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The legendary actress set a record when at age 82, she appeared on Dancing with the Stars (2005). Cloris Leachman was born on April 30, 1926 in Des Moines, Iowa to Berkeley Claiborne "Buck" Leachman and the former Cloris Wallace. Her father's family owned a lumber company, Leachman Lumber Co. She was of Czech (from her maternal grandmother) and English descent. After graduating from high school, Leachman attended Illinois State University and Northwestern University, where she majored in drama. After winning the title of Miss Chicago 1946 (as part of the Miss America pageant), she acted with the Des Moines Playhouse before moving to New York.

Leachman made her credited debut in 1948 in an episode of The Ford Theatre Hour (1948) and appeared in many television anthologies and series before becoming a regular on The Bob & Ray Show (1951) in 1952. Her movie debut was memorable, playing the doomed blonde femme fatale Christina Bailey in Robert Aldrich's classic noir Kiss Me Deadly (1955). Other than a role in Rod Serling's movie The Rack (1956) in support of Paul Newman, Leachman remained a television actress throughout the 1950s and the 1960s, appearing in only two movies during the latter decade, The Chapman Report (1962) and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969). Though she would win an Oscar for Peter Bogdanovich's adaptation of Larry McMurtry's The Last Picture Show (1971) and appear in three Mel Brooks movies, it was in television that her career remained and her fame was assured in the 1970s and into the second decade of the new millennium.

Leachman was nominated five times for an Emmy Award playing Phyllis Lindstrom, Mary Tyler Moore's landlady and self-described best friend on The Mary Tyler Moore Show (1970) and on the spin-off series Phyllis (1975). She won twice as Best Supporting Actress in a comedy for her "Mary Tyler Moore" gig and won a Golden Globe Award as a leading performer in comedy for "Phyllis", but her first Emmy Award came in the category Outstanding Single Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in 1973 for the television movie A Brand New Life (1973). She also won two Emmy Awards as a supporting player for Malcolm in the Middle (2000).

She was married to director-producer George Englund from 1953 to 1979. They had five children together. Cloris Leachman died of natural causes on January 27, 2021 in Encinitas, California.

Leonard Stone was born on 3 November 1923 in Salem, Oregon, USA. He was an actor, known for Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971), Soylent Green (1973) and I Spy (1965). He was married to Carole H. Kleinman. He died on 2 November 2011 in Encinitas, California, USA.

Ralph Manza was born on 1 December 1921 in San Francisco, California, USA. He was an actor and producer, known for Godzilla (1998), Get Shorty (1995) and Dave (1993). He was married to Catherine Antonette LaFata. He died on 31 January 2000 in Encinitas, California, USA.

Amy Milner was born on 2 July 1958 in Los Angeles, California, USA. She was an actress, known for Adam-12 (1968). She died on 18 December 2004 in Encinitas, California, USA.

Robert Douglas' real last name was Finlayson - a Scots name - and perhaps it was that side of him that meant to do what he wanted to do. The males of the family had followed the military for several generations - his father and grandfather were commanders of the West Sussex regiment - but he decided on another road for his career. He was interested in acting and showed enough talent and potential to debut on stage at 16 and enter theater training for two years at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London the next year. Using his given middle name as a professional surname, in 1930 he moved up to a feature role with an all-star cast in the London revival of "A Bill of Divorcement". Other choice roles followed quickly: "Kind Lady" with Sybil Thorndike and the "Last Enemy" with Laurence Olivier. Even then Douglas was destined for a trans-Atlantic career. At the end of that same year of 1930 he came to Broadway to do the American version of "Last Enemy" with Jessica Tandy. Still he was back in London in 1931 to open yet another page in his acting career with the potential to be found in film work. With a rather rugged, squared-off good looks and purposeful acting voice, he found further work in the movies - comedies at first. But he had less than a dozen roles through 1939, for he was pursuing yet another interest - and that on the other side of the stage with producing and directing plays in the West End beginning in 1932 at age 23.

The few film roles nevertheless kept ramping up in significance. By 1937 his first lead dramatic role in Torpedoed (1937) tapped him for a real adventure. Bergfilms or mountain films, being a heroic if emotional epitomizing of Teutonic spirit against stark but beautiful nature, had been popular in Germany through the later silent era largely through the significant talents of German geologist-turned-director Arnold Fanck. His influenced on others included one of his leading men, a young Austrian World War I veteran officer of mountain troops named Luis Trenker. Trenker had already starred in two Fanck mountain films and was the first leading man (1926) of the controversial Leni Riefenstahl, Fanck's muse - of sorts. Fanck did the screenplay of a dramatic interpretation of the 1865 race between England, Switzerland, and Italy to first climb the Matterhorn in Switzerland for a 1928 film directed by Italian actor-director Mario Bonnard with Trenker as the historical Italian competitor 'Jean-Antoine Carrel'. Trencker, a gifted sort of Renaissance man of many talents, turned to being director, writer, and producer as well in 1930. After several of his own Bergfilms and other efforts he decided to once again visit the Matterhorn subject in concert with British also actor-turned-director Milton Rosmer and then expatriate Hungarian writer Emeric Pressburger to do a British version of his German rendition of the drama which he called The Mountain Calls (1938). Trenker directed and co-starred as Carrel-once again-in his version, while he co-directed as alpine action supervisor and again played Carrel in the British version The Challenge (1938). Historically, the race was won by a little known young British mountaineer, 'Edward Whymper', and Douglas with a striking theatrical resemblance to Whymper got the part. Due to Trenker's expertise as a mountaineer, the climbing sequences are very realistic and even the somewhat over dramatic dialog is stirring. Of the two films fortunately Douglas was perhaps the best remembered performer, although the German version on a whole was the more even, largely due to Trenker's considerable abilities as the go-to guy for just about anything needed to put a film in the can.

For Douglas it was a busy 1939 with film work capped by his being one of the first British actors to enlist as World War II loomed. He became a Royal Navy pilot and would serve until 1946. He did one more British film and also produced, directed, and starred in "Lighten Our Darkness" on stage in London before heading over the Atlantic for good in 1947. He had been back to Broadway in 1931-32 and 1935 for two plays, the second, "Most of the Game", with his first wife, British actress Dorothy Hyson. And he had returned in 1942 for the musical "The Time, the Place, and the Girl". But now he had a Warner Bros. contract in hand and was on his way to a future in Hollywood. What followed was a few years of WB contract work that found Douglas the noble villain - and with his iron lipped scowl and a contrived harsh voice he could look any such part with a steady verve. He was first cast opposite a fast dissipating Errol Flynn, walking through the rather lackluster Adventures of Don Juan (1948). But he and Flynn got along fine and became friends and teamed again for Kim (1950), a much better film. A much more substantial role came to Douglas in the next year's The Fountainhead (1949), part of individualist Ayn Rand's corpus of heavy-handed hedonistic philosophy which amid the cast included vivacious-wholesome but downright sexy-newcomer Patricia Neal. With its dense and challenging dialog, Douglas considered it one of his favorite efforts. And there were other substantial amid many good efforts as Douglas moved into the 1950s and toward some freelance studio hopping. But certainly he was much in demand if not something of a fixture as the less than noble noble in such well known literary yarns as Ivanhoe (1952) and The Prisoner of Zenda (1952), and the concocted At Sword's Point (1952) all in one year.

By the mid 1950s he was spending half his time exploring acting on the small screen and like his now more modest movie parts as a more senior character actor. But Douglas was not one to waste time. He was noticeably absent from acting in 1956 for the very reason that he had returned to Broadway - not as an actor but as a director (and producer for one) of four original comedy plays through that year. Though he had occasional roles into the late 1970s, Douglas launched into an unusually prolific life as a TV director starting in 1960. As such he supervised the shooting of nearly 40 episodic series - a full spectrum of popular shows from his start with "Maverick" and the list of heartthrob private eye series, to TV playhouse productions, many other westerns, law and order fare, and varied dramas. In many cases he returned to do multiple episodes, and in fact he became a directorial regular (16 episodes) on the World War II drama "Twelve O'Clock High", during its sagging second and third seasons, no doubt his own air combat experience being a telling factor in his longevity. Douglas's one directorship on the big screen was for the British well regarded if economic spy thriller Night Train to Paris (1964).

Still active as a TV director in 1982, Douglas thereafter retired but continued to appear on TV, providing historical perspective of the movie past, one in particular being his remembrances of an old friend in the 1983 documentary "Errol Flynn: Portrait of a Swashbuckler". At nearly 90 years old Robert Douglas passed away after as thoroughly an engaging film life as could ever be imagined.

Patti Page was born Clara Ann Fowler in Oklahoma in 1927. She began her professional singing career at KTUL, a Tulsa radio station. Since the program was sponsored by Page Milk, she adopted the moniker Patti Page, and it stuck. Patti toured the US in the late 1940s with Jimmy Joy, and notably sang with the Benny Goodman band in Chicago. In 1950 she recorded "With My Eyes Wide Open I'm Dreaming", her first platinum-selling record. In 1951 her rendition of "The Tennessee Waltz" became the biggest hit of her career. It was #1 on the Billboard charts and stayed there for 30 weeks; over the years it would sell 10 million copies. Patti was the best-selling female vocalist of the 1950s, and was wildly popular all through the 1960s. She got national exposure on TV shows, appearing on such top-rated television programs as The Dean Martin Show (1965). In 1968 she recorded what some consider her signature song, "Have a Little Faith and Love Will Come to You." Patti continued to thrill fans for decades. In 1999 she received a Grammy for her "Live at Carnegie Hall" album, a compilation from her 50th-anniversary concert. Patti has millions of fans, and we can live by the words of her famous song: "Beyond the clouds the sky is always blue / Have a little faith and love will come to you."

Bobbi Jordan was born on 11 July 1937 in Hardensburg, Kentucky, USA. She was an actress, known for Joe and Sons (1975), Mame (1974) and The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (1964). She was married to William Jacobson. She died on 9 November 2012 in Encinitas, California, USA.

Joyce Holden was born on 1 September 1930 in Kansas City, Missouri, USA. She was an actress, known for The Milkman (1950), Private Eyes (1953) and The Werewolf (1956). She was married to David P. Mannhalter and Dok Stanford. She died on 21 January 2022 in Encinitas, California, USA.

Herschel Daugherty was born on 27 October 1910 in Lauramie, Indiana, USA. He was a director and actor, known for General Electric Theater (1953), Mildred Pierce (1945) and Star Trek (1966). He died on 5 March 1993 in Encinitas, California, USA.

Extremely handsome, juvenile lead of the silent era David Rollins was discovered as an extra and given a contract with Fox Films in 1927. He worked mostly in light comedies, frequently paired with Sue Carol (the future wife of Alan Ladd). While under contract to Fox he worked with many great directors just beginning their careers, including Howard Hawks, John Ford and George Stevens.

Few of his films survive today. The best-known is probably The Big Trail (1930), a full-length talkie directed by Raoul Walsh featuring John Wayne in his first starring role. Though beautifully photographed, the sound is rather rickety and the film was seen by relatively few people due to the fact that it was shot in 70mm, which few theaters at the time were equipped to show.

Rollins retired in the 1950s and spent the rest of his life traveling, raising dogs, volunteering at a local hospital and tending his citrus orchards in Encinitas, California. He was interviewed only once, by author Michael Ankerich, for his where-are-they-now-book, "Broken Silence."

Gil Rogers was born on 4 February 1934 in Lexington, Kentucky, USA. He was an actor, known for The Eden Myth (1999), Eddie Macon's Run (1983) and Cherry (1999). He was married to Margaret Hall and Juliet Ribet. He died on 2 March 2021 in Encinitas, California, USA.

Michael Hynson was born on 28 June 1942 in Cresent City, California, USA. He is known for The Endless Summer (1966), Gun Ho! (1963) and Ride on the Wild Side (1963). He was married to Melinda Merryweather. He died on 10 January 2025 in Encinitas, California, USA.

Margarita Fischer was born on 12 February 1886 in Missouri Valley, Iowa, USA. She was an actress and writer, known for Molly of the Follies (1919), A Midsummer's Love Tangle (1914) and The Merry Wives of Windsor (1910). She was married to Harry A. Pollard. She died on 11 March 1975 in Encinitas, California, USA.

Linda Lutz was born on 27 June 1947 in Los Angeles, California, USA. She was an actress, known for Space Jam (1996), Stormquest (1988) and Hard Time on Planet Earth (1989). She was married to Frank Thomas Lutz and Walter Leroy Smead Jr.. She died on 28 October 2020 in Encinitas, California, USA.

Hugh Martin was born on 11 August 1914 in Birmingham, Alabama, USA. He was a composer and writer, known for Meet Me in St. Louis (1944), Jurassic World (2015) and The Godfather (1972). He died on 11 March 2011 in Encinitas, California, USA.

Ivan Ditmars was born on 12 April 1907 in Olympia, Washington, USA. He was a composer and actor, known for Star Trek (1966), Star Trek Continues (2013) and Stars Over Hollywood (1950). He died on 10 September 1997 in Encinitas, California, USA.

Four-time Oscar nominee Dorothy Spencer was one of the versatile stalwarts of the Hollywood studio system. She began her career as a cutter with Fox and subsequently enjoyed a close collaboration with the independent producer Walter Wanger at Paramount (1936) and United Artists (1937-41). Her longest career spell was at 20th Century Fox, from 1943 to 1963, during which time her assignments ranged from war/action movies and gothic thrillers to large-scale Biblical epics shot in CinemaScope.

Testimony to the high level of competence and consistency of her work can be found in the frequency of her associations with prominent directors: Tay Garnett (Stand-In (1937), Trade Winds (1938), Eternally Yours (1939)); John Ford (Stagecoach (1939), My Darling Clementine (1946), What Price Glory (1952)); Ernst Lubitsch (To Be or Not to Be (1942), Heaven Can Wait (1943), Cluny Brown (1946)); Joseph L. Mankiewicz (Dragonwyck (1946), The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947), Cleopatra (1963)); Edward Dmytryk (Broken Lance (1954), The Left Hand of God (1955), The Young Lions (1958)); Henry Hathaway (Down to the Sea in Ships (1949), North to Alaska (1960), Circus World (1964)); and Mark Robson (Von Ryan's Express (1965), Valley of the Dolls (1967), Earthquake (1974)).

Spencer was at her best working on action subjects, her cutting instrumental to augmenting the director's work in creating or sustaining the desired level of suspense. Arguably, the most difficult task of her lengthy career was having to pare down the 70,000 feet of film shot for the epic production of "Cleopatra" to 'a mere' 22,000 feet. Spencer retired in 1979. Though the Oscar ultimately eluded her, she was awarded an American Cinema Editors Career Achievement Award in 1989. She was also presented with a 'Golden Scissors Award' for her outstanding work on the disaster epic "Earthquake".

William Wharton was born on 7 November 1925 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. He was a writer, known for Birdy (1984), A Midnight Clear (1992) and Dad (1989). He was married to Rosemary Henry. He died on 29 October 2008 in Encinitas, California, USA.

Ted Goetz was born on 25 April 1928 in New York, New York, USA. He was a producer, known for The Baltimore Bullet (1980). He died on 15 July 2012 in Encinitas, California, USA.

Rowland B. Wilson was born on 3 August 1930 in Dallas, Texas, USA. He is known for Hercules (1997), Aladdin (1992) and The Little Mermaid (1989). He was married to Suzanne Lemieux and Elaine Libman. He died on 28 June 2005 in Encinitas, California, USA.

Calvin Jackson was born on 26 May 1919 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. He was a composer and actor, known for The Unsinkable Molly Brown (1964), Thrill of a Romance (1945) and The Asphalt Jungle (1961). He died on 28 November 1985 in Encinitas, California, USA.

John M. Dwyer was born on 25 August 1935 in Detroit, Michigan, USA. He was a set decorator, known for Star Trek: First Contact (1996), Star Trek: Generations (1994) and Star Trek: Nemesis (2002). He died on 15 September 2018 in Encinitas, California, USA.

Walter Keane was born on 7 October 1915 in Lincoln, Nebraska, USA. He was married to Joan Mervin, Margaret Keane and Barbara Rowell Ingham. He died on 26 December 2000 in Encinitas, California, USA.

Jerome Rothenberg was born on 11 December 1931 in Bronx, New York City, New York, USA. He was married to Diane Brodatz. He died on 21 April 2024 in Encinitas, California, USA.

Annie Bornhurst was born on 28 November 1963 in Syracuse, New York, USA. She is known for Doctor Mordrid (1992), Trancers III (1992) and Supermarket Sweep (1990). She died on 8 December 2019 in Encinitas, California, USA.