. He died on 28 September 1918 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Actor
- Soundtrack
Orth started his career in vaudeville in 1897. He married Ann Codee who would be his wife for fifty years until her death in 1961. Together they were billed as Codee and Orth. He entered movies by making the first foreign language film shorts in sound for Warner Bros. in 1928. That started him on a long career of small parts, often playing cops or bartenders and always Irish. His best known role was as Inspector Faraday in the "Boston Blackie" TV series. He retired in 1959 after undergoing throat surgery.- Actress
- Additional Crew
- Director
Nancy Price was born on 3 February 1880 in Kinver, Worcestershire, England, UK. She was an actress and director, known for The Speckled Band (1931), The Stars Look Down (1940) and Down Our Street (1932). She was married to Charles Maude. She died on 31 March 1970 in Worthing, Sussex, England, UK.- Actor
- Writer
- Soundtrack
Hans Moser, whose real name is Jean Juliet, was trained in theater by the court actor Josef Moser. He later took his last name and combined it with the German translation of his first name. In 1897 he had his first engagement in Bohemia. He later took part in a traveling theater that took him through the country. He settled in Josefstadt in 1903 and was hired at the local theater. Four years later he was back on tour with the theater through Austro-Hungarian territory. Moser appeared in revues, cabarets and theaters in Vienna in 1910. He took part in the First World War. Afterwards he worked again as a member of a cabaret. Moser began his film work in 1922.
Three years later he returned to Josefstadt. There he played theater under Max Reinhardt. He favored roles in literary works by Johann Nepomuk, Odön von Horvath and Arthur Schnitzler. He later made a career in television. He particularly shone in comic roles as a small, often odd, studious man with his mumbles and erratic movements, which made him known to a larger audience. His popularity in these comic roles made him famous even after death. In expert circles, Hans Moser is considered one of the most important film comedians. In his roles he often portrayed lower-class men, such as in the melodrama "Masquerade" from 1934, in which he played a gardener. In the Schubert film "Leise beg my songs" from 1934, Moser played a pawnbroker. He could be seen as a waiter, a servant or a maid for everything as well as in many other roles.
With his often quirky, strange manner and mumbling, he became one of the most popular German-speaking film actors of the 1950s. His film partners included Heinz Rühmann and Theo Lingen. In the Erich Neuberg production of "The Stories from the Vienna Woods" from 1964, he was seen in one of his most successful adult roles. This also included the play "The Farmer as a Millionaire" by Ferdinand Reimund, which was staged by Rudolf Steinböck for the Salzburg Festival. He previously appeared alongside Romy Schneider as her grandfather in the film "The Beautiful Liar" by Axel von Ambesser. His other films include "The City without Jews" (1924), "Burgtheater" (1936), "The Thirteen Chairs" (1938), "The Disgust" (1939), "Vienna Stories" (1940) , "Schrammeln" (1943), "Der Hofrat Geiger" (1947), "Der Herr Chancellor" (1948), "Hello Serviceman" (1951) or "Die Fledermaus" (1962).
Hans Moser died on June 19, 1964 in Vienna.- Actress
- Writer
Rosalind Ivan was born on 27 November 1880 in London, England, UK. She was an actress and writer, known for Scarlet Street (1945), Pursuit to Algiers (1945) and The Corn Is Green (1945). She died on 6 April 1959 in New York City, New York, USA.- Additional Crew
- Producer
Herbert J. Yates, the cigar-chomping force behind Republic Pictures, spent his early adulthood as a salesman for the American Tobacco Co. (and later, at age 23, for Liggett & Meyers as an account executive). At the beginning of World War I, Yates saw an opportunity to apply his hard-nosed business skills in the burgeoning film processing business, which led him to create Consolidated Film Industries (CFI) in 1922 (a company that is still in existence today, although Republic Pictures ceased operations in 1959).
The 1933 bankruptcy of slapstick producer Mack Sennett presented a unique opportunity for a handful of enterprising (though some would call them cheapskate) producers along Gower Gulch (a section of Gower Street in Hollywood, also called "Poverty Row," where many small, independent producers and production companies had their offices). Sennett, who had fallen on hard times due to a combination of circumstances he was both unable and unwilling to confront, had his own well-equipped studio production facility. Nat Levine, the head of serial specialist Mascot Pictures, had his headquarters in a cramped building above a building contractor's office on Santa Monica Boulevard. He immediately saw an opportunity to go big time and approached Monogram Pictures chiefs Trem Carr and W. Ray Johnston about a joint venture to buy the studio, an offer they declined. Rebuffed but not discouraged, Levine obtained an option for the shuttered facility. At the same time, Yates was entering into film production with his fledgling Republic Pictures, and since both Monogram and Mascot were customers of his film lab (to which they owed a considerable amount of money), he held more influence than Levine in convincing the Monogram executives to join under the wings of the Republic eagle. Neither Monogram nor Mascot had owned much in the way of any real production facilities, instead renting studio space whenever it was needed. When Mascot and Monogram (along with Liberty Pictures, Chesterfield Pictures and Invincible Pictures, three small production companies that Yates basically foreclosed on) merged into Republic, Mascot was killed off and the Monogram name was (temporarily) shelved when production began at Republic in 1935 (beginning with a John Wayne oater, Westward Ho (1935), released that August. This "marriage," however, was not one of equals. Carr and Johnston, nominally the studio's chieftains, constantly clashed with Yates, who they felt was a tyrannical Hollywood interloper. One thing became clear, however--Yates was, as Republic's chief stockholder, the financial force of the studio. Levine managed to largely remain out of the fray (he was later bought out by Yates and blew his money on the ponies), and by using many of the same production techniques he had used at Mascot, the new studio's output came to resemble the best of Levine's Mascot product. Republic could also boast of having the best special effects/miniatures department (headed by former Mascot employees Howard Lydecker and his brother Theodore Lydecker) in the industry, a factor that greatly contributed to the quality level of Republic's output. Chafing under Yates' autocratic business style, Carr and Johnston finally departed Republic in 1937 to reform Monogram Pictures. Republic would, for a time, dominate the B-movie industry and often defy expectations by producing several notable A-pictures (Lewis Milestone's The Red Pony (1949), Orson Welles' Macbeth (1948), John Ford's The Quiet Man (1952), among others), along with a number of excellent programmers that temporarily blurred Republic's image as a Poverty Row studio. Yates' reign at Republic would last until 1956, when he was ultimately ousted by stockholders who'd grown increasingly dissatisfied with him. Much of the resentment was based on the blatant favoritism Yates showed toward his wife, Vera Ralston, a former ice-skating champ from Czechoslovakia who Yates repeatedly cast in big, expensive vehicles that almost always lost money because of her near total lack of acting skills. Also, Yates refused to license Republic's film library to be shown on television, believing that TV was just a fad, a mistake that cost the company hundreds of thousands of much-needed dollars. He eventually "saw the light" and not only licensed Republic's library for television showing but actually got the studio itself involved in television production. By that time, however, it was too late. With no strong production head and faced with the onslaught of television in an era of declining theater revenue, Republic Pictures' sprawling studio became more valuable as a real estate and film library portfolio than as a functioning production company. The facilities were sold to CBS and became CBS Studio Center, Studio City, CA. Yates died an extremely wealthy man and eventually left Vera Ralston a very rich widow.- Director
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- Producer
Director and producer of many German as well as a few American, British and French films, Richard Oswald started making films in 1914 and shortly formed his own production company. After making many successful films and discovering several important performers, he fled his homeland after the Nazi takeover and eventually settled in the US. He was the father of Gerd Oswald, a well-regarded director of "B" pictures and television shows.- Director
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- Actor
Herbert Brenon was born on 13 January 1880 in Dublin, Ireland, UK [now Republic of Ireland]. He was a director and writer, known for Beau Geste (1926), Ivanhoe (1913) and Sorrell and Son (1927). He was married to Mrs. Herbert Brenon. He died on 21 June 1958 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Actor
- Writer
Harcourt Williams was born on 30 March 1880 in Croydon, Surrey, England, UK. He was an actor and writer, known for Roman Holiday (1953), Around the World in 80 Days (1956) and Hamlet (1948). He was married to Jean Sterling MacKinlay. He died on 13 December 1957 in London, England, UK.- Julius Tannen was one of the first vaudeville stand-up comedians. He never used props, sets, costumes or stooges. He just put on his hat, walked on stage, took it off, and did his monologue, then put his hat on again and walked off. This was rather revolutionary in his day and Tannen paved the way for many stand-ups to come, such as Bob Hope, Milton Berle, Frank Faye and Jack Benny. Julius Tannen later had a long career as a character actor in Hollywood, and became an invaluable member of the Preston Sturges stock company, giving memorable performances in such Sturges classics as "Christmas in July," "The Miracle of Morgan's Creek," and "Unfaithfully Yours."
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Pat Rooney was born on 4 July 1880 in New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for It's All Wrong (1916), The Actor's Boarding House (1915) and Huntin' Trouble (1924). He was married to Carmen Schaffer, Janet Reade and Patricia Rooney. He died on 9 September 1962 in New York City, New York, USA.- John L. Lewis was born in Iowa in 1880. His parents were Welsh immigrants, and his father got a job in the coal mines. He was soon blacklisted by mine owners for protesting the terrible working conditions under which miners labored for little pay and no benefits. Lewis dropped out of grammar school to go to work in the mines, and in 1906 he was appointed a delegate of the United Mine Workers union. In that capacity he traveled to dozens of mine operations around the country and got to see first-hand just how bad life for the average miner really was, and it was an image he carried with him for the rest of his life. In 1918 he became Vice President of the UMW, and two years later he was President. Mine owners who were used to intimidating and bullying timid union leaders--very often foreigners who were ill-educated and from countries where standing up to authority usually got you killed--got a big surprise when they had to deal with Lewis. He was not one to be bullied, took no guff from anyone, had a will of iron--once he staked out a position or a condition there was no power on earth that could move him from it--and he could go head to head with them on just about any issue and turn out to be even more knowledgeable about it than they were. His peak power came with the New Deal of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, whom Lewis had strongly supported (on the other hand, he despised Roosevelt's VP, John Nance Garner, calling him an "evil old man").
In 1935 Lewis took the UMW out of the American Federation of Labor (AFL) group and started the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO), mainly because he wanted to unionize unskilled labor and the AFL was only interested in the skilled trades. Lewis' efforts were quite successful, especially in Detroit, where after strikes and sit-down actions he managed to unionize many of Detroit's auto workers.
Lewis and Roosevelt split in 1938, when Lewis was in the midst of negotiations with the steel industry. He was expecting Roosevelt's help during the negotiations and didn't get it. Enraged, lhe put his union's backing behind Roosevelt's opponent in the next Presidential election, Wendell Willkie, promising that if Wilkie wasn't elected, he would resign as UMW president. Roosvelt won the 1940 election, and Lewis stepped down.
During World War II Lewis' union struck the coal mines several times, and Lewis even pulled his miners out of the pits altogether on several occasions. The government responded by taking over the mines and fining Lewis and the union more than $2 million for ignoring court orders to return to work.
Lewis retired as president of the UMW in 1959. The last few years of his tenure there were somewhat acrimonious, with several factions accusing him of "selling out" by agreeing to allow automation in the mines, but Lewis saw that the days of coal as a major energy source were ending. UMW membership was dropping as mines were consolidating and in some cases even closing, and oil, gas and even nuclear power had begun replacing coal in many industries.
His almost 40-year reign as president of the United Mine Workers union had resulted in vast improvements in the lives of mine workers. When he took over the union in 1920, the average pay of a miner was $6.00 a day. Miners who were injured at work were promptly fired and had to fend for themselves, there was no such thing as vacations, no sick pay, no pension, working conditions were atrocious--explosions and cave-ins killed and injured thousands of miners annually because companies would not spend money on adequate safety precautions--and workers had virtually no rights (the infamous "company store" system designed to keep workes permanently indebted to their employer originated in the mining industry). When Lewis left in 1960, the average wage had risen to more than $20 a day and miners had some of the best medical coverage, pension system and benefits of any industry in the country.
John L. Lewis died in Washington, DC, in 1989. - Actress
- Soundtrack
Jobyna Howland was born on March 31, 1880 in Indianapolis, Indiana. Her father was a civil war veteran. Jobyna's family moved to Denver, Colorado where she studied acting. When she was a teenager she went to New York City and started modeling. The six foot tall redhead posed for Charles Dana Gibson's famous "Gibson Girl" sketches. In 1899 she was cast in the stage play Rupet Of Hentzau. Then she starred in the shows The Messenger Boy and Winsome Winnie. Jobyna wanted to play dramatic roles but her height and booming voice made her better suited for comedy. On October 2, 1900 she married novelist Arthur Stringer. The couple had a volatile relationship and separated several times before divorcing in 1914. Soon after she fell in love with playwright Zoe Akins and the two women moved in together in Los Angeles. At the age of thirty-eight she made her film debut in the 1918 drama Her Only Way.
She also appeared in The Way Of The Woman with Norma Talmadge and in the comedy Second Youth. Her brother, Olin Howard, became a successful actor too. Jobyna starred in the 1922 Broadway show The Texas Nightingale which was written by her girlfriend Zoe. Then she appeared in the hit musical Kid Boots with Eddie Cantor. During the 1930s she made several comedies with Bert Wheeler & Robert Woolsey including The Cuckoos, Dixiana, and Hook Line And Sinker. She and Zoe became known for hosting lavish dinner parties and for their frequent arguments. They remained close even after Zoe got married in 1932. Her final film was the 1934 comedy Ye Old Saw Mill. Jobyna returned to Broadway in January of 1936 to star in O Evening Star. The show flopped and closed after only five performances. Sadly on June 7, 1936 she died from heart disease at the age of fifty-six. She was buried at Forest Memorial Park in Glendale, California.- Actress
- Writer
Florence Auer was born on 3 March 1880 in Albany, New York, USA. She was an actress and writer, known for The Bishop's Wife (1947), That Forsyte Woman (1949) and At the Crossroads of Life (1908). She died on 14 May 1962 in New York City, New York, USA.- George Catlett Marshall Jr. GCB (December 31, 1880 - October 16, 1959) was an American army officer and statesman. He rose through the United States Army to become Chief of Staff of the US Army under Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman, then served as Secretary of State and Secretary of Defense under Truman. Winston Churchill lauded Marshall as the "organizer of victory" for his leadership of the Allied victory in World War II. After the war, he spent a frustrating year trying and failing to avoid the impending Chinese Civil War. As Secretary of State, Marshall advocated a U.S. economic and political commitment to post-war European recovery, including the Marshall Plan that bore his name. In recognition of this work, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1953.
- Ferike Boros was born on 2 August 1880 in Nagyvárad, Austria-Hungary [now Oradea, Romania]. She was an actress, known for The Light That Failed (1939), Once Upon a Honeymoon (1942) and Bachelor Mother (1939). She died on 16 January 1951 in Hollywood, California, USA.
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Robert McKenzie was born on 22 September 1880 in Ballymena, County Antrim, Ireland [now Ballymena District, Northern Ireland], UK. He was an actor and writer, known for Beginner's Luck (1935), The White Outlaw (1929) and A Naughty Nurse (1928). He was married to Eva McKenzie. He died on 8 July 1949 in Manunuck, Rhode Island, USA.- Actor
- Art Department
Ted Billings was born on 7 April 1880 in London, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Bride of Frankenstein (1935), The Babes in the Woods (1917) and The Flaming Hour (1922). He was married to Margaret Hennessey Ludwick. He died on 5 July 1947 in Los Angeles County, California, USA.- Sybil Brooke was born on 3 August 1880 in London. She is known for Passenger to London (1937), The Villiers Diamond (1938) and Where There's a Will (1936).
- Actor
- Additional Crew
Joseph E. Bernard was born on 1 June 1880 in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA. He was an actor, known for Pat and Mike (1952), Within These Walls (1945) and Sign of the Wolf (1941). He was married to Axtel, Winnifred. He died on 18 October 1958 in Los Angeles County, California, USA.