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- Actress
- Producer
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Yvonne Joyce Craig was born on May 16, 1937 in Taylorville, Illinois. As a young teenager, Yvonne showed such promise as a dancer that she was accepted to Denham's Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo. Her training progressed until she left the company in 1957 over a disagreement on casting changes. She moved to Los Angeles hoping to continue her dancing, but was soon cast in movies. At first, Yvonne had small roles in movies such as Gidget (1959) and The Gene Krupa Story (1959). After that, her film career just bumped along. As Yvonne was dating Elvis Presley at the time, she did have a supporting role in the two Elvis movies, It Happened at the World's Fair (1963) and Kissin' Cousins (1964).
But her fame would come with the cult television series Batman (1966) in which she played Commissioner Gordon's daughter, Barbara. Her secret identity was Batgirl and as the Commissioner's daughter, she had access to all the calls of trouble taking place in Gotham City. Her character, Batgirl, was part of the 1967-68 season, which was the end of the run for the series. After Batman (1966), she also appeared on other television series such as Star Trek (1966) and The Six Million Dollar Man (1974). As her career wound down, Yvonne went into the real estate business. Yvonne Craig died at age 78 of breast cancer at her home in Pacific Palisades, California on August 17, 2015.- Actor
- Producer
- Writer
Matthew Perry was born in Williamstown, Massachusetts, to Suzanne Marie (Langford), a Canadian journalist, and John Bennett Perry, an American actor. His ancestry includes English, Irish, German, Swiss-German, and French-Canadian.
Perry was raised in Ottawa, Ontario, where he became a top-ranked junior tennis player in Canada. However, after moving to Los Angeles at the age of 15 to live with his father, he became more interested in acting. In addition to performing in several high school stage productions, he remained an avid tennis player. Perry ranked 17th nationally in the junior singles category and third in the doubles category. Upon graduating from high school, Perry intended to enroll at the University of Southern California. However, when he was offered a leading role on the television series, Boys Will Be Boys (1987), he seized the opportunity to begin his acting career.
Perry appeared in the hit comedy film The Whole Nine Yards (2000), as the neighbor of a hit man, played by Bruce Willis. His other feature film credits included Fools Rush In (1997), A Night in the Life of Jimmy Reardon (1988), She's Out of Control (1989) and Parallel Lives (1994). He also co-starred with Chris Farley in the buddy comedy Almost Heroes (1998) and in the romantic comedy, Three to Tango (1999), opposite Neve Campbell. Perry resided in Los Angeles. He enjoyed playing ice hockey and softball in his spare time.- Actor
- Producer
- Writer
A graduate of the University of Minnesota, Eddie Albert was a circus trapeze flier before becoming a stage and radio actor. He made his film debut in 1938 and has worked steadily since, often cast as the friendly, good-natured buddy of the hero but occasionally being cast as a villain; one of his most memorable roles was as the cowardly, glory-seeking army officer in Robert Aldrich's World War 2 film, Attack (1956).- Actor
- Director
- Soundtrack
Peter Graves was born Peter Duesler Aurness on March 18, 1926 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. While growing up in Minnesota, he excelled at sports and music (as a saxophonist), and by age 16, he was a radio announcer at WMIN in Minneapolis. After two years in the United States Army Air Force, he studied drama at the University of Minnesota and then headed to Hollywood, where he first appeared on television and later made his film debut in Rogue River (1951). Numerous film appearances followed, especially in Westerns. However, Graves is primarily recognized for his television work, particularly as Jim Phelps in Mission: Impossible (1966). Peter Graves died of a heart attack on March 14, 2010, just four days before his 84th birthday.- Director
- Producer
- Actor
Sydney Pollack was an Academy Award-winning director, producer, actor, writer and public figure, who directed and produced over 40 films.
Sydney Irwin Pollack was born July 1, 1934 in Lafayette, Indiana, USA, to Rebecca (Miller), a homemaker, and David Pollack, a professional boxer turned pharmacist. All of his grandparents were Russian Jewish immigrants. His parents divorced when he was young. His mother, an alcoholic, died at age 37, when Sydney was 16. He spent his formative years in Indiana, graduating from his HS in 1952, then moved to New York City.
From 1952-1954 young Pollack studied acting with Sanford Meisner at The Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre in New York. He served two years in the army, and then returned to the Neighborhood Playhouse and taught acting. In 1958, Pollack married his former student Claire Griswold. They had three children. Their son, Steven Pollack, died in a plane crash on November 26, 1993, in Santa Monica, California. Their daughter, Rebecca Pollack, served as vice president of film production at United Artists during the 1990s. Their youngest daughter, Rachel Pollack, was born in 1969.
Pollack began his acting career on stage, then made his name as television director in the early 1960s. He made his big screen acting debut in War Hunt (1962), where he met fellow actor Robert Redford, and the two co-stars established a life-long friendship. Pollack called on his good friend Redford to play opposite Natalie Wood in This Property Is Condemned (1966). Pollack and Redford worked together on six more films over the years. His biggest success came with Out of Africa (1985), starring Robert Redford and Meryl Streep. The movie earned eleven Academy Award nominations in all and seven wins, including Pollack's two Oscars: one for Best Direction and one for Best Picture.
Pollack showed his best as a comedy director and actor in Tootsie (1982), where he brought feminist issues to public awareness using his remarkable wit and wisdom, and created a highly entertaining film, which was nominated for ten Academy Awards. Pollack's directing revealed Dustin Hoffman's range and nuanced acting in gender switching from a dominant boyfriend to a nurse in drag, a brilliant collaboration of director and actor that broadened public perception about sex roles. Pollack also made success in producing such films as The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), The Quiet American (2002) and Cold Mountain (2003). Pollack returned to the director's chair in 2004, when he directed The Interpreter (2005), the first film ever shot on location at the United Nations Headquarters and within the General Assembly in New York City.
In 2000, Sydney Pollack was honored with the John Huston Award from the Directors Guild of America as a "defender of artists' rights." He died from cancer on May 26, 2008, at his home in the Los Angeles suburb of Pacific Palisades, California.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Blonde and blue-eyed with an attractively feline appeal, Carol Lynley began her professional career as Carolyn Lee. She learned ballet at age seven, became a successful child model at age 10 (eventually working for the Sears & Roebuck department store in New York), and got her face nationally recognized as "the Coca-Cola Girl."
Carole Ann Jones was born in New York City to Frances Fuller (Felch) from New England and Irish immigrant Cyril Roland Jones. Trying to branch out into acting early on, in New York City, to Frances Fuller (Felch), from New England, and Cyril Roland Jones, who was an Irish immigrant. Trying to branch out into acting early on, Carol discovered that another individual by that name, born seven years earlier, was already on the books of Actors' Equity, so Carolyn fused "lyn" and "lee" to create 'Lynley'. From age 15 she appeared on Broadway, played juvenile roles in early anthology television, and was featured on the cover of Life Magazine in April 1957. Her first important film roles came in decidedly wholesome fare, beginning with The Light in the Forest (1958) for Walt Disney Productions, in which she played indentured servant Shenandoe. It was a promising start. A New York Times reviewer praised her performance (alongside that of fellow screen newbie James MacArthur), describing both as "real charmers with more than their share of talent." Thrust once more into the limelight, Lynley reprised her earlier Broadway role in the film version of Blue Denim (1959) as a naive girl who becomes pregnant and ponders having an illegal abortion. This performance got her nominated for a Golden Globe Award as Most Promising Newcomer in 1959. That same year, she graduated with a diploma from New York's School for Young Professionals. Lynley went on to play other ingénues and troubled teens before shedding her wholesome image by the early 1960s.
Return to Peyton Place (1961) headlined the actress as a best-selling novelist who controversially reveals the town's darkest secrets and scandals. This was followed by the bawdy (and mostly irritating) sex farce Under the Yum Yum Tree (1963), with Lynley as a virginal college student in a New York apartment block pursued by a lecherous landlord/playboy (played by Jack Lemmon). Luckily, better opportunities to prove her acting mettle turned up with a double role in The Cardinal (1963) (opposite Tom Tryon), and as the tormented mother of a kidnapped child in the superior psychological thriller Bunny Lake Is Missing (1965), directed by Otto Preminger and co-starring Laurence Olivier. Cinema magazine commented "With a face like that of a fallen angel, Carol Lynley has beauty that is often awe inspiring".
In March 1965, the former teen queen posed nude for an issue of Playboy magazine; later that year she played the title role in a turgid biopic of 1930s Hollywood sex symbol Jean Harlow. While the quality of her films tended to decline after the mid-'60s, there were still entertaining moments in B-pictures like The Shuttered Room (1967) and Once You Kiss a Stranger... (1969) (in this lurid thriller, Lynley rose above her material and was memorable in the role of a psychotic murderess). In Irwin Allen's The Poseidon Adventure (1972), she was merely one of the ill-fated passengers who ended up in Davy Jones' Locker. Still, Variety called her performance "especially effective". After 1967, television provided most of her work, including guest spots in seminal shows like Mannix (1967), The Invaders (1967), Hawaii Five-O (1968) and as co-star of the TV pilot for The Night Stalker (1972) (as Carl Kolchak's girlfriend). In her penultimate role, Lynley played a grandmother in a film titled uncannily similar to the one which had launched her career: A Light in the Forest (2003).
Carol Lynley retired from the screen in 2006. A highly capable actress who should have made a bigger splash in Hollywood, she passed away on September 3, 2019 in Pacific Palisades, California from a heart attack. She was 77.- Actor
- Soundtrack
The son of Edwin Schallert, drama editor of the "Los Angeles Times" and the dean of West Coast critics, William Schallert became interested in an acting career while at UCLA in 1942. After graduation, he became involved with the Circle Theater (eventually becoming one of its owners) and made his film debut in The Foxes of Harrow (1947). He then became ubiquitous in movies and TV ever since, and from 1979 to 1981, he was president of the Screen Actors Guild. He stayed active with SAG projects and said he never gave retirement a thought.- Actor
- Director
- Writer
Cameron Mitchell was the son of a minister, but chose a different path from his father. Prior to World War II, in which he served as an Air Force bombardier, Mitchell appeared on Broadway, and, in 1940, an experimental television broadcast, "The Passing of the Third Floor Back". He made his film debut in What Next, Corporal Hargrove? (1945), but continued with stage as well as film work. He gained early recognition for his portrayal of Happy in the stage and screen versions of "Death of a Salesman". Still, out of more than 300 film and TV appearances, he is probably best remembered for his work on The High Chaparral (1967) TV series in which he, as the happy-go-lucky Buck Cannon, and Henry Darrow, as Manolito Montoya, stole the show.- Hugh was born in Rome, Italy, and adopted by actor Carroll O'Connor and his wife, Nancy. At the age of 16, Hugh was diagnosed with Hodgkin's disease, but conquered it with the help of chemotherapy. It was around this time that Hugh started taking drugs. He worked as a courier on the set of his father's show, Archie Bunker's Place (1979) during its last season. In 1988, he appeared in another show starring his father, In the Heat of the Night (1988). His character, "Lonnie Jamison", started as a background character, but Hugh soon became one of the show's stars, continuing to work on the show until its 1995 cancellation. (Jamison started out as a patrolman but, by the end of the series, had reached the rank of lieutenant and acting-chief of detectives). On 28 March 1992, Hugh married Angela O'Connor, a wardrobe assistant on "Heat", and the following year, she gave birth to their son, Sean Carroll O'Connor. Throughout his life, the drug problems had continued and increased. On 28 March 1995, exactly three years after his marriage to Angela, Hugh died by suicide in the home they shared.
- Actor
- Additional Crew
Perpetually serious-looking New York-born character actor, who showed up to good effect in many TV shows of the 1950s and '60s. His quietly authoritarian demeanor lent itself ideally to portraying characters with badges or uniforms: Sheriff Heck Tate in To Kill a Mockingbird (1962), General Bogan of Strategic Air Command in Fail Safe (1964) and Major Harvey Stovall of Bomber Group 918 in 12 O'Clock High (1964). The latter was his only recurring role on television and he made the most of it, being strongly featured in several of the episodes. Prior to his well-remembered role as Elias Sandoval on the Star Trek (1966) episode, This Side of Paradise (1967), he had made notable appearances on two other science fiction series.
He was twice featured on The Twilight Zone (1959). On the episode, Walking Distance (1959), he played the father of advertising executive Martin Sloan (Gig Young), who, unhappy with his life such as it is, has somehow time-traveled back to his hometown. Sloan finds, to his delight, that everything has remained unchanged from the time of his childhood. In a superbly-acted and touching scene, the elder Sloan (having come to terms with the identity of the stranger), asks his son to leave, because there can only ever be "one summer per customer". In contrast, Overton's chill, austere Sheriff Harry Wheeler on Mute (1963) was the antithesis of his character on "Walking Distance", devoid of compassion or understanding. Overton also appeared as an unsympathetic physician on The Invaders (1967) episode, Genesis (1967).
Overton's characterizations on stage largely paralleled those on screen. He made his first stab at Broadway as a lieutenant in Elia Kazan's comedy 'Jacobowsky and the Colonel', written by S.N. Behrman. The play ran for 417 performances from 1944 to 1945. He played another sheriff in 'The Trip to Bountiful' (1953) and replaced James Gregory as deputy Jesse Bard in the original stage version of 'The Desperate Hours' (1955). His most successful performance was as Morris Lacey in 'The Dark at the Top of the Stairs' (1957-59), a role he reprised for the film version of 1960.
An actor who always looked older than his years, Frank Emmons Overton died of a heart attack in April 1967, aged only 49.- Actor
- Director
- Additional Crew
London-born character actor George Richard Haydon was noted for his put-on nasal delivery and pompous, fussy manner. Haydn had a laborious start to his show business career, selling tickets in the box office of London's Daly Theatre. This was followed by an unsuccessful stint with a comedy act in musical revue. For a change of pace, he became overseer of a Jamaican banana plantation only to see it wiped out by a hurricane.
Returning home, he appeared in the 1926 West End production of 'Betty of Mayfair' and, soon after, also began to act on radio. It was in this medium where he first found success, creating his signature character: the perpetually befuddled nasally-voiced fish expert and mother's boy Edwin Carp. Haydn later immortalized the titular character in a book, titled "The Journal of Edwin Carp". The Carp routine opened the door for Haydn to appear with Beatrice Lillie on Broadway in Noël Coward's 'Set to Music' (1939) and this, in turn, resulted in a contract with 20th Century Fox.
While his first major screen role in Charley's Aunt (1941) was relatively straight-laced, he was more often seen in comedic roles where his lugubrious face and dignified, sometimes unctuous presence could be employed to scene-stealing effect. His notable characterizations in this vein include the over-enunciating Professor Oddly in Ball of Fire (1941), Rogers (the butler) in And Then There Were None (1945) and Mr. Wilson in Cluny Brown (1946). He essayed a rare villainous role as the odious Earl of Radcliffe in the period drama Forever Amber (1947) and was back to his usual form as Mr. Appleton in Sitting Pretty (1948). In The Late George Apley (1947), he played the character of Horatio Willing "with a broad edge of wheezy burlesque" (so wrote Bosley Crowther of the New York Times, March 21, 1947).
In the late 40s, Haydn made a brief foray into directing. Of his three films for Paramount, the Bing Crosby vehicle Mr. Music (1950) enjoyed the best critical reviews. Among his later appearances on screen, that of Trapp family friend and promoter Max Detweiler in The Sound of Music (1965), is the one which most often comes to mind. Over the years, he also made an impression as a voice actor in animated cartoons, notably on Warner Brothers Looney Tunes and as the Caterpillar from Alice in Wonderland (1951). He had frequent guest roles on television and starred in one of the best-remembered episodes of Rod Serling's The Twilight Zone (1959) ("A Thing About Machines"), as the arrogant machine-hating pedant Bartlett Finchley who loses a pitched battle with his household appliances, in particular his car. Haydn also caricatured a Japanese businessman in an episode of Bewitched (1964).
In private life, Haydn was a rather reclusive individual who liked horticulture and shunned interviews.- Actress
- Soundtrack
The daughter of a Mexican surgeon, Maria Margarita Guadalupe Teresa Estella Castilla Bolado y O'Donnell was born in Mexico City. As a niece to famous bandleader Xavier Cugat, she performed with his orchestra from the age of nine as a specialty dancer in nightclubs, and, later, on the Starlight Roof of the hotel Waldorf Astoria in New York. When she was fifteen years old, she was head-hunted by writers Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur, who saw her dance and cast her in the Claude Rains drama Crime Without Passion (1934). Her debut as Rains' ex-lover who ends up being murdered by him, was well-received, critic Mordaunt Hall describing her performance as 'excellent'. Margo was best-known, however, for her role as the slum girl Miriamne Esdras in both stage and screen version of Maxwell Anderson's play Winterset (1936) and for her poignant performance as the young girl leaving Shangri-La (to her detriment) in Lost Horizon (1937). She also appeared on Broadway in 'Masque of Kings' (1937) and 'The World We Make' (1939) and had another small screen role in The Leopard Man (1943).
Margo was married for 39 years to the actor Eddie Albert, residing in Pacific Palisades, California. In later years, she became involved in the public sector, in 1974 becoming Commissioner for Social Services in Los Angeles.- Actress
- Writer
- Soundtrack
Carole Landis was born on New Year's Day in 1919 in Fairchild, Wisconsin, as Frances Lillian Mary Ridste. Her father, a railroad mechanic, was of Norwegian descent and her mother was Polish. Her father walked out, leaving Carole, her mother and an older brother and sister to fend for themselves.
After graduating from high school, she married Jack Robbins (Irving Wheeler), but the union lasted a month (the marriage was annulled because Carole was only 15 at the time). The couple remarried in August 1934, and the two headed to California to start a new life. For a while she worked as a dancer and singer, but before long the glitter of show business drew her to Los Angeles.
She won a studio contract with Warner Brothers but was a bit player for the most part in such films as A Star Is Born (1937), A Day at the Races (1937), and The Emperor's Candlesticks (1937). The following year started out much the same way, with more bit roles. By 1939, she was getting a few speaking roles, although mostly one-liners, and that year ended much as had the previous two years, with more bit roles; also, she and Wheeler were divorced.
In 1940 she was cast as Loana in the Hal Roach production of One Million B.C. (1940); she finally got noticed (the skimpy outfit helped), and her career began moving. She began getting parts in B pictures but didn't star in big productions -- although she had talent, the really good roles were given to the established stars of the day.
Her busiest year was 1942, with roles in Manila Calling (1942), The Powers Girl (1943), A Gentleman at Heart (1942), and three other movies. Unfortunately, critics took little notice of her films, and when they did, reviewers tended to focus on her breathtaking beauty. By the middle 1940s, Carole's career was beginning to short-circuit. Her contract with 20th Century-Fox had been canceled, her marriages to Willis Hunt Jr. and Thomas Wallace had failed, and her current marriage to Horace Schmidlapp was on the skids; all of that plus health problems spelled disaster for her professionally and personally.
Her final two films, Brass Monkey (1948) and The Silk Noose (1948) were released in 1948. On July 5, 1948, Carole committed suicide by taking an overdose of Seconal in her Brentwood Heights, California, home. She was only 29 and had made 49 pictures, most of which were, unfortunately, forgettable. If Hollywood moguls had given Carole a chance, she could have been one of the brightest stars in its history.- Actor
- Additional Crew
Lionel Atwill was born into a wealthy family and was educated at London's prestigious Mercer School to become an architect, but his interest turned to the stage. He worked his way progressively into the craft and debuted at age 20 at the Garrick Theatre in London. He acted and improved regularly thereafter, especially in the plays of Henrik Ibsen and George Bernard Shaw. Atwill came to the US in 1915 and would appear in some 25 plays on Broadway between 1917 and 1931, but he was already trying his hand in silent films by 1918. He had a sonorous voice and dictatorial British accent that served him well for the stage and just as well for sound movies. He did some Vitaphone short subjects in 1928 and then his first real film role in The Silent Witness (1932) (also titled "The Verdict").
That voice and his bullish demeanor made Atwill a natural for a spectrum of tough-customer roles. As shady noblemen and mad doctors, but also gruff military men and police inspectors (usually with a signature mustache), he worked steadily through the 1930s. He had the chance to show a broader character as the tyrannical but unforgettable Col. Bishop in Captain Blood (1935). It's hard to forget his Inspector Krogh in Son of Frankenstein (1939), wherein he agrees to a game of darts with Basil Rathbone and proceeds to impale the darts through the right sleeve of his uniform (the character sported a wooden right arm). And he sends himself up with rolling and blustering dialogue as the glory-hog ham stage actor Rawitch in the classic To Be or Not to Be (1942) with Jack Benny. However, Atwill effectively ruined his burgeoning film career in 1943 after he was implicated in what was described as an "orgy" at his home, naked guests and pornographic films included--and a rape perpetrated during the proceedings. Atwill "lied like a gentleman," it was said, in the court proceedings to protect the identities of his guests and was convicted of perjury and sentenced to five years' probation.
He was thereafter kept employed on Poverty Row with only brief periods of employment by Universal Pictures, while the rest of Hollywood turned its collective back on him. He is more remembered for the horror films generally than for better efforts, but they have fueled his continued popularity and a bid by the Southern California Lionel Atwill Fan Club to petition for a Hollywood Blvd. star (he never received one).- 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.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Thelma Todd was born in Lawrence, Massachusetts, an industrial city near the New Hampshire state line. She was a lovely child with good academic tendencies, so much so that she decided early on to become a schoolteacher. After high school she went on to college but at her mother's insistence entered several beauty contests (apparently her mother wanted her to be more than just a "schoolmarm"). Thelma was so successful in these endeavors that she entered on the state level and won the title of "Miss Massachusetts" in 1925 and went on to the "Miss America" pageant; though she didn't win, the pageant let her be seen by talent scouts looking for fresh new faces to showcase in films. She began to appear in one- and two-reel shorts, mostly comedy, which showcased her keen comic timing and aptitude for physical comedy--unusual in such a beautiful woman.
She had been making shorts for Hal Roach when she was signed to Paramount Pictures. Her first role--at age 21--was as Lorraine Lane in 1927's Fascinating Youth (1926), a romantic comedy that was Paramount's showcase vehicle for its new stars. Thelma received minor billing in another film that year, God Gave Me Twenty Cents (1926). The next year she starred with Gary Cooper and William Powell in the western Nevada (1927). That year also saw her in three more films, with The Gay Defender (1927) being the most notable. It starred Richard Dix as a man falsely accused of murder.
As the 1920s closed, Thelma began to get parts in more and more films. In 1928 and 1929 alone she was featured in 20 pictures, and not just comedies--she also did dramas and gothic horror films. Unlike many silent-era stars whose voices didn't fit their image or screen persona, Thelma's did. She had a bright, breezy, clear voice with a pleasant trace of a somewhat-aristocratic but unsnobbish New England accent and easily made the transition to sound films. In 1930 she added 14 more pictures to her resume, with Dollar Dizzy (1930) and Follow Thru (1930) being the most notable. The latter was a musical with Thelma playing a rival to Nancy Carroll for the affections of Buddy Rogers. It was a box-office hit, as was the stage production on which it was based. The following year Thelma appeared in 14 more films, among them Let's Do Things (1931), Speak Easily (1932), The Old Bull (1932), and On the Loose (1931). Her most successful film that year, however, was the Marx Brothers farce Monkey Business (1931). While critics gave the film mixed reviews, the public loved it. In 1932 Thelma appeared in another Marx Brothers film directed by Norman Z. McLeod, Horse Feathers (1932). She also starred in This Is the Night (1932), a profitable film which featured Cary Grant in his first major role. In 1934 Thelma made 16 features, but her career would soon soon come to a grinding halt. In 1935 she appeared in such films as Twin Triplets (1935) and The Misses Stooge (1935), showcasing her considerable comic talents. She also proved to be a savvy businesswoman with the opening of "Thelma Todd's Sidewalk Café", a nightclub/restaurant that catered to show-business people. Unfortunately, it also attracted some shady underworld types as well, and there were rumors that they were trying to take over her club and use it as a gambling establishment to fleece the wealthy Hollywood crowd. According to these tales, Thelma and her boyfriend, director Roland West, wouldn't sell their establishment once they found out what the gangsters had in mind, which incurred the enmity of the wrong people with whom to have differences of opinion. Whether or not the stories were true, on December 16, 1935, 29-year-old Thelma was found dead in her car in her garage in Los Angeles. Her death was ruled suicide-by-carbon-monoxide-poisoning. At the time, as today, many felt that her death was actually a murder connected to the goings-on at her club, a theory that was lent credence by the fact that no one who knew her had ever seen her depressed or morose enough to worry about her committing suicide. Another factor that aroused suspicion was that her death was given a cursory investigation by the--at the time--notoriously corrupt Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office and the case was quickly and unceremoniously closed. Her death has remained controversial to this day.
Three films she made before her death weren't released until the following year: Hot Money (1936), An All American Toothache (1936), and The Bohemian Girl (1936). The latter saw her quite substantial role cut down so much that she was barely glimpsed in the picture. Thelma had made an amazing 115 films in such a short career, and her beauty and talent would no doubt have taken her right to the top if not for her untimely demise.- Nancy Dolman was born on 26 September 1951 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. She was an actress, known for Soap (1977), Royal Suite (1976) and Landon Landon & Landon (1980). She was married to Martin Short. She died on 21 August 2010 in Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles, California, USA.
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- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
- Writer
John Flynn was a very fine, efficient and sadly underrated director who excelled at making mean'n'lean crime pictures. His movies are distinguished by tight plots, a hard, no-nonsense tone, and a taut, streamlined and fiercely economical directorial style. John was born on March 14, 1932 in Chicago, Illinois and raised in Manhattan Beach, California. He served in the coast guard, where he studied journalism with "Roots" author Alex Haley. Flynn received a degree in journalism from UCLA. John began his cinematic career as an apprentice to director Robert Wise on "Odds Against Tomorrow" and was the script supervisor for "West Side Story." He then went on to work as a second unit director on such features as "Kid Galahad," "Two for the Seesaw," and "The Great Escape." Flynn made his debut as director with the obscure "The Sergent." He followed this film with the equally little seen "The Jerusalem File." John scored his first substantial commercial success with the superbly gritty "The Outfit." Flynn achieved his greatest enduring cult popularity with the marvelously tough and potent revenge thriller winner "Rolling Thunder." His subsequent movies are likewise solid and worthwhile; they include the exciting urban vigilante opus "Defiance," the terrific "Best Seller," the sturdy Sylvestor Stallone prison drama "Lock Up," the above average Steven Seagal action vehicle "Out for Justice," and the nifty virtual reality horror outing "Brainscan." John did two made-for-cable-TV pictures in the early 90s: the fun Dennis Hopper cop flick "Nails" and the enjoyable crime drama "Scam." His last film was the passable direct-to-video mobster item "Protection." John Flynn died at age 75 on April 4, 2007.- Director
- Writer
- Producer
Bob Clark was born on 5 August 1939 in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA. He was a director and writer, known for A Christmas Story (1983), Baby Geniuses (1999) and Porky's (1981). He died on 4 April 2007 in Pacific Palisades, California, USA.- Another in the long line of 1950s and 1960s character actors whose face was oh-so familiar but not the name, Richard Eastham was originally headed for a musical career.
He was born Dickinson Swift Eastham in Opelousas, Louisiana, on June 22, 1916. A student at Washington University, he was gifted with a fine sturdy baritone and performed with the St. Louis Grand Opera in the days before World War II. After finishing his wartime four-year army service, Eastham moved to New York and studied at the American Theatre Wing. H
Richard's musical peak came after understudying singer Ezio Pinza as plantation owner "Emile DeBecque" in "South Pacific", sharing the stage in the role with the likes of Mary Martin and (later) Janet Blair while using the name Dickenson Eastham. He also co-starred in an Ethel Merman production of "Call Me Madam" in the early 1950s and made his minor non-singing film bow with Merman in the Fox film musical There's No Business Like Show Business (1954). His TV debut came with a musical appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show (1948) (aka "The Ed Sullivan Show") in 1949.
A strong, masculine presence with slick blond hair and prominent cheekbones, he changed his stage name to "Richard Eastham" and switched gears to film and TV acting in the late 1950s, shifting quite easily from playing men of integrity to outright heavies in crime stories and westerns. Although he was an erratic presence in films, he made solid appearances in Man on Fire (1957), Disney's Toby Tyler or Ten Weeks with a Circus (1960) and That Darn Cat! (1965), Not with My Wife, You Don't! (1966), Murderers' Row (1966), Tom Sawyer (1973) and McQ (1974), among others.
TV would be a different story altogether. A frequent guest on Perry Mason (1957) as both prosecutor and suspect, he appeared with great regularity on such series as Bat Masterson (1958), Ripcord (1961), Bonanza (1959), The F.B.I. (1965), Kojak (1973), Barnaby Jones (1973) and The Waltons (1972). As a regular, he introduced and narrated the western series Tombstone Territory (1957); played "Red Wilson" in the daytime soap Bright Promise (1969); appeared as "Gen. Phil Blankenship" on Wonder Woman (1975) starring Lynda Carter; and joined the Falcon Crest (1981) cast in his last recurring TV role as "Dr. Howell".
Long settled in Los Angeles and was married to his wife, Betty Jean, for 60 years until her death in 2002, he suffered from Alzheimer's disease in his final years and died from complications at age 89 on July 10, 2005. - Actor
- Writer
- Director
Cliff Osmond was born on 26 February 1937 in Jersey City, New Jersey, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for The Streets of San Francisco (1972), The Front Page (1974) and The Penitent (1988). He was married to Gretchen Lee Petty. He died on 22 December 2012 in Pacific Palisades, California, USA.- Writer
- Producer
- Additional Crew
Attended Carnegie Tech (now Carnegie-Mellon University) as a playwriting major. Barbara Bosson (his second wife), Michael Tucker, Bruce Weitz and Charles Haid were classmates; he and Tucker drove cross-country to Hollywood for full-time jobs at Universal, where Bochco would remain for 12 years.
In 1978, he moved to MTM Enterprises, who after several attempts gave him carte Blanche to create a show similar to Fort Apache the Bronx (1981) (Hill Street Blues (1981)). In 1985, MTM fired him, in part for his inability to keep HSB on budget. After creating L.A. Law (1986) and Doogie Howser, M.D. (1989) for NBC, he struck a $15M deal with ABC in 1987 to create 10 series pilots over 10 years.- Actor
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
- Production Manager
Edward S. Brophy was born on February 27, 1895 in New York City and educated at the University of Virginia. He became a bit and small-part in the movies starting in 1919, but switched to behind-the-scenes work for job security, though he continued appearing in small parts. While serving as a property master for Buster Keaton's production unit at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Brophy appeared in a memorable sequence in Keaton's classic The Cameraman (1928), in which Buster and Brophy both try to undress simultaneously in a tiny wardrobe room. Keaton cast Brophy in larger parts in two of his talkies, and by 1934, Brophy abandoned the production end of the movies altogether and was acting full-time.
Possessed of a chubby, bald-headed face with pop-eyes, and blessed with (for a comic) a high-pitched voice, Brophy appeared in scores of comic roles. He also played straight dramatic parts, but was less effective in them. Typical of his work was his memorable turn providing comic relief in the small supporting role of the Marine in Manila who adopts the dog "Tripoli" in Howard Hawks' war propaganda masterpiece Air Force (1943).
In the 1950s, Brophy began taking fewer roles. His last role was in director John Ford's Western Two Rode Together (1961), during the production of which, he died on May 27, 1960 in Pacific Palisades, California. He will always be remembered to film-lovers as the voice of Timothy Mouse in Walt Disney's classic 1941 cartoon Dumbo (1941).- Actor
- Director
- Writer
Francis X. Bushman was born on 10 January 1883 in Baltimore, Maryland, USA. He was an actor and director, known for Sabrina (1954), The Phantom Planet (1961) and Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ (1925). He was married to Iva Millicient Richardson, Norma Emily Atkin, Beverly Bayne and Josephine Fladine Duval. He died on 23 August 1966 in Pacific Palisades, California, USA.- Producer
- Actress
- Additional Crew
Born in Columbus, Ohio as Carolyn Louise Kramer to Warren A. and Ann (nee Caldwell) Kramer, when she was 18 months old her mother died unexpectedly. She was raised by her grandparents, Frank and Louise (nee Orton) Caldwell of Columbus.
She attended the Ohio State University Laboratory School in Columbus and was graduated from MacDuffie School in Springfield, Massachusetts. As a freshman at Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio, she met Rod Serling, a returning World War II veteran attending the college. They wed two years later, on July 31, 1948, and graduated in 1950 before moving to Cincinnati, where Rod worked for a local radio station.- Actor
- Soundtrack
One of the prime Broadway musical stars of the post WWII period, handsome John Raitt was once described by composer Richard Rodgers as "a big, brawny fellow with a magnificent baritone." John would go on to maintain an incredibly resilient career spanning over 60 years, showing remarkable power, range and stamina for a man who defied the odds as he continued concertizing well into his 80s.
He was born John Emmet Raitt in Santa Ana, California on January 29, 1917, the son of Archie John Raitt, founder and director of the North Orange County Young Men's Christian Association. His interest in theatre developed while attending Fullerton Union High School in Fullerton where he appeared in several plays at the local Plummer Auditorium and sang in the chorus of "The Desert Song." Also excelling in football and track, he won the state title in the shot-put in 1935, which, in turn, earned him a track scholarship to USC. A year later, however, he transferred to the University of Redlands and received his degree in physical education.
Having also studied classical voice at the university, he appeared in their productions of "The Bartered Bride" and "Die Fledermaus." With singing winning out over a high school gym teaching career, John intently studied voice under Richard Cummings while performing at rotary clubs and YMCAs. One of his first appearances would be in the chorus of "HMS Pinafore" with the Los Angeles Civic Light Opera Company in 1940. Moving up into prime roles the following year, John the leading roles of played Figaro and Count Almaviva in "The Barber of Seville," Escamillo in "Carmen, as well as leads in "Rose Marie" and "The Merry Widow." After extensive training, John saw himself better suited to musical theatre than opera.
MGM saw promise in John as a leading man, signed him and groomed him in bit roles in both war-era musicals (Little Nellie Kelly (1940) starring Judy Garland and Ship Ahoy (1942) starring Eleanor Powell) and stoic dramas (Flight Command (1940), H.M. Pulham, Esq. (1941)). Discouraged at his complete lack of acceleration, John continued performing musical stage leads and earned his huge career break when he won the role of Curly in the Chicago production of the new big hit musical "Oklahoma!" in 1944. As such, he abandoned Hollywood and moved to New York.
Critics took notice of the man's robust presence, sturdy pipes and unfailing confidence. The virile man with the sly flash in his eye then made his Broadway debut originating the role of the tormented carnival barker Billy Bigelow in the now-classic 1945 musical "Carousel." He never had to look back. John's powerful rendition of the "Soliloquy" number helped him to clinch the prestigious New York Drama Critics and Donaldson Awards as well as being one of the first recipients of the Theatre World Award for "Promising Personalities." Surprisingly, he was not nominated for a Tony Award for this or any other performance. Nevertheless, John continued to impress on Broadway despite the short runs of "Magadalena" (1948), "Three Wishes for Jamie" (1952) and "Carnival in Flanders" (1953).
TV took notice and John showcased on many of the popular musical variety shows of the day, making his debut on "The Ed Wynn Show" in 1949. Others programs would include "The Buick Circus Show," "The Jane Froman Show," "The Milton Berle Show," "The Colgate Comedy Hour," The Ed Sullivan Show," "The Dinah Shore Chevy Show," "The Steve Allen Playhouse," Shirley Temple's Storybook Theatre" and "The Bell Telephone Hour," among others. In 1957 he played Frank Butler opposite Mary Martin's Annie Oakley in an NBC-TV production of Annie Get Your Gun (1957) and was given straight acting roles in such dramatic fare as "General Electric Theater" and "Death Valley Days."
In 1954, John originated his second signature role as foreman Sid Sorokin in "The Pajama Game" opposite Janis Paige. Here, he introduced the classic ballad "Hey There" for which he is arguably best known. So ideally suited was he in this role that John was asked to transfer Sid to film, this time co-starring with Doris Day. Although the movie was an unqualified success, musical films were on their way out and he did not find any more work in the area of cinema.
For the next few decades, John would dedicate himself with tours of the roles audiences had grown to love (Curly, Billy, Sid). Raitt's two other Broadway ventures, the musical A Joyful Noise (1966) and the revue A Musical Jubilee (1975), closed early. Additional vehicles that suited him on the road included "Camelot," "Shenandoah," "1776," "South Pacific," "Man of La Mancha," "Kismet, "New Moon," Zorba" and "Fiddler on the Roof." Out of nowhere, John played a singing trucker in a 1986 TV episode of "Third Rock from the Sun."
The elderly Raitt continued performing strongly into his eighties, touring in his one-man show "An Evening with John Raitt" in which he sang 23 songs from 16 Broadway musicals. He was inducted into the Theatre Hall of Fame in 1994 and the Hollywood Bowl Hall of Fame in 2001. He recorded 14 albums in all, including John Raitt: The Broadway Legend (1995). The live musical and concert stages would be John's invaluable legacy to the music world -- there he was always "First Raitt!"
In 1942, John married pianist Marjorie Haydock. One of their three children grew up to become renowned blues/rock singer, songwriter and guitarist Bonnie Raitt, who obviously inherited her father's musical talent. They often performed in concert together in later years. Son David Raitt became a graphic and title designer. Living in the Pacific Palisades area of Los Angeles, the veteran singer died at 88 on February 20, 2005, of complications from pneumonia. Divorced twice, he was survived by third wife, Rosemary Kraemer.- Marilyn Cooper was born on 13 October 1923 in Charleston, West Virginia, USA. She was an actress, known for Legs (1983) and Rear Window (1990). She was married to Sabu. She died on 9 September 2022 in Pacific Palisades, California, USA.
- Fritz Leiber was born on 31 January 1882 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. He was an actor, known for Bagdad (1949), Monsieur Verdoux (1947) and Anthony Adverse (1936). He was married to Virginia Bronson. He died on 14 October 1949 in Pacific Palisades, California, USA.
- Director
- Writer
- Producer
Georgetown University-educated Thomas Stephen Gries was born in Chicago, Illinois, to Ruth Marie (Gluck), an advertising copywriter and actress, and Joseph Charles Gries. He returned from service with the US Marines in WW II and worked as a reporter for a Chicago newspaper. Traveling to Hollywood in 1947, he took a job as a talent agent, and eventually went to work for producer/director Stanley Kramer as a publicist and story aide. He entered the production end of the business as an associate producer, then graduated to writing and producing documentaries. He switched to television, where he received an Emmy in 1963 for directing the series East Side/West Side (1963). He alternated between features and made-for-TV movies, turning out some real gems (Will Penny (1967), Helter Skelter (1976)) and some real duds (Number One (1969)). His later output in both genres was routine. He died of a heart attack while playing tennis.- Director
- Writer
- Producer
Percy Adlon is best known for his film "Bagdad Cafe" aka "Out of Rosenheim." He was born on June 1, 1935 in Munich, the son of Paul Rudolf Laubenthal, a prominent opera singer, and Susanne Adlon, and grew up in Ammerland/Starnbergersee, in the Bavarian countryside. He studied art and theater history, and German literature at Munich's Ludwig-Maximilian University, took acting and singing classes, and was a member of the student theater group. He started his professional career as an actor, became interested in radio work, was a narrator and editor of literature series and a presenter and voice-over actor in television for 10 years.
In 1970 he made his first short film for the Bavarian Television, followed by more than 150 documentary films about art and the human condition. His first one-hour portrait "Tomi Ungerer's Landleben" started a very successful co-operation with Benigna von Keyserlingk who became the Adlon's television producer of documentaries and feature films.
Percy and Eleonore Adlon formed their film production company, pelemele FILM GmbH, in 1978. Their first project was the docu-drama "The Guardian and his Poet" about the Swiss poet Robert Walser for which they won 2 Adolf-Grimme Awards in Gold (best writer/director, best actor). Their first feature film "Celeste", drew international attention at Cannes in 1981. "Bagdad Cafe", 1987, started their co-operation with Dietrich v. Watzdorf (Bayerischer Rundfunk) The story of Jasmin Münchgstettner and the Cafe owner Brenda became a symbol of friendship and warmth, and is loved all over the globe. Marianne Sägebrecht whom Percy Adlon discovered in 1979 became a cult figure, and Bob Telson's song "Calling You" a classic.
Percy and Eleonore Adlon live in Pacific Palisades, California, working together with their son Felix whose first feature film "Eat Your Heart Out" (1997) they produced with their US company Leora Films. Felix was also the lead in the Adlons' docu-fantasy "The Glamorous World of the Adlon Hotel". (Bavarian TV award).
In 1997 Percy Adlon started working with a digital camera. He filmed a three hour special about the draftsman Tomi Ungerer for ARTE; Mozart's "Magic Flute" with images of today's Berlin; Esa-Pekka Salonen and the LA Phil; 22 short films based on unknown masterpieces by Johann Strauss, Jr.; a 90 minute film about his past and present relationship with his hometown Munich, "Mein Munchen", and he completed his tenth feature film "Hawaiian Gardens" and a documentary Koenig's Sphere - the story of the monumental world trade center sculpture that was damaged but not destroyed in the 9/11 attack.
Remembering his roots in theater, in 2002 Percy Adlon directed Donizetti's Elisir d'Amore at the State Opera unter den Linden, Berlin, followed in March 2004 by the world premiere of Wilfried Hiller's opera Wolkenstein at the State Opera Nuernberg, Germany.
Percy and Eleonore Adlon's recent work also includes their own adaptation of Bagdad Cafe for the stage as a musical. Music by Bob Telson. It premiered on July 6, 2004, at the Barcelona Teatre Musical. In 2007, the Adlons completed "Orbela's People", a documentary about a time with a Maasai family in Ngorongoro, Tanzania.
Percy Adlon is the recipient of the Officer's Cross of the Federal Republic of Germany, and the Bavarian Order of Merit. He is a voting member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Richard Travis was born William Benton Justice in Carlsbad, New Mexico on April 17, 1913. He started off unbilled in daredevil cliffhangers and proceeded to war-era Warner Bros. features. He changed his stage moniker from "William Justice" to "William Travis" before finally settling on "Richard (or Dick) Travis" for the remainder of his career.
Lacking somewhat lacking the requisite star-power attraction, the tall (6'2"), lanky blond made his biggest impression early in the game with the all-star The Man Who Came to Dinner (1941). As "Bert Jefferson", he played the love interest to Bette Davis's "Maggie Cutler" character in the screwball comedy classic. While he did earn a few prime Warner roles in its aftermath, such as third-billing in The Big Shot (1942), with Humphrey Bogart, a lead in Escape from Crime (1942) and a featured part in the stalwart war picture Mission to Moscow (1943) starring Walter Huston, Richard was eventually relegated to headlining such "Poverty Row" programmers as The Postman Didn't Ring (1942), Busses Roar (1942), Spy Train (1943), Truck Busters (1943) and The Last Ride (1944).
In the post-war years, he maintained in films with such dubious titles as Jewels of Brandenburg (1947), Alaska Patrol (1949) and Sky Liner (1949), among his lead offerings. He did, however, play an unbilled role as Lou Gehrig in the The Babe Ruth Story (1948), starring William Bendix.
In the 1950s, Richard appeared in several films but also found steady work in rugged TV westerns. He was the rugged star of the modern western detective TV series, Code 3 (1957), which ran for one season. He also appeared on Cowboy G-Men (1952), Fury (1955), The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp (1955), The Texan (1958) and The Legend of Jesse James (1965), one of his last TV roles.
Richard eventually retired and reverted to his original name of "William Justice." Thereafter, he found a lucrative career as a real estate entrepreneur in Southern California. Richard died at his Pacific Palisades home in 1989 at age 76.- Music Department
- Composer
- Actor
Alexander Courage was born on 10 December 1919 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. He was a composer and actor, known for Star Trek (1966), Jurassic Park (1993) and Star Trek: Generations (1994). He was married to Shirley Pumpelly. He died on 15 May 2008 in Pacific Palisades, California, USA.- Ronnie Burns was born on 9 July 1935 in Evanston, Illinois, USA. He was an actor, known for The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show (1950), Bernardine (1957) and The George Burns Show (1958). He was married to Janice E. Powell and Peggy Jo Lyon. He died on 14 November 2007 in Pacific Palisades, California, USA.
- Actress
- Soundtrack
Nancy Kilgas was born in the USA as Nancy Blanche Kilgas. She is an actress and a dancer, known for Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954), Athena (1954), Oklahoma! (1955) (uncredited dancer) (1955), When Gangland Strikes (1956), Shake, Rattle & Rock! (1956), Loving You (1957), Funny Face (1957), The Spider (1958) (dancer) (1958), High School Hellcats (1958), Alfred Hitchcock Presents - The Blessington Method (1959) and Torn Curtain (1966) (uncredited dancer) (1966).- Actor
- Soundtrack
Wilton Graff was born on 13 August 1903 in St. Louis, Missouri, USA. He was an actor, known for Bloodlust! (1961), Bulldog Drummond Strikes Back (1947) and Lili (1953). He was married to Elisabeth Lawrence (Whittemore) Strong and Mary Goodwin. He died on 13 January 1969 in Pacific Palisades, California, USA.- Cinematographer
- Camera and Electrical Department
Charles Lawton Jr. was born on 6 April 1904 in Los Angeles, California, USA. He was a cinematographer, known for The Lady from Shanghai (1947), The Gallant Blade (1948) and 3:10 to Yuma (1957). He was married to Irene Thompson. He died on 11 July 1965 in Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles, California, USA.- Tall, dapper, oval-faced, crisp-talking British stage actor James Stephenson was born in Yorkshire on April 13, 1889, the son of a chemist and druggist. A bank clerk to begin with, he later pursued a career as a merchant and served with the British Army during World War I. He had no formal acting training, but a growing interest led him to amateur theatre presentations and eventually working professionally on the London and Liverpool stages.
Rather late in life, the 48-year-old Stephenson made his film debut with the British drama The Perfect Crime (1937) at Warner Brothers' Teddington Studios in England. He continued there with the comedy You Live and Learn (1937) and the mystery Mr. Satan (1938). Warner mogul Jack Warner saw much promise in Stephenson and summoned him to Hollywood where he became a studio contract player. Having married Lorna Hewitt Anderson (1908-1967) in 1936, Stephenson left his homeland and emigrated to America, summoning her later once he settled in. They eventually became U.S. citizens in 1938.
During his extremely short stay, the distinguished gent with the clipped tones and neat, sliver mustache indulged himself in urbane villainy in the oily, cultivated tradition of George Sanders and his brother Tom Conway. He proved a reliable support in such films as You Live and Learn (1937), Boy Meets Girl (1938), Nancy Drew: Detective (1938), White Banners (1938), Confessions of a Nazi Spy (1939), You Can't Get Away with Murder (1939), Espionage Agent (1939) and the classic adventures Beau Geste (1939) and The Sea Hawk (1940).
At one point he was entrusted by director William Wyler and mega-star Bette Davis to play the sympathetic role of the family attorney Howard Joyce in the melodrama The Letter (1940). It was the role of a lifetime and he didn't let them down for he earned an Oscar nomination in the process. He had supported Ms. Davis earlier in her dramatic vehicles The Old Maid (1939) and The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (1939).
Stephenson was soon on a roll. Having been handed the role of the titular sleuth in Calling Philo Vance (1940), he was finally first-billed in the above-average "B" movie Shining Victory (1941) when he when he tragically suffered a myocardial infarction in 1941, dying at age 52 in Pacific Palisades. Having made 40 films in just four years, Hollywood lost a valued, charismatic player. Survived by his wife, James is interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California. - Director
- Actor
- Producer
Born Hugh Ryan Conway of Irish ancestry, Jack Conway was one of a team of MGM contract directors (others included Sam Wood and Robert Z. Leonard), who forsook any pretense to a specific individual style in favor of working within the strictures set forth by studio management--as embodied by Irving Thalberg and his production supervisors. The overall MGM strategy was to streamline efficiency and achieve tighter fiscal control by curbing the power of the director. Deeply suspicious of creative, individualistic filmmakers who would jeopardize the "studio look", Thalberg and MGM chief Louis B. Mayer hoped to prevent such budgetary excesses as had been perpetrated by directors like Erich von Stroheim during the 1920s. Conway contented himself with working under these guidelines. A thoroughly competent craftsman, he delivered commercially successful entertainments on time and within budget.
Conway had started out in the industry as an actor, joining a repertory theatre group straight out of high school. He segued into film acting in 1909. Two years later he became a member of D.W. Griffith's stock company, appearing primarily as a leading man in westerns. In 1913 he made his mark as a director and gained valuable experience at Universal (1916-17, 1921-23) before moving on to MGM in 1925. He directed the studio's first sound picture, Alias Jimmy Valentine (1928). He remained under contract until 1948, often in charge of prestige assignments featuring the studio's top male star, Clark Gable: Boom Town (1940), Honky Tonk (1941), The Hucksters (1947)--all solid box-office gold. For his most famous film, A Tale of Two Cities (1935), Conway utilized 17,000 extras in the Paris mob scenes alone. This spectacular adaptation of the classic novel by Charles Dickens is still regarded by many as the definitive screen version.
Another popular hit was the sophisticated all-star comedy Libeled Lady (1936), the "New York Times" reviewer commenting on Conway's "agile direction" (Oct. 31, 1936). The journeyman director may not have achieved fame as a creative genius, yet the majority of his films remain eminently entertaining to this day. He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Vine Street.- Lucinda Dooling was born on 19 April 1954 in Puerto Rico. She was an actress, known for 1941 (1979), Lovely But Deadly (1981) and Hart to Hart (1979). She was married to David Schiff. She died on 30 December 2015 in Pacific Palisades, California, USA.
- Actor
- Soundtrack
Son of a Broadway couturier and a symphony conductor, Sedan started his career as a nightclub performer, he also performed in vaudeville with Al Jolson. He was planning on studying scientific agriculture when he went to work on the stage in New York. He worked at the Hal Roach Studios and played with the likes of Laurel & Hardy and Harold Lloyd. He had a recurring role on TV's "Andy's Gang" from 1955-60, he was also a regular on The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show (1950) and guest-starred in numerous other television series. He continued showing up in films until the time of his death. Sedan died of a heart attack.- Producer
- Writer
- Executive
Fred Silverman was born in 1937, and quickly grew up into the television business. After starting out in the mail-room of ABC-TV in the late 1950s, he rose to director of program development at WGN-TV, Chicago in the early '60s. One day, he abandoned his car during a snowstorm and boarded a plane for New York, where he gained a position as head of Daytime Programming at CBS-TV. In 1970, he became the programming head of CBS, where he programmed such hits as The Mary Tyler Moore Show (1970), All in the Family (1971), M*A*S*H (1972), The Jeffersons (1975), Kojak (1973) and The Sonny and Cher Show (1976). In 1975, he left for ABC-TV, where he worked closely with Michael Eisner and Brandon Tartikoff. He developed such new hits as Laverne & Shirley (1976), The Love Boat (1977), Donny and Marie (1975) and Soap (1977). By the end of the 1977-8 season, ABC was number one, Daytime and Nigttime. In 1978, he joined NBC as President and CEO. His presence helped stem the audience erosion of the prior 5 years with new programs such as Diff'rent Strokes (1978), Real People (1979) and Hill Street Blues (1981). During his tenure, he made program commitments that led to St. Elsewhere (1982) and Cheers (1982), promoted Brandon Tartikoff to President of Entertainment and laid the groundwork for NBC's turnaround in the 80s. Management changes at parent RCA led to Silverman's departure in June, 1981 and his replacement by Grant Tinker. Silverman formed "The Fred Silverman Company" and became an independent producer. Among his successes were "Perry Mason Movies", Matlock (1986), In the Heat of the Night (1988), Jake and the Fatman (1987) and Diagnosis Murder (1993). Silverman remains in the independent production business and also does program consulting.- Jean Del Val was born on 17 November 1891 in Reims, France. He was an actor, known for Funny Face (1957), Fantastic Voyage (1966) and The Secret of St. Ives (1949). He died on 13 March 1975 in Pacific Palisades, California, USA.
- Make-Up Department
- Actor
William Tuttle was born in Jacksonville, Florida, in 1911. At the age of 15 he was forced to leave school in order to earn a living so he could support his mother and younger brother, Thomas Tuttle. His music background got him work with comedy teams and a burlesque orchestra and, finally, his own band.
At age 18 he moved to Hollywood, California. He eventually ended up working at Fox studios. He became an apprentice to Jack Dawn, head of makeup at Twentieth-Century Pictures. Seven months later Twentieth Century closed down for the summer in 1934 and Bill went to MGM to continue his apprenticeship.
Fox hired Bill as a makeup artist after seeing the work he had done at MGM. He worked on three films for Fox before returning to MGM, and made it his home for 35 years. For eight years he worked as an assistant to Jack Dawn (by then head makeup artist at MGM) and, after Jack retired, he became the head of the department for over 20 years.
William Tuttle and Charles H. Schram both worked on The Time Machine (1960). Bill had taken a trip to the San Diego Zoo and got the idea to use the fur of an East African species of monkey for the fur of the Morlocks. He won an honorary Oscar in April 1965 for his work on George Pal's 7 Faces of Dr. Lao (1964). He has taught at the USC film school and created his own line of cosmetics, Custom Color Cosmetics.- Director
- Writer
- Producer
If Curtis Bernhardt is a relative unknown, it's because he didn't direct his first Hollywood feature until 1940 at the age of 41. Bernhardt worked for years in Germany until his Jewish heritage made living there impossible by 1933-- he was arrested by the Gestapo and made a harrowing underground escape to France. With Europe plunging into war, he left for America in 1939. Despite his limited grasp of the English language, he was offered seven-year contracts at both Warner Bros. and MGM, largely on the strength of Carrefour (1938)-- which proved so enduring that it was remade as Dead Man's Shoes (1940) in the UK and as Crossroads (1942) by MGM. Most émigrés would have jumped an offer to work at MGM-- considered the "Tiffany" of film studios-- but Berhardt went with Warners, favoring that studio's reputation for hard-boiled realism. His career in Hollywood began with a false start; after working on his first assignment he fell ill and was reassigned an Olivia de Havilland vehicle, My Love Came Back (1940), that gained him good notices. Bernhardt rapidly achieved a reputation as a woman's director with occasional forays into suspense with varied results. He directed one of Humphrey Bogart's least popular films, Conflict (1945), which was burdened by ludicrous plot contrivances, but he snapped back the next year with a winner: My Reputation (1946), a melodrama starring Barbara Stanwyck. He had another misfire, however, with the critically panned Devotion (1946) and would end his contract with the studio after three more films in 1947, after which he moved briefly to MGM. Ironically, he would later look back fondly upon Warners' assembly-line production methods compared to his days at MGM, where he felt compelled to bend to the whims of its stars and serve at the behest of studio chief Louis B. Mayer. Berhardt managed to make two above-average films during his short stay at Metro, however--the suspenseful High Wall (1947) starring 'Robert Taylor (I)_ in one of his best mid-career roles, and The Doctor and the Girl (1949), starring the likable Glenn Ford.
Bernhard soon moved to RKO, which was entering its final chaotic decade, directing The Blue Veil (1951), a remake of a French film. He did a one-shot gig at Columbia, directing Bogie once again in the hopelessly set-bound Sirocco (1951), and rounded out the remainder of the 1950s back at MGM, ending his Hollywood career with the middling comedy Kisses for My President (1964) at Warners.
He retired from directing due to illness in the mid-'60s and died in 1981, age 81, at his home in Pacific Palisades, California.- Writer
- Actor
Henry Miller was born on 26 December 1891 in New York City, New York, USA. He was a writer and actor, known for Reds (1981), Quiet Days in Clichy (1970) and Quiet Days in Clichy (1990). He was married to Hoki Tokuda, Evelyn Byrd (Keven) McClure, Janina Martha Lepska, June Edith Smith and Beatrice Sylvas Wickens. He died on 7 June 1980 in Pacific Palisades, California, USA.- Adele Lamont was born on 7 August 1931 in New Jersey, USA. She was an actress, known for The Brain That Wouldn't Die (1962) and The Tall Man (1960). She died on 24 November 2005 in Pacific Palisades, California, USA.
- Additional Crew
- Actor
- Legal
Howard Weitzman was born on 21 September 1939 in Los Angeles, California, USA. He was an actor and legal representative, known for Thank You for Smoking (2005), Murder One (1995) and Murder in the First (2014). He was married to Margaret Weitzman and Stacey Winkler. He died on 7 April 2021 in Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles, California, USA.- Actor
- Producer
Lewis Dauber was born on 27 April 1949 in New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor and producer, known for The Island (2005), Something's Gotta Give (2003) and Jingle All the Way (1996). He was married to Paulette Levin. He died on 3 October 2019 in Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles, California, USA.- Houston-born-and-bred Florence Vidor was one of the great beauties of early Hollywood. But while her photogenic looks went a long way, audiences would not get to enjoy or really experience her voice as she abruptly left the silver screen after her first disastrous attempt at a talking picture.
Born Florence Arto on July 23, 1895, she was the daughter of realtor John F. Arto and his wife Ida. Educated in both public and finishing schools, she was also a student at the Convent of the Sacred Heart for a time. Her fate was sealed after a happenstance but eventful first meeting of two aspiring filmmakers: future directors Edward Sedgwick and King Vidor. Vidor, a freelance photographer, cast Florence in his very first 2-reel picture although she had no real designs on being an actress. The two became a romantic item, married in 1915, and welcomed one child together, Suzanne Vidor Parry, in 1919.
King set his sites on Hollywood and the couple made the big move, financing their trip by filming travelogue for the Ford Motor Company. The couple settled in Santa Monica and soon found employment at Vitagraph Studios. Florence knew actress Corinne Griffith from her days in Houston and was introduced around the sets. The studio, quite taken by her exquisite beauty, quickly signed her to a contract, starting with some minor roles in such comedy shorts as The Yellow Girl (1916) and Curfew at Simpton Center (1916). Meanwhile, husband King sought work as a scriptwriter and occasional movie extra.
Florence first turned heads portraying tragic seamstress "Mimi" in A Tale of Two Cities (1917). Audiences took notice and the beautiful brunette was immediately promoted to leading-lady status opposite such established stars as Sessue Hayakawa and chic "drag" performer Julian Eltinge. She and Hayakawa made several pictures together, including Hashimura Togo (1917), The Secret Game (1917), and The White Man's Law (1918), among others. With the popular Eltinge, who often outdressed his leading ladies, the actress graced the comedies The Countess Charming (1917) and The Widow's Might (1918). Within a short time she was starring in quality pictures for both William C. de Mille and his brother Cecil B. DeMille, but still preferred to work for her husband King, who had by this time established himself as a formidable director after opening his own studio in 1919.
A mature, opulent presence, Florence became a huge star under her husband's guidance, operating under the banners of King Vidor Productions and Florence Vidor Productions. With such silent classics as The Other Half (1919), Poor Relations (1919), The Family Honor (1920), The Jack-Knife Man (1920), Real Adventure (1922), Dusk to Dawn (1922), and Conquering the Woman (1922), Florence came to the forefront. Her best-regarded film of that period was King's comedy-drama Alice Adams (1923), remade successfully a decade later by Katharine Hepburn.
King and Florence divorced in 1924 and Florence went on to appear for other well-known directors, notably Ernst Lubitsch, in such glossy pictures as The Marriage Circle (1924) and The Patriot (1928). She also portrayed famous female Revolutionary War character Barbara Frietchie in Barbara Frietchie (1924), but she earned most of her kudos specializing in sophisticated comedy. She was well represented in that genre with Marry Me (1925), The Grand Duchess and the Waiter (1926), and The Magnificent Flirt (1928). Her stylish humor coupled with a charming sensitivity put her squarely on top throughout most of the 1920s opposite such other well-tailored charmers as Adolphe Menjou, Clive Brook, and William Powell.
Florence's first major talking film would also be her last. The unhappy experience and end-result of working on Chinatown Nights (1929), which used highly experimental sound equipment, was enough to convince her to leave films altogether. By that time Florence had married a second time, to famed violinist Jascha Heifetz, and preferred to raise a family. The couple had two children. Following their divorce in 1946, Florence continued to remain completely out of the limelight. She later moved to Pacific Palisades, California and stayed there for the rest of her life. She succumbed to heart failure in 1977 at age 82. - Henry Farrell was born on 27 September 1920 in Madera, California, USA. He was a writer and actor, known for Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964), What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962) and What's the Matter with Helen? (1971). He was married to Molly Dodd. He died on 29 March 2006 in Pacific Palisades, California, USA.