Celebrity Full Names: Actresses - B
A list containing the full names of celebrities, actresses in particular. Click on a name to learn more about them. Enjoy!
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- Actress
- Soundtrack
Lauren Bacall was born Betty Joan Perske on September 16, 1924, in New York City. She was the daughter of Natalie Weinstein-Bacal, a Romanian Jewish immigrant, and William Perske, who was born in New Jersey, to Polish Jewish parents. Her family was middle-class, with her father working as a salesman and her mother as a secretary. They divorced when she was five and she rarely saw her father after that.
As a school girl, she originally wanted to be a dancer, but later switched gears to head into acting. She studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York, after attending She was educated at Highland Manor, a private boarding school in Tarrytown, New York (through the generosity of wealthy uncles), and then at Julia Richman High School, which enabled her to get her feet wet in some off-Broadway productions.
Out of school, she entered modeling and, because of her beauty, appeared on the cover of Harper's Bazaar, one of the most popular magazines in the US. The wife of famed director Howard Hawks spotted the picture in the publication and arranged with her husband to have Lauren take a screen test. As a result, which was entirely positive, she was given the part of Marie Browning in To Have and Have Not (1944), a thriller opposite Humphrey Bogart, when she was just 19 years old. This not only set the tone for a fabulous career but also one of Hollywood's greatest love stories (she married Bogart in 1945). It was also the first of several Bogie-Bacall films.
After 1945's Confidential Agent (1945), Lauren received second billing in The Big Sleep (1946) with Bogart. The mystery, in the role of Vivian Sternwood Rutledge, was a resounding success. Although she was making one film a year, each production would be eagerly awaited by the public. In 1947, again with her husband, Lauren starred in the thriller Dark Passage (1947). The film kept movie patrons on the edge of their seats. The following year, she starred with Bogart, Edward G. Robinson, and Lionel Barrymore in Key Largo (1948). The crime drama was even more of a nail biter than her previous film.
In 1950, Lauren starred in Bright Leaf (1950), a drama set in 1894. It was a film of note because she appeared without her husband - her co-star was Gary Cooper. In 1953, Lauren appeared in her first comedy as Schatze Page in How to Marry a Millionaire (1953). The film, with co-stars Marilyn Monroe and Betty Grable, was a smash hit all across the theaters of America.
After filming Designing Woman (1957), which was released in 1957, Humphrey Bogart died on January 14 from throat cancer. Devastated at being a widow, Lauren returned to the silver screen with The Gift of Love (1958) in 1958 opposite Robert Stack. The production turned out to be a big disappointment. Undaunted, Lauren moved back to New York City and appeared in several Broadway plays to huge critical acclaim. She was enjoying acting before live audiences and the audiences in turn enjoyed her fine performances.
Lauren was away from the big screen for five years, but she returned in 1964 to appear in Shock Treatment (1964) and Sex and the Single Girl (1964). The latter film was a comedy starring Henry Fonda and Tony Curtis. In 1966, Lauren starred in Harper (1966) with Paul Newman and Julie Harris, which was one of former's signature films.
Alternating her time between films and the stage, Lauren returned in 1974's Murder on the Orient Express (1974). The film, based on Agatha Christie's best-selling book was a huge hit. It also garnered Ingrid Bergman her third Oscar. Actually, the huge star-studded cast helped to ensure its success. Two years later, in 1976, Lauren co-starred with John Wayne in The Shootist (1976). The film was Wayne's last - he died from cancer in 1979. In late 1979, Lauren appeared with her good friend, James Garner, in a double episode, Lions, Tigers, Monkeys and Dogs (1979), of his Rockford Files series.
For Lauren's next film role, she appeared in a large ensemble film, HealtH (1980), which again paired her with James Garner, and in 1981, she played an actress being stalked by a crazed admirer in The Fan (1981). The thriller was absolutely fascinating with Lauren in the lead role, again playing opposite her good friend James Garner, making three straight screen roles with Lauren opposite James Garner. After that production, Lauren was away from films again, this time for seven years. In the interim, she again appeared on the stages of Broadway. When she returned, it was for the filming of 1988's Appointment with Death (1988) and Mr. North (1988). After 1990's Misery (1990) and several made for television films, Lauren appeared in 1996's My Fellow Americans (1996), a comedy romp with Jack Lemmon and James Garner as two ex-presidents and their escapades. In 1997, Lauren appeared in The Mirror Has Two Faces (1996), in one of the best roles of her later career, opposite Barbra Streisand, where Lauren was nominated as Best Actress in a Supporting Role by both the Academy and the Golden Globes, winning the Golden Globe for the role.
Despite her age and failing health, she made a small-scale comeback in the English-language dub of Hayao Miyazaki's Howl's Moving Castle (2004) ("Howl's Moving Castle," based on the young-adult novel by Diana Wynne Jones) as the Witch of the Waste, and several other roles through 2008, but thereafter acting endeavors for the beloved actress became increasingly rare. Lauren Bacall died on 12 August 2014, five weeks short of her 90th birthday.Betty Joan Perske
BJP- Actress
- Producer
Morena Baccarin was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to actress Vera Setta and journalist Fernando Baccarin. Her uncle was actor Ivan Setta. She is of Italian as well as Lebanese and Portuguese/Brazilian descent. She moved to New York at the age of 10, when her father was transferred there. She attended the LaGuardia High School of Music and Performing Arts and then the Juilliard School.
Staying in New York she worked in the theater, notably in the Central Park production of Anton Chekhov's "The Seagull" where she was also Natalie Portman's understudy, and also appeared in several movies. After making Roger Dodger (2002), she moved to Los Angeles where she came to the attention of Joss Whedon, who cast her in his short-lived cult sci-fi show Firefly (2002). Since then she has rarely been off our TV screens.Morena Silva de Vaz Setta Baccarin
MSdVSB- Actress
- Soundtrack
Barbara Goldbach was born to Howard and Marjorie Goldbach in Queens, New York. Her father was a policeman. She met her first husband Augusto Gregorini in New York while she worked as a model and he was visiting from Italy for business tourism in 1966. Barbara followed him to Italy to be with him and they married in 1968. They had two children, Francesca Gregorini and Gianni Gregorini. During Gianni's birth, he had the umbilical cord wrapped around his neck, nearly choking him, and was diagnosed with cerebral palsy, although a later operation improved his condition.
In 1975, Barbara and Augusto Gregorini separated when she moved to Los Angeles, California. The couple separated in 1978, sharing custody of their two children. Barbara met Ringo Starr on the set of the comedy Caveman (1981), and they became a couple during the filming. Ringo and Barbara were on a holiday in December 1980 when her daughter called to inform them that John Lennon had been shot. Ringo and Barbara went to New York City to console Yoko Ono and Sean Lennon. Ringo and Barbara married on April 27, 1981.
Her acting career began in Italy, where she played Nausicaa in Odissea (1968), a television adaptation of Homer's epic poem "The Odyssey", directed by Franco Rossi and produced by Dino De Laurentiis. Bach co-starred with two other "Bond Girls", Claudine Auger and Barbara Bouchet in the mystery Black Belly of the Tarantula (1971) and had small roles in other Italian films. In 1977, she played Russian secret agent Anya Amasova in the James Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me (1977). The following year, she appeared in the war film Force 10 from Navarone (1978), which also starred Robert Shaw and Harrison Ford.Barbara Goldbach
BG- Actress
- Soundtrack
Catherine Bach is an American actress. She is known for playing Daisy Duke in the television series The Dukes of Hazzard and Margo Dutton in African Skies. In 2012, she joined the cast of the CBS soap opera The Young and the Restless as Anita Lawson.Catherine Bachman
CB- Actress
- Producer
Internationally recognized actress, Pamela Bach-Hasselhoff is the recipient of Germany's Otto Award (in recognition of her status as one of Germany's favorite actresses). Pamela is among just a handful of actresses who have done two television series, concurrently. This multi-talented actress learned how to balance her successful career as well as her personal life. She starred in the motion picture, Castle Rock (2000), with Ernest Borgnine and Alana Austin, Wolf Larson and Frank Gorshin for "TAG Entertainment" (Show Time), under the direction of Craig Clyde. Pamela starred in the comedy, "The Sicilian Bachelor", as "Millian Black" at the American Renegade Theatre in the NoHo Arts District of Los Angeles.
Pamela is best-known for her roles on Baywatch (1989) and Sirens (1993). Pamela managed to create two significant different characters and make them believable on these two series for several seasons (10 years on "Baywatch"). As "Kaye Morgan", she portrayed a cafe owner on "Baywatch" who stays in the mix of things and always lends a helping hand when she feels the necessity. On "Sirens", she portrayed "Ellen Baskin", the top ranking police psychologist, candid and to the point. Up until the final season ago, she was a frequent flyer between the beaches of Los Angeles, to the city of Montreal.
She starred in the motion picture, More Than Puppy Love (2002) (Show Time), that was shot entirely on location in Kansas City, with Diane Ladd, and in a motion picture, Route 66 (1998), in which she starred as the Stepmother, with an all-star cast that includes Diane Ladd, Alana Austin, Richard Moll, Mat McCoy and Bruce Weitz, under the direction of Steve Austin and written and produced by Shauna Leigh Austin.
Pamela made her motion picture debut when legendary director Francis Ford Coppola went to Oklahoma to shoot the hit film, Rumble Fish (1983), co-starring Matt Dillon, Vincent Spano and Mickey Rourke. He auditioned the locals for the other roles and she was hired. Encouraged by professionals about her abilities, she decided to relocate to Los Angeles. To make an income and to continue her education while pursuing her career, Pamela worked as a page on several popular hit series. After a year in California, she moved to New York to pursue her first love, the theatre. Immediately she signed with the Ford Petite Modeling Agency and, shortly thereafter, became one of the top petite models in the Big Apple, and soon adorned the covers of magazines. She co-starred off-Broadway in "Crimes of the Heart" and continued to study and act in various plays for the next two years. Comedy became one of Pamela's foundations, she worked with Joe Piscopo for over two years which included: stage, concert and night club appearances, television specials and guest appearances on the major talk show. She was polishing her craft as Piscopo's side-kick. Then, she landed a special with George Burns, on her own. With Burns, Pamela learned several tricks of the trade and fine-tuned her timing.
Returning to Los Angeles, she accomplished becoming a working actress, guest-starring on several TV shows, specials, MOWs, including George Burns Comedy Week (1985), Cheers (1982), The Young and the Restless (1973), The Fall Guy (1981), Superboy (1988), The Joe Piscopo New Jersey Special (1986), True Confessions (1981), T.J. Hooker (1982), Knight Rider (1982), etc. She starred in several plays, including "Dora", "I Remember Mama" and "Lilion", to name a few. Pamela co-starred in the motion picture, The Appointment (1982) and The Men's Club (1986). Hailing from Tulsa, Oklahoma, she is the middle child of three sisters. Her mother and stepfather were ideal role models and unique parents; they raised 37 foster children throughout the years. Actually, Pamela's performing debut occurred at age nine, when she sang "Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head" and realized that she loved the stage. Pamela completed two years as an engineering major at Northeastern Oklahoma Junior College and she is an accredited lifeguard, an avid diver (certified scuba diver), skier as well as a top marksman.
Pamela is a working actress/producer... also being a mother of two daughters... as well as president of her own production company.Pamela Ann Weissenbach
PAW- Actress
- Stunts
- Additional Crew
Susan Backlinie was born on 1 September 1946 in Ventura, California, USA. She is an actress, known for Jaws (1975), 1941 (1979) and The Great Muppet Caper (1981). She is married to William Seale. She was previously married to Monty Cox.Susan Jane Swindall
SJS- Georgia Backus was born on 13 October 1900 in Columbus, Ohio, USA. She was an actress, known for Citizen Kane (1941), Cause for Alarm! (1951) and Suddenly It's Spring (1947). She died on 7 September 1983 in Sun City, California, USA.Georgia Belden Backis
GBB - Showman Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. once billed her as "the most beautiful girl in the world". Burlesque dancer Faith Bacon, and not the much better known Sally Rand who worked for Bacon in the early 1930s, is genuinely considered the lady who originated the "fan dance" during "The Jazz Age".
The Los Angeles-born dancer was born Frances Yvonne Bacon on July 19, 1910. Her career began on the Paris stage (she had no formal dance training) in one of Maurice Chevalier's popular revue shows. She returned to the States, specifically the East Coast, where the fetching 18-year-old wavy blonde won a chorine spot for "Earl Carroll's Vanities of 1928" and returned for his 1930 show. It was she who suggested to Carroll to allow her to undress all the way during the show (save some teasing ostrich features and a smoky spotlight) and, thus, introducing the art of the fan dance. Other shows also included "Fioretta" 1929, "Earl Carroll's Sketch Book of 1929," "Earl Carrol''s Sketch Book of 1930" and the Ziegfeld Follies of 1931".
Elsewhere, Faith took her scantily-clad act to the Chicago World's Fair in the mid 1930s where Sally Rand, now infamous for her own fan dance act, also performed, and the two rivals "competed" with their respective shows. At a 1936 performance at the Chicago State-Lake Theatre, Faith crashed through the glass box she was performing in during the show. Covered in blood, she collapsed then and there and spent a month in the hospital. The accident left her with deep, ugly scars on her legs. It was this terrible misfortune that triggered Bacon's slow but firm decline.
Faith's film work was very brief. She made her debut in the secondary role of Maxine in the "poverty row" crime drama Prison Train (1938) starring Fred Keating and "Citizen Kane" co-star Dorothy Comingore (who was billed, at the time, as "Linda Winters") and that was it! Other than starring in two short, cheap, grainy burlesque films, Dance of Shame (1942) and A Lady with Fans (1942), in which she demonstrated her art of fan dancing, Faith was pretty much dismissed as a controversial specialty act and was not seen on film again. Her later on-the-road engagements increasingly digressed in quality and amounted to performances in carnivals, dives and strip joints.
In 1940, Faith had to have major surgery for a glandular problem. For the rest of the decade, she was plagued by this and other illnesses, which left her so drained physically, mentally and financially that she attempted suicide with an overdose of pills in 1954. Although the struggling entertainer survived that attempt, she succeeded two years later when on September 27, 1956, she threw herself out of a third-story Chicago hotel window. She died later that evening from a fractured skull and perforated lung.Frances Yvonne Bacon
FYB - Actress
- Producer
Sosie Bacon was born on 15 March 1992. She is an actress and producer, known for Smile (2022), Mare of Easttown (2021) and Loverboy (2005).Sosie Ruth Bacon
SRB- Maxine Bahns was born in 1971 in Vermont, the daughter of a German-American father and a Chinese-Brazilian mother. Maxine left home at 16 and traveled to Barcelona, Valencia, Paris and Rome. Returning to New York, she attended NYU, where she majored in Latin and Greek language and literature, also attending acting classes at Three Arts Studios. During this time, she auditioned for Edward Burns' The Brothers McMullen (1995) and was cast as the female lead opposite Edward Burns. Over the next few years, she has appeared in various low budget independent films, such as She's the One (1996), Dangerous Curves (2000), Cutaway (2000), Vice (2000), and Spin Cycle (2000).
On moving to Los Angeles, Maxine became involved in triathlons and, in 2001, she competed in the Hawaii Ironman Championships. She has also competed in numerous other triathlons, such as the Wildflower 1/2 Ironman and the Keauhou 1/2 Ironman. She has appeared on the covers of Runner's World, Triathlete Magazine, and Fit magazine.Maxine Lee Bahns
MLB - Actress
- Writer
- Soundtrack
Her father Joseph was a minister and her mother was named Ella Mae. Her birth name was Pearly Mae but her parents anticipated she would be a boy and when a girl was born she was nicknamed "Dickie". Her brother was entertainer Bill Bailey (1912-1978). She spent her early life in Washington DC where she received her early education. Bailey frequently appeared in the Old Howard theater in downtown Washington. As a young woman she toured the Pennsylvania mining towns as a dancer and later as a singer in Vaudeville. She starred in the film St. Louis Blues opposite Nat King Cole, which was the biography of W.C. Handy. Her greatest theater role was in the Broadway musical "Hello Dolly".Pearl Mae Bailey
PMB- Actress
- Writer
- Producer
Samantha Ann Bailey was born in California. She started modeling at the age of 2 months in a local scholarship pageant. By 16 months, Samantha was performing in local dance shows with her aunts. At age 3, she won the Little Miss & Mister Hawaiian Tropic West Coast title and did modeling for Hawaiian Tropic and Hollywood Babe clothing. Samantha was always putting on a show for others. She loved performing and being the center of attention.
Samantha received her first Honda 50cc Dirt Bike at age 3. According to Samantha, that was the "best present ever" until her little sister, Brianna, was born in 2005, then she was the "best present ever". She loves supercross and regularly goes dirt bike riding with her family. Samantha is currently working on teaching Brianna how to ride. Samantha started Kindergarten at age 4 and was reading before she turned 4 1/2. Samantha is extremely bright and entered the 3rd grade in August 2008, a full year ahead of schedule. Her favorite subjects are Art, Science & Math.
In 2006, she met Nelson Parks from The ESI Network. She was invited in for a meeting and within a week, she was signed with ESI for management and Amsel, Eisenstadt & Fraizer for theatrical & commercial representation. Shortly after that she was signed with Colleen Cler for print representation. Since then, she has done print work for companies such as Disney, Educational Insights, TeeTots, as well as many others. Samantha can also been seen in a national Lowe's commercial, the movie "The Hottie and the Nottie", "NCIS" - Angel of Death and her latest role as Young Olive Snook on ABC's "Pushing Daisies". Samantha joined the Screen Actors Guild in 2007.
Over the past 2 years, Samantha has been involved with raising money for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. She has attended several of the Los Angeles, Santa Monica & Oxnard JDRF walks. This year, she designed a t-shirt drawing to wear at the walk and a coloring book for the kids at the walk.
Samantha is a very outgoing, articulate little girl who is full of personality. She loves telling jokes and making others laugh. She has a strong passion for acting and loves entertaining others. She is definitely one to watch!Samantha Ann Bailey
SAB- Actress
- Director
- Soundtrack
Adrienne Eliza Bailon was born on October 24, 1983 in New York City, New York to Nilda Felix & Freddy Bailon. She was raised by her parents & her stepfather Joe Felix. She has a sister named Claudette, who's 3 years older. When they were younger, they would sing for family & friends at home. They knew that singing was what they wanted to do when they grew up. Her major breakthrough occurred 1 fateful day in 1999. She was singing w/ her church at Madison Square Garden when Ricky Martin walked through the doors. He asked that the 4 best singers from her choir be chosen to sing backup for him at his concert that night. She was 1 of those singers. Although this was exciting, her real breakthrough came when she was asked to join the R&B group 3 Little Women along w/ Naturi Naughton & Kiely Williams. Its self-titled debut"3LW was released in 2000 & went double platinum. A week before the release of its 2nd album A Girl Can Mack, Naturi Naughton left the group. The members of now include Adrienne, Kiely Williams & Jessica Benson.Adrienne Eliza Bailon
AEB- Actress
- Soundtrack
Barbara Bain was born in Chicago, graduating from the University of Illinois with a Bachelor's Degree in Sociology. She then relocated to New York City where she gained work as a dancer and high-fashion model. Ms. Bain studied with Martha Graham, permanently cementing her love of dance; however, it was with Lee Strasberg at the prestigious Actors Studio that she discovered her true first love - acting. She is probably best known for her work in the landmark television series Mission: Impossible (1966), created by Bruce Geller, where she created the pivotal role of Impossible Missions Force Agent "Cinnamon Carter", and, in the process, became the first actress in the history of television to receive three consecutive Emmy Awards for Best Dramatic Actress. Ms. Bain followed with the role of "Dr. Helena Russell" in the now classic British syndicated science fiction television series Space: 1999 (1975), created by Gerry Anderson and Sylvia Anderson. Her stage work has garnered her Los Angeles Critic's Circle and DramaLogue Awards for her work on Arthur Kopit's "Wings", Samuel Beckett's "Happy Days" and Eugène Ionesco's "The Chairs". Ms. Bain has worked on behalf of numerous charitable causes and is the founder of the Screen Actors Guild's "BookPals" Program which currently has some 300 of her colleagues reading to children in Los Angeles schools. Following the success of the program there, she helped the program to develop in other major cities throughout North America.Millicent Fogel
MF- Actress
- Soundtrack
Fay Bainter's career began as a child performer in 1898. For some time, she was a member of the traveling cast of the Morosco Stock Company in Los Angeles. In 1912, she made her Broadway debut in 'The Rose of Panama', but this and her subsequent play 'The Bridal Path' (1913), were conspicuous failures. She continued in stock and, after forming an association with David Belasco, took another swing at Broadway. She had her first hit with a dynamic performance, which established her as major theatrical star, as Ming Toy in 'East is West', at the Astor Theatre (1918-1920). Alternating between comedy and melodrama, Fay then shone in 'The Enemy' (1925-26) with Walter Abel and gave an outstanding performance of mid-life crisis as the desperate Fran Dodsworth ('Dodsworth',1934-35), opposite Walter Huston as her husband Sam. Fay never had the chance to recreate her stage role on screen - Ruth Chatterton got the part instead. At the same time, now aged 41, she was offered a role in her first motion picture, This Side of Heaven (1934). Co-starring opposite Lionel Barrymore, this was the first of many thoughtful, understanding wives, aunts and mothers she was to play over the next twenty years.
Of stocky build, with expressive eyes and a warm, slightly smoky voice, Fay rarely essayed unsympathetic or hard-boiled characters, with the exception of her Oscar-nominated dowager in The Children's Hour (1961). While not often top-billed, her name remained consistently high in the list of credits throughout her career. Critics applauded her sterling performances in productions like Make Way for Tomorrow (1937) and Quality Street (1937), as Katharine Hepburn's excitable spinster sister. Fay won the Academy Award as Best Supporting Actress for the movie Jezebel (1938). As Bette Davis' stern, reproving Aunt Belle, she excelled in a somewhat meatier role than the genteel or fluttery ladies she had previously been engaged to portray. That same year, she was also nominated (as Best Actress) for her housekeeper, Hannah Parmalee, in White Banners (1938), but lost to Bette Davis. Fay enhanced many more films with her presence during the 1940's, notably as Mrs. Elvira Wiggs, in Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch (1942), Merle Oberon's eccentric aunt from the bayou in Dark Waters (1944) and Danny Kaye's mother in The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1947). From the 1950's, she alternated stage with acting on television. Her last role of note was as Mary Tyrone in Eugene O'Neill's 'Long Day's Journey into Night', on tour with the National Company in 1958.Fay Okell Bainter
FOB- Actress
- Additional Crew
Diora Baird is an actress and former model. Born in Miami, Florida, she first entered into acting after her mother enrolled her into acting class. She had the dream of becoming an actress from her early childhood. To pursue the career in acting she moved to Los Angeles when she was only 17. She worked various jobs including waitress before entering the modeling industry, garnering fame when she appeared on the cover of Playboy magazine in the August 2005 issue.Diora Lynn Baird
DLB- Actress
- Additional Crew
- Stunts
After graduating from Georgetown University, she ended up in Los Angeles, California. Baker took a six-week "Acting for Commercials" course at Tepper Gallegos Casting, where she was introduced to her future agent, Steve Simon. Taylor also studied scene study in class mentored by Bobby Shaw Chance. She was signed on by Arlene Thornton's voice-over agency and then started voice acting for commercials and television.
Her first on-screen appearance was a small role on General Hospital in 1997. After graduating from DW Brown's studio, she auditioned for a role in the 1998 feature film Pleasantville. Barbara Harris introduced Baker to Nancy Meyers, who hired Baker as an "inner voice" actress on What Women Want. Baker has been working exclusively as a voice actress since 2003.
Besides from film and television, Baker has appeared in several playsAndrea Elizabeth Taylor
AET- Actress
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Becky Ann Baker was born on 17 February 1953 in Fort Knox, Kentucky, USA. She is an actress and producer, known for A Simple Plan (1998), Men in Black (1997) and Spider-Man 3 (2007). She has been married to Dylan Baker since 6 September 1987. They have one child.Rebecca Gelke
RG- Actress
- Writer
- Producer
Blanche Baker is an actress of stage, screen and television. Born Blanche Garfein in New York, her mother is actress Carroll Baker, who won a Best Actress Oscar nomination for Baby Doll (1956), several months after baby Blanche arrived. Her father is stage director Jack Garfein, who later went on to direct movies and teach acting.
After attending Wellesley College, she took her mother's surname and made her television debut in the miniseries Holocaust (1978), for which she won an Emmy Award. Baker made her movie debut in The Seduction of Joe Tynan (1979), an A-List production featuring Alan Alda at the height of his popularity and another "Holocaust" co-star at the start of her career, Meryl Streep. She then appeared as the Holy Mother in the TV movie, Mary and Joseph: A Story of Faith (1979).
Then came "Lolita."
In 1980-81, the 24-year-old Baker originated the role of the preteen "nymphet" loved by a pedophile in Edward Albee's stage adaption of Nabokov's classic novel. The show was picketed during out-of-town tryouts and in New York by feminists outraged by the show's depiction of pedophilia. More importantly, the show was pilloried by outraged critics in its out-of-town tryouts, giving "Lolita" a bad word of mouth.
After 31 previews, the troubled production opened on Broadway on March 19, 1981 and closed after only 12 performances.
She never appeared on Broadway again, despite critics calling her performance "breathtaking" and "beguiling."
Blanche Baker has continued to work steadily in television and on the silver screen but has never again approached the heights she did in her early twenties.Blanche Garfein
BG- Actress
- Producer
- Production Manager
Actress with a notable career in films and television. Born and raised in Hollywood, she moved to New York at eighteen to study acting with Charles Conrad and ballet with Nina Fonaroff. She continued her training in Los Angeles at the Estelle Harman Workshop, securing a contract with Twentieth Century Fox. Baker's first film assignment was a true prestige picture: legendary director George Stevens cast her as Margot Frank, older sister of Anne, in The Diary of Anne Frank (1959). Baker remained at Fox as a contract player performing in films such as Journey to the Center of the Earth (1959), The Best of Everything (1959) and Nine Hours to Rama (1963). After her contract ended, she worked on a pair of distinguished projects at Universal Studios: Mirage (1965) with Gregory Peck and Marnie (1964) for director Alfred Hitchcock.
Baker was also a reliable performer in episodic television. She produced sensitive, affecting work in Rod Serling's touching They're Tearing Down Tim Riley's Bar/The Last Laurel (1971) and, in a colorful turn as an unstable dipsomaniac, in Last Salute to the Commodore (1976).
While continuing to perform, Baker moved into producing small, independent films such as Portrait of Grandpa Doc (1977) with director Randal Kleiser and Never Never Land (1980) with Petula Clark, and larger projects such as the Emmy-nominated television miniseries adaptation of Barbara Taylor Bradford's A Woman of Substance (1984) with Deborah Kerr.
More recently, she distinguished herself essaying the role of clan matriarch Rose Kennedy in the CBS miniseries Jackie Bouvier Kennedy Onassis (2000) and performed memorably with Anthony Hopkins in The Silence of the Lambs (1991) as the distraught Senator Ruth Martin and, with Jim Carrey and Matthew Broderick, in The Cable Guy (1996).
In 2005, she acted with Frank Langella in the HBO series Unscripted (2005) directed by George Clooney. She also teaches acting courses in the School of Motion Pictures, Television, and Acting at the Academy of Art University, San Francisco.Diane Carol Baker
DCB- Fay Baker was born on 31 January 1917 in New York City, New York, USA. She was an actress, known for Notorious (1946), The House on Telegraph Hill (1951) and Deadline - U.S.A. (1952). She was married to Arthur Weiss. She died on 8 December 1987 in Sleepy Hollow, New York, USA.Fay Schwager
FS - Josephine Baker is known for Saybrook: The Tully Girls (2011).Freda Josephine McDonald
FJM - Actress
- Producer
For someone who has made an award-winning impact in all three mediums (stage, film and TV), actress Kathy Baker has been strangely denied all-out stardom, yet continues to demonstrate her versatility in whatever material comes her way.
The comely blonde was born Katherine Whitton Baker in Midland, Texas, to Helene Andree Baker (nee Whitton) and John Seawand Baker, a geologist and educator who taught at both Princeton and the University of Paris. Raised in New Mexico, she first took to the stage at age 10. Influenced by her French-born mother, Kathy attended the University of California at Berkeley and received her Bachelor of Arts degree in French in 1977, then went to Paris to study haute cuisine at the famed Cordon Bleu. She returned to the States to work as a pastry chef, but discovered that she still wanted to act and eventually joined San Francisco's Magic Theatre, where she appeared in the play "The Man Who Killed the Buddha." Her performance drew the immediate attention of playwright Sam Shepard.
1983 was a banner year for Kathy. At the Magic Theatre, wherein she used the stage name of Kathy Whitton Baker, Shepard cast her in a leading role in one of his new plays, "Fool for Love." The premiere garnered exceptional notices and the play (and Kathy) went to New York. She and co-star Ed Harris, won 1984 Obie Awards for their rich performances, as did playwright Shepard for directing. The production itself won the Obie for "Best New American Play." That same year Kathy made a strong movie debut co-starring in The Right Stuff (1983) as the wife of astronaut Alan Shepard (played by Scott Glenn).
Displaying an attractive intelligence in her performances, Kathy continued to make strides on the New York stage both in 1984's "Desire Under the Elms" and as a replacement for the Lemon character in the Obie-winning "Aunt Dan and Lemon" at Joseph Papp's Shakespeare Festival in 1986. Later in the decade, both Kathy and Morgan Freeman stole the thunder right from under star Christopher Reeve in the tense film drama Street Smart (1987) with Kathy delivering a grim, heartfelt performance as an ill-fated hooker to Freeman's feral pimp. Both performances delivered a one-two punch and were applauded for their shocking realism. Each received their share of awards and plaudits; Kathy nabbed both the National Society of Critics and Boston Society of Critics awards, but was shamefully snubbed when it came to the Oscar race (Freeman was nominated, but lost).
Throughout the rest of the decade Kathy continued to give spot-on performances in such quality films as Clean and Sober (1988), as a recovering addict; Permanent Record (1988), as a wife whose son commits suicide; Jacknife (1989), in which she was reunited with Ed Harris as the put-upon, plain-Jane sister of an alcoholic Vietnam vet; and Edward Scissorhands (1990) as a seemingly model housewife who has an uncontrollably flirtatious nature. Top-flight stardom seemed to be almost a given.
With the new decade, however, the movie roles tendered out to her became less frequent or noteworthy so Kathy decided to focus outside her medium of choice and actively search for TV roles. The results were customarily expert. In the slightly quirky Picket Fences (1992), Kathy found a perfect fit taking on the role of small town mother and doctor Jill Brock. Running for four seasons, she was nominated for an Emmy each year and took home the trophy three of those four times for "Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series".
Into the millennium Kathy has maintained consistency with quality roles in such releases as The Glass House (2001), Assassination Tango (2002), Cold Mountain (2003), Nine Lives (2005), All the King's Men (2006), The Jane Austen Book Club (2007), Miss Nobody (2010), Seven Days in Utopia (2011), Saving Mr. Banks (2013), The Ballad of Lefty Brown (2017) and The Art of Racing in the Rain (2019). On TV she and Helen Mirren picked up supporting Emmy nods in the bittersweet Door to Door (2002), with Emmy-winning William H. Macy starring as a man with cerebral palsy.
In 2001 she joined the cast of Boston Public (2000) as a manipulative mom (another Emmy nomination). Some of those episodes were directed by Steven Robman, whom she married in June of 2003. Kathy has two children from a previous marriage.
In addition to guest spots on such TV series as "Fathers and Son," "Nip/Tuck," "Gilmore Girls, "Grey's Anatomy," "Saving Grace," "Medium" (recurring), and "Criminal Minds," she had series roles in Against the Wall (2011), I'm Sorry (2017) and The Ranch (2016).Katherine Whitton Baker
KWB- Miss Baker was born on July 15, 1977, in Anaheim, California, and raised in Riverside, California, the younger of two children. Her older brother has been her biggest influence in life, teaching her snowboarding and soccer at a young age, sports she continues to enjoy to this day. She also liked more girly pursuits as well, such as ballet and tap dancing. A good student, she graduated from high school a year early as an A student, then pursued an Associates in Science from a local junior college. Wanting to get into show business, and with a love for performing in front of an audience, Kitana began working as a showgirl in local clubs, eventually winning Local Showgirl of the Year 1998 and National Showgirl of the Year 1999 awards along the way.
She also began modeling, posing for various magazines and web sites, and caught the attention of Playboy magazine in February 2001. Playboy hired Miss Baker to work on a TV show for their network called 'Strip Search' and featured her in 'Playboy's College Girls', 'Playboy's Wet & Wild' and 'Playboy's Book of Lingerie' special edition books, as well as their 'Playboy's College Girls' calendar, where she was Miss December. The producers of the show 'Night Calls 411' took an interest in her, and given that she already worked for Playboy - the channel that airs the 'Night Calls' show - signed her on immediately, and she's been on every episode since. She also continued working on other projects for Playboy, including videos and regularly appearing on other shows on the network.
In the summer of 2002, it was announced that Brooke Burke would be giving up her hostessing duties on the E! show 'Wild On'. Feeling that she would be a perfect fit for the travelogue/bikini-oriented show, Miss Baker tried out for the job and ended up as one of the twelve finalists in the 'Wild On! Wild Off' contest. Though the hostessing role ultimately went to Cindy Taylor, E! was impressed enough with Miss Baker to feature her in segment of the show taped in San Diego, for the episode titled 'Wild on Wants You: The West Coast,' and returned again to take part in 'Wild On! H20.'
Wanting to make her way into a more mainstream acting career, Kitana began taking acting lessons at the South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa, California, and has landed several roles in both independent feature films and a few major ones. She can be seen in the opening trailer for Auto Focus (2002) a film starring Willem Dafoe and Greg Kinnear, and has a small role in the Universal film _Intolerable (2003)_. Also, Miss Baker has been seen in television shows such as 'Fast Lane', 'Big Shot', 'The Test' and 'The Man Show', where she appeared in two skits ('Bosom Springs' and 'Women in Sports'). She can still be seen live each month on 'Night Calls 411' every second and fourth Wednesday. Other projects she's been involved with include performing in music videos by artists such as Tommy Lee, Sugar Ray, Offspring, Moby, Brian McKnight, Shaggy, Mack 10 and DragPipe. Kitana also plans to continue modeling for the time being.Christi Michell Josenhans
CMJ - Actress
- Soundtrack
La Vern Baker was born on 11 November 1929 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. She was an actress, known for Angel Heart (1987), The Departed (2006) and Uncle Buck (1989). She was married to Slappy White and Eugene Williams. She died on 10 March 1997 in New York City, New York, USA.Delores LaVern Baker
DLB- Born in Klamath Falls, Oregon, and raised in Portland, Brenda Bakke moved to Los Angeles to study acting at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. She began to work in the mid-1980s on episodes of television series and playing minor characters in low budget comedies. She appeared in the Charlie Sheen film Hot Shots! Part Deux (1993).
During the 1990s, she appeared in such mainstream Hollywood films as Under Siege 2: Dark Territory (1995) and L.A. Confidential (1997). The latter received nine Academy Award nominations, winning two Oscars. She landed a role on American Gothic (1995). In the 2000s, she appeared in such films as The Quickie (2001) and Moving August (2002). She had guest roles on episodes of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (2000), NYPD Blue (1993), The Mentalist (2008), and Supernatural (2005). In 2015, she began appearing in the recurring role of Virginia on If Loving You Is Wrong (2014). In 2016-17, she appeared in guest star roles on Heartbeat (2016), Grey's Anatomy (2005), and Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders (2016).Brenda Jean Bakke
BJB - Judith Baldwin was born in Washington, District of Columbia, USA. She is an actress, known for Pretty Woman (1990), The Stepford Wives (1975) and No Small Affair (1984).Judith Lee Baldwin
JLB - She was born Sally Bliss in Carthage, New York. Her father had moved the family from Ohio and was a science teacher at Carthage High School. In 1927, the family moved to Amityville, Long Island. She attended drama school in Rhode Island and at age 17, she was invited to Hollywood by Howard Hughes, who she did not meet until about a year later. She signed with his studio and dated Hughes a few times as well. He also had her stage name changed to Carla Balenda and this is how she was credited until 1957, when she decided to change it back to her real name. Just before she was 19, she married a WWII pilot, John Martin, and they stayed together for fifteen years, having two boys from the union before divorcing in 1959. Six years later, she married prominent California attorney and author William Rutter, who wanted her to be home with her children. She left acting and later became involved in volunteer charity work. Her husband passed away in 2012. She has thirteen grandchildren and six great-grandchildren and as of 2021, she was residing in the Los Angeles suburb of Woodland Hills, California.Sally Bliss
SB - Actress
- Writer
- Producer
Brooklyn-native actress Ina Balin (née Rosenberg) was born on November 12, 1937, into a Jewish family of entertainers. Her parents were Betty (nee Friedman) and Sam Rosenberg, who divorced when she was 9 years old. Her father was a dancer/singer/comedian who worked the Borscht Belt. He later quit show business to join his family's furrier business. Her mother was a Hungarian-born professional dancer who escaped a troubled family life by marrying at age 15. Sam was her third husband at age 21. They divorced when Ina and her brother, Richard Balin, were still quite young and the children were placed in boarding schools (she at the Montessori Children's Village in Bucks County, Pennsylvania) until their mother married a fourth time to wealthy shoe magnate Harold Balin, who later adopted Betty's two children, who took his surname.
Ina always wanted to be an actress and her mother encouraged her to take ballet lessons while young. Her first big break occurred in NewvYork at age 15 when she appeared on Perry Como's 1950s TV show. She went on to attend New York University majoring in theater and also studied with Actors Studio exponents Lonny Chapman and Curt Conway while gathering additional experience on the summer stock stage. She made an auspicious Broadway debut in a female lead with "Compulsion" in 1957. Two years later, the dark-haired, olive-skinned beauty won a Theatre World Award for her outstanding performance in the Broadway comedy, "A Majority of One", starring Gertrude Berg. Producer Carlo Ponti saw her Broadway performance in "Compulsion" and requested her for a prime role in his film The Black Orchid (1958).
Starring Ponti's wife, Sophia Loren, and Anthony Quinn, Ina received impressive notices as Quinn's sensitive, grown daughter. Considered one of 20th Century Fox's most promising new talents, she received a special "International Star of Tomorrow" Golden Globe for this early work. A major career disappointment occurred when the film version of Compulsion (1959) was made and Ina's ethnic role of "Ruth Goldenberg" was transformed into a non-ethnic part (Ruth Evans) that wound up starring Diane Varsi. Ina was given an unbilled part in the movie. The sting of that studio transgression was somewhat softened when she was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for "Best Supporting Actress" for her intensive performance in the Paul Newman/Joanne Woodward soaper, From the Terrace (1960), as Newman's love interest. She found herself typecast by the studio and eventually felt compelled to leave.
A soft, slender, but intent-looking actress who could play various types of ethnicities (Jewish, Italian, Mexican, Spanish, Greek, et al.), she had a lovely, quiet glow but could easily display the fiery temperament of an Anna Magnani when called upon. In the 1960s, however, she was overshadowed by a number of her leading men in their respective showcases. She appeared in many Westerns, often as the girlfriend or love interest of the hero. There was little room for any actor to generate interest upon themselves when playing opposite the likes of an Elvis Presley, Jerry Lewis and/or John Wayne. In other situations, her roles were merely decorative, less showy, or proved less integral to the main plot, such as her secondary role as "Martha" in The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965). While Ina maintained a fine balance of TV roles ranging from the dramatic (Bonanza (1959), Mannix (1967), Quincy M.E. (1976), Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (1964)) to the humorous (The Dick Van Dyke Show (1961), Get Smart (1965)), the one big acting role which could have set her apart from the others never materialized.
Subsequent pictures such as the cult film The Projectionist (1970) and The Don Is Dead (1973) and her assorted appearances in several TV-movies failed to advance her status in Hollywood. And then her life changed...dramatically. As the first woman to ever participate in a handshake tour of a South Vietnam military hospital in the late 1960s, Ina toured Vietnam with the USO in 1970 and was greatly affected by the entire experience. It also triggered a series of trips back to the war-torn region. As a Board Member of the An Lac orphanage in Saigon, she courageously took part in the full-scale evacuation of nearly 400 orphans in 1975 during the fall of the city to the Communists. She eventually adopted three of the 219 children who managed to be flown out of the country. In 1980, the dramatic rescue was replayed via a TV film in which Balin portrayed herself. The well-received The Children of an Lac (1980) also starred Shirley Jones (as fellow rescuer "Betty Tisdale") and Beulah Quo (as the concerned Vietnamese woman who ran the orphanage).
From this point on, Ina's professional career took a back seat to the raising of her children and her ongoing interest in foreign relief. She appeared throughout the 1980s with a sprinkling of guest shots on TV's Battlestar Galactica (1978), Murder, She Wrote (1984) and As the World Turns (1956), among others. As for film, her last movies (The Comeback Trail (1982), Vasectomy: A Delicate Matter (1986) and That's Adequate (1989)) were unworthy of her talents.
Ina never managed to fulfill her promising, Golden Globe-winning potential for she was diagnosed and eventually succumbed, at the age of 52 from pulmonary hypertension. A single parent, she was survived by her three children.Ina Rosenberg
IR- Actress
- Soundtrack
"Fairuza!" ("Turquoise" in Farsi), her father exclaimed as he saw her blue eyes: Fairuza Alejandra Balk had just been born on May 21, 1974 in Point Reyes, California. Her father, Solomon Ben Feldthouse, was a traveling musician originally from Idaho, and her mother, Cathryn Balk, was a belly dancer. Her parents split up soon after. Fairuza grew up just north of San Francisco, California on a commune-type ranch. Her mother later found work in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. It was there that Fairuza began her career at age 9 on the ABC special The Best Christmas Pageant Ever (1983). Two years later, she went to the United Kingdom where she attended the Royal Academy of Ballet, the Ramona Beauchamp Agency, and the Bush Davies Performing Arts School. Fairuza worked for the Walt Disney Company for a while; at 11, she was chosen from 1,200 girls to star as Dorothy in Return to Oz (1985). The next year she starred, prophetically enough, as The Worst Witch (1986) a harbinger of her breakout role in The Craft (1996) 10 years later.
Fairuza and her mother remained in London until 1988, then went to Paris where the 15-year-old starred in Valmont (1989). The next year they returned to Vancouver and Fairuza enrolled in high school, but ended up doing correspondence courses after proving shy in class. Back in Hollywood she starred in a string of movies, including Gas Food Lodging (1992), for which she received an Independent Spirit Award for Best Actress. Following further television and film work, she achieved cult status with her starring role as a teenage witch in her breakout film, The Craft (1996). That year she also appeared in The Island of Dr. Moreau (1996), in which she did some belly-dancing and attracted the attention of Lancashire, England-born co-star David Thewlis. They did another movie together, American Perfekt (1997).
Fairuza was also the love interest in the wildly-popular The Waterboy (1998) and had a major role in American History X (1998). With a half-dozen movies for 2000, Fairuza is much in demand. Her interests are writing poetry and stories, playing the guitar, singing (her main enjoyment), and dancing. She lives in Venice, California and has an apartment in New York City.Fairuza Alejandra Feldthouse
FAF- Producer
- Actress
- Production Manager
The woman who will always be remembered as the crazy, accident-prone, lovable Lucy Ricardo was born Lucille Desiree Ball on August 6, 1911 in Jamestown, New York, the daughter of Desiree Evelyn "DeDe" (Hunt) and Henry Durrell "Had" Ball. Her father died before she was four, and her mother worked several jobs, so she and her younger brother were raised by their grandparents. Always willing to take responsibility for her brother and young cousins, she was a restless teenager who yearned to "make some noise". She entered a dramatic school in New York City, but while her classmate Bette Davis received all the raves, she was sent home; "too shy". She found some work modeling for Hattie Carnegie's and, in 1933, she was chosen to be a "Goldwyn Girl" and appear in the film Roman Scandals (1933).
She was put under contract to RKO Radio Pictures and several small roles, including one in Top Hat (1935), followed. Eventually, she received starring roles in B-pictures and, occasionally, a good role in an A-picture, like in Stage Door (1937) or The Big Street (1942). While filming Too Many Girls (1940), she met and fell madly in love with a young Cuban actor-musician named Desi Arnaz. Despite different personalities, lifestyles, religions and ages (he was six years younger), he fell hard, too, and after a passionate romance, they eloped and were married in November 1940. Lucy soon switched to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, where she got better roles in films such as Du Barry Was a Lady (1943); Best Foot Forward (1943) and the Katharine Hepburn-Spencer Tracy vehicle Without Love (1945). In 1948, she took a starring role in the radio comedy "My Favorite Husband", in which she played the scatterbrained wife of a Midwestern banker. In 1950, CBS came knocking with the offer of turning it into a television series. After convincing the network brass to let Desi play her husband and to sign over the rights to and creative control over the series to them, work began on the most popular and universally beloved sitcom of all time.
With I Love Lucy (1951), she and Desi promoted the 3-camera technique now the standard in filming sitcoms using 35mm film (the earliest known example of the 3-camera technique is the first Russian feature film, "Defence of Sevastopol" in 1911). Desi syndicated I Love Lucy. Lucille Ball was the first woman to own her own studio as the head of Desilu Productions.
Lucille Ball died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, age 77, of an acute aortic aneurysm on April 26, 1989 in Los Angeles, CA.Lucille Desiree Ball
LDB- Actress
- Soundtrack
Singing funny girl Kaye Ballard was born to perform...and perform she did, in a career spanning eight decades. With a strong comedy background and tunnel mouth to rival Martha Raye, the broad and bouncy trouper drew laughs on the musical stage, in night clubs, in recordings and on TV. As the archetypal over-emotive, knuckle-biting Italian wife and mama, the octogenarian tickled the funny bone with her earthy brand of comedy while alternately touching hearts in song.
She was born Catherine Gloria Balotta,in Cleveland, Ohio, the daughter of Italian parents, Lena (Nacarato) and Vincenzo/Vincent James Balotta. A deep desire to perform already struck by the time she was five years old. A typical class clown during her high school years, she began to compile a number of star impressions for her act. In her teens, she performed in a Cleveland USO stage production of "Stage Door Canteen" (1941), and soon set out on her own.
Earning a job in 1943 touring with Spike Jones and His Orchestra for two years as his featured vocalist and flute/tuba player(!), Kaye eventually set up camp in New York and made her Broadway debut with the revue "Three to Make Ready" (1946). From there she showcased in the musicals "Once in a Lifetime," "Touch and Go" (in London), "Annie Get Your Gun" and the burlesque show "Top Banana". During this time, she built up a strong song-and-comedy reputation for herself on the nightclub circuit, eventually playing the country's best cabarets/niteries including The Bon Soir, Persian Room and Blue Angel in New York, The Hungry i in San Francisco, and Mr. Kelly's in Chicago.
During the 1950s and 1960s, Kaye graced nearly every talk/variety show there was including those for Ed Sullivan, Jack Paar, Johnny Carson, Steve Allen, Perry Como, Red Skelton, Carol Burnett, Merv Griffin and Mike Douglas. Two of her classic TV roles were her ugly stepsister Portia (the other sister being fellow scene-stealer Alice Ghostley) in the Julie Andrews version of Cinderella (1957), and as one of The Mothers-In-Law (1967) (the other being fellow veteran Eve Arden) in the popular but short-lived sitcom produced by Desi Arnaz. Both showcases catered perfectly to Kaye's brash comedy instincts. She also pitched in as a meddling second banana for Doris Day for one season of the star's '70s TV show.
On stage Kaye had Broadway audiences rolling in the aisles with her Helen of Troy in the 1954 musical "The Golden Apple," while introducing the classic song standard "Lazy Afternoon." Other raves came in the form of "Wonderful Town" (1958), "Carnival" (1961) and Cole Porter Revisited" (1965). On the flip side of the coin, she played a frumpy Lola Delaney in a badly misguided musical version of "Come Back, Little Sheba" (entitled "Sheba") in 1974, and also tried unsuccessfully to bring life to the beloved, indomitable Molly Goldberg radio/TV character in the Broadway musical "Molly" (1973); the show lasted a mere two months. Kaye was much more at home sinking her teeth into two of theater's most impregnable females: Mama Rose in "Gypsy" and Dolly Levi in "Hello, Dolly!"
With an out-stretched personality on par with Carol Channing and Ethel Merman, films never became a suitable medium. Although Kaye gave a standout debut performance in The Girl Most Likely (1957), starring Jane Powell, she was seldom seen after that. Her sprinkling of supporting roles included A House Is Not a Home (1964) with Shelley Winters, Which Way to the Front? (1970) starring Jerry Lewis, Freaky Friday (1976) with young Jodie Foster, and, perhaps more notably, in The Ritz (1976) starring Rita Moreno and Jerry Stiller.
In later years, Kaye dominated the stage with feisty work in "Nunsense", "The Pirates of Penzance" (a Broadway replacement), "High Spirits" (as Madame Arcati), "Funny Girl" (as Mrs. Brice), "The Full Monty", and the female version of "The Odd Couple". The Rancho Mirage, California resident performed with the Palm Spring Follies show, and was out-and-about doing her one-woman cabaret show belting out the good old songs and retracing her burlesque-styled comedy roots. A survivor of breast cancer, the never-married veteran showed no signs of slowing down. She died in her Rancho Mirage home on January 21, 2019, aged 93.Catherine Gloria Balotta
CGB- Actress
- Producer
- Editor
Filipino American and Hawaii-born actor Kimee Balmilero is best known for her regular role as Medical Examiner Dr. Noelani Cunha on CBS' Hawaii Five-0 and Magnum P.I. She was also cast as a series regular in the ABC pilot Josep, playing comedian Jo Koy's sister Geraldine. Kimee's other professional credits include Doogie Kameloha MD on Disney+, Two Tickets To Paradise on The Hallmark Channel, the Daytime Emmy nominated children's musical TV series Hi-5, the Original Broadway Cast of Mamma Mia, and the 2nd National Touring Company of Miss Saigon. She studied improv & sketch comedy at the Uprights Citizens Brigade Theatre in Hollywood and performs with the ongoing show Filipino AF whenever she is back in Los Angeles.
Since returning back home to Hawaii in 2012, Kimee founded and is the "Head Sillypino" of Improv Hawaii (aka improvhi), a company dedicated to sketch and improv comedy in Hawaii.
In March 2015, she created and produced the first-ever Hawaii Comedy Festival at the Honolulu Museum of Art's Doris Duke Theater. The festival has continued to thrive and launched a junior version in the spring of 2020 and in 2021, premiered the original show Polynesian AF - a comedy variety show featuring Hawaii-based Polynesian creatives.
In May 2018, Kimee produced and directed The Last Five Years, the premiere production of her Honolulu-based theatre company, Stage Fish.
In March 2020, Kimee and her husband, John opened Tiny Stage Hawaii. - a small but mighty creative space located in Kakaako.
In her spare time, Kimee enjoys karaoke-ing, garage sale-ing, eating diner spaghetti, pretending like she's a contestant on Top Chef, and dreaming about sinigang. She also loves to stare at her husband's face.Kimberly Jonelle Balmilero
KJB- Actress
- Writer
- Producer
Maria was born in Port Hueneme, California at the Naval Base. Her parents are Joel (dermatologist) and Marilyn (therapist) of Duluth, MN. She attended Chester Park Elementary and Marshall High School in Duluth MN and went on to attend Bates College (Lewiston, ME), University of Edinburgh (Scotland) and received a degree in Creative Writing at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. She started stand-up in Minneapolis at the age of 19 at Stevie Ray's Comedy Cabaret and 10 years later, made her first appearance on the Tonight Show!Maria Elizabeth Sheldon Bamford
MESB- Actress
- Director
- Writer
Anne Bancroft was born on September 17, 1931 in The Bronx, NY, the middle daughter of Michael Italiano (1905-2001), a dress pattern maker, and Mildred DiNapoli (1907-2010), a telephone operator. She made her cinema debut in Don't Bother to Knock (1952) in 1952, and over the next five years appeared in a lot of undistinguished movies such as Gorilla at Large (1954), Demetrius and the Gladiators (1954), New York Confidential (1955), Nightfall (1956) and The Girl in Black Stockings (1957). By 1957 she grew dissatisfied with the scripts she was getting, left the film business and spent the next five years doing plays on Broadway. She returned to screens in 1962 with her portrayal of Annie Sullivan in The Miracle Worker (1962), for which she won an Oscar. Bancroft went on to give acclaimed performances in The Pumpkin Eater (1964), The Slender Thread (1965), Young Winston (1972), The Prisoner of Second Avenue (1975), The Elephant Man (1980), To Be or Not to Be (1983), 84 Charing Cross Road (1987) and other movies, but her most famous role would be as Mrs. Robinson in The Graduate (1967). Her status as the "older woman" in the film is iconic, although in real life she was only eight years older than Katharine Ross and just six years older than Dustin Hoffman. Bancroft would later express her frustration over the fact that the film overshadowed her other work. Selective for much of her intermittent career, she appeared onscreen more frequently in the '90s and early '00s, playing a range of characters in such films as Love Potion No. 9 (1992), Point of No Return (1993), Home for the Holidays (1995), G.I. Jane (1997), Great Expectations (1998), Keeping the Faith (2000) and Up at the Villa (2000). She also started to make some TV films, including Deep in My Heart (1999) for which she won an Emmy. Sadly, on June 6, 2005, Bancroft passed away at the age of 73 from uterine cancer. Her death surprised many, as she had not disclosed her illness to the public. Among her survivors was her husband of 41 years, Mel Brooks, and their son Max Brooks, who was born in 1972. Her final film, the animated feature Delgo (2008), was released posthumously in 2008 and dedicated to her memory.Anna Maria Louisa Italiano
AMLI- Actress
- Producer
- Director
Elizabeth Banks was born Elizabeth Mitchell in Pittsfield, a small city in the Berkshires in western Massachusetts near the New York border, on February 10, 1974. She is the daughter of Anne Marie (Wallace), who worked in a bank, and Mark Phineas Mitchell, a factory worker. Elizabeth describes herself as having been seen as a "goody two-shoes" in her youth who was nominated for the local Harvest Queen.
Banks left home to attend college at the University of Pennsylvania--from which she graduated Magna cum Laude--and went on to attend the Advanced Training Program at the prestigious American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco, graduating in 1996. She then moved to New York and worked in the theater, and began getting small roles in films and on television. Seeking more screen work, she moved to Los Angeles and was soon cast in supporting roles. She also had to change her last name, to Banks, in order to avoid confusion with actress Elizabeth Mitchell.
Her breakthrough role was as Betty Brant, the secretary of the cantankerous newspaper tycoon in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man (2002). She followed up this performance with small roles in other movies: Swept Away (2002), Steven Spielberg's Catch Me If You Can (2002), Seabiscuit (2003) and The 40-Year-Old Virgin (2005). In 2003 she won the Exciting New Face Award at the Young Hollywood Awards. The winsome, beautiful Banks projected an exceptionally charming screen presence that drew comparisons to Audrey Hepburn, and Hollywood eventually began to take notice, Banks being cast in the lead in such films as Kevin Smith's Zack and Miri Make a Porno (2008) and in Oliver Stone's biopic of George W. Bush, W. (2008), as Laura Bush.
In television, Banks was a recurring guest star on Scrubs (2001) as Dr. Kim Briggs, the love interest of Zach Braff's J.D. In 2010 she was cast as Alec Baldwin's love interest in season four of 30 Rock (2006). Originally scheduled to appear in only four episodes, she was brought back as a recurring character for two more seasons, and earned Emmy nominations for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series for two consecutive years. Elizabeth has also appeared in such films as Our Idiot Brother (2011), Man on a Ledge (2012), What to Expect When You're Expecting (2012), People Like Us (2012), and Pitch Perfect (2012). She also won the coveted role as Effie Trinket in The Hunger Games (2012) and The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013).
After an eleven-year courtship, Banks married Max Handelman, a sports writer and producer, in 2003. They have two sons, Felix, who was born in March 2011, and Magnus, born in Nov. 2012, both by gestational surrogacy.Elizabeth Irene Mitchell
EIM- Producer
- Writer
- Actress
Tyra Banks was born on 4 December 1973 in Los Angeles, California, USA. She is a producer and writer, known for Coyote Ugly (2000), Tropic Thunder (2008) and America's Next Top Model (2003).Tyra Lynne Banks
TLB- Vilma Bánky appeared in Hungarian, Austrian and French movies between 1920 and 1925, the year in which Samuel Goldwyn signed her, in Budapest, to a Hollywood contract. In Hollywood she was billed as the "The Hungarian Rhapsody". In the mid and late 1920s she was Goldwyn's biggest money maker, especially playing with Ronald Colman. Her best-known works were with Rudolph Valentino: daughter of a Russian aristocrat in The Eagle (1925) and an Arab dancer in The Son of the Sheik (1926). Her first talking movie was This Is Heaven (1929). She toured the U.S. in "Cherries Are Ripe" with her husband Rod La Rocque in 1930-1 and, the next year, went with him to Germany to make her last film.Vilma Koncsics
VK - Jill Banner's early life was somewhat nomadic. Her father died when she was 2, and her mother moved from Washington to South Dakota and Iowa before settling in Glendale, California. Jill attended the Hollywood Professional School (one of her classmates was Peggy Lipton). Her debut film, Spider Baby or, the Maddest Story Ever Told (1967), was shot in 1964 but not released until 1968. When the film finally came out she received rave reviews for her performance as one of a pair of crazed sisters in this dark tale of cannibalism and incest. Between the shooting of the film and its release, Banner did a few films and much TV work. She was regularly used by producer/director Jack Webb in his police shows Dragnet 1967 (1967) and Adam-12 (1968), often playing a blissed-out hippie. In the 1970s she soured on the Hollywood life and moved to New Mexico, where she sold real estate. After a few years, though, she returned to California to try to resume her career. On August 7, 1982, she was driving on the Ventura Freeway, between the Tujunga and Laurel Canyon Blvd. off-ramps, when her car was hit by a truck whose driver was drunk. Not wearing a seat belt, she was ejected from the car and hit her head on the center divider. She went into a coma, and died at a local hospital, never having come out of it. At the time of her death she was employed by Marlon Brando and was developing scripts for him.Mary Molumby
MM - Actress
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Christine Baranski is an American actress from Buffalo, New York. She has had a relatively lengthy career in both film and television. She has been nominated for 15 Emmy Awards, winning once. One of her most popular roles was that of neuroscientist Dr. Beverly Hofstadter in the sitcom " The Big Bang Theory ". She played this role from 2009 to 2019.
Baranski was born to a Polish-American family. Her parents were newspaper editor Lucien Baranski and his wife Virginia Mazurowska. Her grandparents were reportedly Polish theatrical actors. She was raised in the town of Cheektowaga, a suburb of Buffalo. Polish Americans have long been the dominant ethnicity in Cheektowaga.
Baranski received her secondary education at the Villa Maria Academy, a Catholic high school operated by the Felician Sisters. In 1970, she enrolled in the Juilliard School, a private performing arts conservatory located in New York City. She studied drama for four years. She graduated in 1974 with a Bachelor of Arts degree.
In 1980, Baranski made both her Off-Broadway debut and her Broadway debut. She later received critical acclaim for the leading role of Charlotte in the play "The Real Thing" (1982) by Tom Stoppard. For this role, Baranski won the 1984 "Tony Award Best Featured Actress in a Play".
In 1986, Baranski had a supporting role in the BDSM-themed erotic film "9½ Weeks", loosely based on the novel "Nine and a Half Weeks: A Memoir of a Love Affair" (1978) by Ingeborg Day (1940-2011). The film earned 100 million dollars at the worldwide box office, and became a cult favorite. It was the first popular film in Baranski's career.
In 1990, Baranski had a role in the courtroom drama "Reversal of Fortune". The film was based on the trial of lawyer Claus von Bülow (1926-2019) for the attempted murder of his wife. The film under-performed at the box office, but was nominated for several awards.
In 1993, Baranski played the tyrannical camp counselor Becky Martin-Granger in the black comedy film "Addams Family Values". The film was loosely based on the comic strip "The Addams Family" by Charles Addams (1912-1988). Becky was one of the film's main antagonists, and an opponent for Wednesday Addams (played by Christina Ricci). The film earned about 49 million dollars at the domestic box office, and was well-received critically.
In 1995, Baranski gained a major television role in the sitcom "Cybill" (1995-1998). She played Maryann Thorpe, a wealthy and sharp-tonged woman. Maryann suffered from long-term ennui, motivating her to become more involved in the personal life of her best friend Cybill Sheridan (played by Cybill Shepherd). The series lasted for 4 seasons and a total of 87 episodes. Baranski won critical acclaim for this role. She won the 1995"Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series".
In 1996, Baranski played the supporting role of Katharine Archer in the comedy film "The Birdcage". In the film, Katharine is a former lover of the openly gay Armand Goldman (played by Robin Williams) and the mother of his son Val Goldman (played by Dan Futterman). She agrees to pretend to be Armand's wife in a meeting with Val's prospective in-laws. The film earned about 185 million dollars at the worldwide box office, one of the greatest box office hits in Baranski's career.
In 2000, Baranski played Martha May Whovier in the Christmas film "How the Grinch Stole Christmas". The film was based on the 1957 children's story of the same name by Dr. Seuss (1904-1991). In this adaptation, the Grinch (played by Jim Carrey) has a life-long romantic interest in Martha May, but has trouble expressing his feelings to her. The film earned about 363 million dollars at the worldwide box office, and became the sixth highest-grossing film of 2000.
Also in 2000, Baranki was cast in the major role of producer Marsha Bickner in the short-lived sitcom "Welcome to New York" (2000-2001). The sitcom depicted the inner workings of morning news show. It lasted a single season and a total of 16 episodes. The series was canceled due to low ratings.
In 2002, Baranski was cast as the baker Mrs. Lovett in a revival of the musical "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street" (1979) by Stephen Sondheim (1930-) and Hugh Wheeler (1912 - 1987). The play features Lovett as the accomplice of the serial killer Sweeney Todd. It is a loose adaptation of the penny dreadful "The String of Pearls" (1846-1847). For this role, Baranski won the 2003 "Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Actress in a Musical".
Also in 2002, Baranski played sensationalist reporter Mary Sunshine in the black comedy film "Chicago". The film earned about 307 million dollars at the worldwide box office. At the time t held the record as the highest grossing live-action musical in film history.
In 2003, Baranski was cast in the main role of Annie Brennan in the sitcom "Happy Family" (2003-2004). The sitcom depicted the problems of aging patents who have to deal with the eccentricities of their grown-up children. The series lasted a single season and a total of 22 episodes. Due to low ratings, there were no plans for a second season.
In 2008, Baranski played Tanya Chesham-Leigh in the romantic comedy "Mamma Mia! (film)". It was based on the theatrical musical "Mamma Mia!" (1999) by Catherine Johnson (1957-), and used hit songs by the Swedish pop group ABBA. In the film, Tanya is an old friend of the main character Donna Sheridan-Carmichael (played by Meryl Streep). The film earned about 616 million dollars at the worldwide box office, becoming the fifth highest-grossing film of 2008. Baranski returned to her role in the sequel "Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again" (2018), which was also a box office hit.
In 2009, Baranski was cast in the recurring role of Dr. Beverly Hofstadter in the sitcom "The Big Bang Theory". The character is depicted as a brilliant but self-centered scientist, who has a problematic relationship with her son Leonard Hofstadter (played by Johnny Galecki). Baranski appeared in 16 episodes of the series, and her character was popular. For this role, Baranski was nominated four times for the "Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series".
Also in 2009, Baranski was cast in the role of Diane Lockhart in the legal drama "The Good Wife" (2009-2016). Diane was depicted as a senior partner in a law firm, and the mentor of protagonist Alicia Florrick (played by Julianna Margulies). She was one of the series' main characters, and appeared in 156 episodes. The role was critically acclaimed, and Baranski was nominated 6 times for the "Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series".
In 2014, Baranski played Cinderella's Stepmother in the fairy-tale-themed fantasy film "Into the Woods". The film earned about 213 million dollars at the worldwide box office, and was praised by critics. The film reunited Baranski with her colleague Meryl Streep.
In 2017, Baranski returned to the role of Diane Lockhart in the legal drama "The Good Fight" (2017-), a sequel series "The Good Wife". This time Diane is the main character. In the initial episodes, she has lost her savings and is forced to resume her legal career to earn a living. As of 2021, four seasons of the series have been completed and a fifth one is about to begin.
In 2018, Baranski was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame. Eligible inductees for this hall of fame include theatrical actors, playwrights and other theater practitioners who have had an American theatrical career for at least 25 years, and have at least five credits on major Broadway productions.
As of 2021, Baranski is 69-years-old. She has never retired from acting, and she remains highly popular with both critics and audiences.Christine Jane Baranski
CJB- Actress
- Soundtrack
- Writer
Adrienne Jo Barbeau is an American actress and author best known for her roles on the sitcom Maude (1972) and in horror films, especially those directed by John Carpenter, with whom she was once married. She was born on June 11, 1945 in Sacramento, California, the daughter of an executive for Mobil Oil Company. Early on in her career, she starred in Someone's Watching Me! (1978), The Fog (1980) and Escape from New York (1981), all John Carpenter-related projects. She has collaborated with George A. Romero on occasion, such as Stephen King's anthology Creepshow (1982) and Two Evil Eyes (1990). Her work with other horror directors includes Wes Craven's superhero monster movie Swamp Thing (1982). During the 1990s, she became best known for providing the voice of Catwoman on Batman: The Animated Series (1992). She was the original tough-girl Betty Rizzo in the first Broadway production of "Grease". She is the author of the memoir "There Are Worse Things I Can Do" (2006), and the comedy romance vampire novels "Vampyres of Hollywood" (2008), "Love Bites" (2010) and "Make Me Dead" (2015).Adrienne Jo Barbeau
AJB- Producer
- Writer
- Additional Crew
Carol Barbee was born on 22 November 1959 in Harrisburg, North Carolina, USA. She is a producer and writer, known for Raising Dion (2019), Dash & Lily (2020) and Touch (2012). She has been married to Carlos Lacamara since 1989. They have two children.Carol Denise Barbee
CDB- Actress
- Writer
- Soundtrack
Andrea Barber was born on 3 July 1976 in Los Angeles, California, USA. She is an actress and writer, known for Full House (1987), Fuller House (2016) and Days of Our Lives (1965). She was previously married to Jeremy Rytky.Andrea Laura Barber
ALB- Jillian Barberie is a former TV news anchor for Good Day L.A. She was born on September 26, 1966 in Burlington, Ontario, Canada as Jillian Marie Warry. Since her being let go from the FOX network, she has branched out as an actress, more notably in Project X (2012), V.I.P. (1998) and Volcano (1997). She was previously married to Grant Reynolds and Bret Barberie.Jillian Marie Warry
JMW - Born Mary Elizabeth Greear, the actress best known as Joan Barclay came out to Hollywood when her mother, anxious to leave Minnesota's cold climate, put "Florida" and "California" in a hat and let young Mary Elizabeth draw. One of her earliest acting jobs was a role in The Gaucho (1927) with Douglas Fairbanks, who wanted to make her his next leading lady even though she was only 12(!). She was under contract to Warners in the early 1930s and to RKO in the 1940s, and co-starred in many "B" westerns and serials in the interim. She left movies in the mid-'40s to marry a wealthy man in the rent-a-car business, the first of her three husbands.Mary Elizabeth Greear
MEG - Mabel Bardine was born on 25 October 1878. She was an actress, known for The Barker (1917), Thoughtless Women (1920) and Mother Love and the Law (1917). She died on 20 October 1948 in Los Angeles, California, USA.Mabel Bardine Myers Farnsworth
MBMF - Arija Bareikis was born on 21 July 1966 in Bloomington, Indiana. She attended Bloomington High School South from 1980-1984.
After graduating from Stanford University in 1988, she moved to Southern California to take care of horses for a brief period of time. Next, Arija moved to New York City first working as a paralegal while contemplating which direction to take her life in. Originally, she had dreamed of becoming a dancer, which has been reflected in some of her roles on the stage.
She eventually decided to become an actress, so she took acting lessons in New York in her free time and then migrated into recurring soap opera roles.
She has appeared in stage plays, TV shows and numerous movies such as Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo (1999).Arija Allison Bareikis
AAB - Actress
- Soundtrack
A curvaceous, dark-haired WWII pin-up beauty (aka "The Woo Woo Girl" and "The Girl with the Million Dollar Figure"), "B" film star Lynn Bari had the requisite looks and talent but few of the lucky breaks needed to penetrate the "A" rankings during her extensive Hollywood career. Nevertheless, some worthy performances of hers stand out in late-night viewings.
She was born with the elite-sounding name of Marjorie Schuyler Fisher on December 18, 1919 (various sources also list 1913, 1915 and 1917), in Roanoke, Virginia. She and her elder brother, John, moved with their mother to Boston following the death of their father in 1927. Her mother remarried, this time to a minister, and the family relocated once again when her stepfather was assigned a ministry in California (the Institute of Religious Science in Los Angeles).
Paying her dues for years as a snappy bit-part chorine, secretary, party girl and/or glorified extra while being groomed as a starlet under contract to MGM and Fox, her first released film was the MGM comedy Meet the Baron (1933), in which she provided typical window dressing as a collegian. For the next few years there was little growth at either studio, as she was usually standing amidst others in crowd scenes and looking excited. Finally in Lancer Spy (1937), she received her first billing on screen for a minor part as "Miss Fenwick". Though more bit parts were to dribble in, the year 1938 proved to be her breakthrough year. She finally gained some ground playing the "other woman" role in glossy soaps and musicals, first giving Barbara Stanwyck some trouble in Always Goodbye (1938).
Fox Studios finally handed her some smart co-leads and top supports in such second-tier films as The Return of the Cisco Kid (1939), Pack Up Your Troubles (1939), Hotel for Women (1939), and Hollywood Cavalcade (1939). Anxiously waiting for "the big one", she made do with her strong looks, tending toward unsympathetic parts. She enjoyed the attention she received playing disparaging society ladies, divas, villainesses, and even a strong-willed prairie flower in such films as Pier 13 (1940), Earthbound (1940), Kit Carson (1940), and Sun Valley Serenade (1941), but they did little to advance her in the ranks.
The very best role of her frisky career came with the grade "A" comedy The Magnificent Dope (1942), in which she shared top billing with Henry Fonda and Don Ameche. But good roles were hard to find in Lynn's case, and she good-naturedly took whatever was given her. Other above-average movies (she appeared in well over 150) of this period came with China Girl (1942), Hello Frisco, Hello (1943), The Bridge of San Luis Rey (1944), and Nocturne (1946).
With diminishing offers for film parts by the 1950s, she started leaning heavily towards stage and TV work. She continued her career until the late '60s and then retired. Her last work included the film The Young Runaways (1968) and TV episodes of "The Girl from U.N.C.L.E." and "The F.B.I." Divorced three times in all, husband #2 was volatile manager/producer Sidney Luft, better known as Judy Garland's hubby years later, who was the father of her only child. Her third husband was a doctor/psychiatrist, and she worked as his nurse for quite some time. They divorced in 1972. Plagued by arthritis in later years, Bari passed away from heart problems on November 20, 1989. Although she may have been labeled a "B" leading lady, she definitely was in the "A" ranks when it came to class and beauty.Margaret Schuyler Fisher
MSF- Actress
- Producer
Offbeat, unconventionally pretty, and utterly mesmerizing, Ellen Barkin was born on April 16, 1954 in the Bronx, New York, to Evelyn (Rozin), a hospital administrator, and Sol Barkin, a chemical salesman. Her parents were both from Russian Jewish families. Raised in the South Bronx and Queens, New York area, she wanted to be an actress as early as her teens and was eventually accepted into Manhattan's High School of the Performing Arts.
Barkin then attended Hunter College and received her degree after double majoring in history and drama. At one point she wanted to teach ancient history, but instead turned her thoughts back to her first love: acting. Barkin then continued her education at New York's Actor's Studio. Fearful of the auditioning process, she studied acting for seven years before finally landing her first audition. While continuing her studies, she worked as a waitress at the avant-garde Ocean Club. Performing off-Broadway in such plays "Shout Across the River" (1979), "Extremities" (1983), "Fool for Love" (1984) and "Eden Court" (1985), she was applauded across the board for her first film lead in Diner (1982) opposite Mickey Rourke and Daniel Stern, and pursued sexy tough-cookie status thereafter with such quirky roles in The Big Easy (1986) starring Dennis Quaid and Siesta (1987) with Irish actor Gabriel Byrne, whom she married in 1987 and separated from in 1993 after producing a son and daughter. She and Byrne divorced in 1999.
With trademark squinting eyes and slightly off-kilter facial features, Barkin continued the fascination of her seamy/steamy girl-from-the-wrong-side-of-the-tracks status most notably opposite Al Pacino in the thriller Sea of Love (1989). In addition, she was well cast as Robert De Niro's abused wife in This Boy's Life (1993), and portrayed "Calamity Jane" in Wild Bill (1995) with earnest. Other impressionable offbeat projects included roles in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998), Drop Dead Gorgeous (1999) and Mercy (2000). On TV, she was well-cast in the mini-movie Blood Money (1988) and won an Emmy award for her gripping performance in Before Women Had Wings (1997) opposite Oprah Winfrey as another abused wife who, in this case, turns her violent anger on her own daughters.
In 2000, Barkin married billionaire Ronald O. Perelman, eleven years her senior and chairman of the Revlon company, and put her career relatively on hold, appearing sporadically in edgy films like She Hate Me (2004) and Palindromes (2004). Barkin and Perelman went through an acrimonious divorce in 2006.
Just prior to her divorce in late 2005, Barkin ventured into independent film production with Applehead Pictures, a company she set up with her brother George Barkin, who is a scriptwriter and former editor-in-chief of National Lampoon and High Times, and former Independent Film Channel executive Caroline Kaplan. In her first major acting appearance since her divorce from Perelman, Barkin co-starred in Ocean's Thirteen (2007) with George Clooney, Matt Damon, Brad Pitt and former co-star Pacino. She followed up Ocean's with a supporting role in Antoine Fuqua's Brooklyn's Finest (2009), Happy Tears (2009) with Parker Posey and Demi Moore, and Twelve (2010).
Barkin has produced features over time, including Letters to Juliet (2010) and Another Happy Day (2011) (she also starred in the latter project). On the small screen, she appeared in an episode of Modern Family (2009) and her new NBC show, The New Normal (2012), got a sneak peek during the Olympics.
More recent sightings have included the films The Chameleon (2010), Very Good Girls (2013), The Cobbler (2014), Hands of Stone (2016) and Active Adults (2017). She has had regular roles on the TV series The New Normal (2012) and Animal Kingdom (2016).Ellen Rona Barkin
ERB- Actress
- Producer
- Soundtrack
British-born actress who appeared in both British and American films, but who found her greatest success in Hollywood second leads. After a variety of jobs, including nurse, chorus girl and milkmaid, Barnes entered vaudeville. She appeared in more than a score of short comedies with comedian Stanley Lupino before making her feature bow in 1931. Two years later she achieved prominence as one of the half-dozen wives of the King in The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933). The following year she moved to Hollywood and began a career as the smart-aleck pal of the lead or as the angry "other woman." Barnes also played numerous leading roles, but spent most of the 1930s and 40s in strong supporting parts. In 1940 she married football star (and later producer) M.J. Frankovich and after the war, they moved to Italy and appeared in several films there and elsewhere in Europe. She retired from films in 1954, but returned for a few roles in the late 60s and early 70s. She worked busily with numerous charities until her death in 1998.Gertrude Maud Barnes
GMB- Anita Barone was born on 25 September 1964 in St. Louis, Missouri, USA. She is an actress, known for Friends (1994), The War at Home (2005) and One Last Ride (2004). She has been married to Matthew Glave since 2000. They have two children.Anita Louise Barone
ALB - Producer
- Actress
- Writer
Firebrand Roseanne Barr has long been one of America's funniest and most controversial comedians.
She was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, to Helen (Davis), a cashier and bookkeeper, and Jerome Hershel "Jerry" Barr, a salesman. Her family was Jewish, and had moved to the U.S. from Russia, Lithuania, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. She dropped out of high school when she was seventeen, and, after a car accident, was admitted to a mental institution, claiming she was having nightmares and memory loss. She left the institute less than a year later. At seventeen, she gave birth to her first daughter, Brandi Brown, and gave her up for adoption. She began working at a restaurant as a dishwasher and waitress. Her hilarious comments to the customers she waited on led her to doing stand-up comedy at the restaurant. She married Bill Pentland and they had three children together, Jessica, Jennifer, and Jacob Pentland.
Roseanne worked doing stand-up comedy until her August 23, 1985 appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (1962) thrust her into the limelight. In 1987, HBO offered her a show of her own, On Location: The Roseanne Barr Show (1987). It was canceled after a short time. In 1989, Roseanne starred opposite Meryl Streep and Ed Begley Jr. in She-Devil (1989). Though her first picture wasn't as successful as she might have hoped, her sitcom, Roseanne (1988), debuted in 1988 and ran for 9 seasons on ABC, co-starring John Goodman. It dealt with real-life issues in a lower middle-class working family. During its first season on ABC, it leaped to #2 in the ratings. After the sitcom's first season, Roseanne gained notoriety when she gave a screeching, crotch-grabbing performance of "The Star Spangled Banner" at a baseball game.
When Roseanne divorced her first husband, Bill Pentland, after 16 years of marriage in 1990 and married Roseanne (1988) co-star Tom Arnold only four days later, her sitcom was already beginning its downward spiral. In 1991, she started to be billed as Roseanne Arnold. Around this time, she began to claim that she, as well as her siblings, had been physically and sexually abused as a child. Both her siblings and parents denied the charges, and lie detector tests used on Roseanne's parents came back negative. The court battles led to ten years of estrangement with her parents and siblings. Her marriage with Arnold lasted four years before she filed for divorce from him for physical abuse and domestic violence. It is still not known if the accusations were true. Although she insisted that he hit her, she admits that he never abused her three children from her previous marriage:
In 1996, she was nominated for a Golden Globe Award and won, but she was not there to accept it. Luckily, Tom Arnold's exit from "Roseanne" happened towards the end of the sixth season, allowing the show to have an almost smooth ending. However, after the sixth season of Roseanne (1988), the plots started to run dry and ratings began to drop. During the season following her divorce, she insisted on being billed as simply "Roseanne." After Roseanne (1988) was canceled, she went on Broadway to play "The Wicked Witch of the West" in "The Wizard of Oz" to rave reviews.
On Valentine's Day 1995, Roseanne married former bodyguard Ben Thomas. With Thomas, she had her tubal ligation surgery reversed in order to become pregnant with her fifth child, Buck Thomas. In 1997, she slowly began being billed as "Roseanne Thomas", as in the last 11 episodes of Roseanne, as executive producer (she was still "Roseanne" in the cast credits). She guest-starred in The Nanny (1993) as Roseanne Thomas in late 1997. In 2002, she filed for divorce against Thomas for the second time (the first time, in 1998, she dropped the suit), accusing him of being disturbed and claiming that he threatened to run off with their son.
After the divorce, she began to study the Kabballah, a form of Jewish mysticism, and those around her said she became amazingly centered and stable. In the 2000s, she ended the feud with her parents and siblings and went back to being billed as Roseanne Barr. Today, Roseanne Barr Pentland Arnold Thomas spends her time with her family in her home in El Segundo, California.
Always outspoken, Roseanne began commenting on politics in earnest in the 2000s, and unsuccessfully ran for the Green Party's presidential nomination in 2012. She was subsequently chosen as the Peace and Freedom Party's candidate for President of the United States in '12, receiving 61,971 votes in the general election, and placing sixth. Her run is depicted in the documentary Roseanne for President! (2015).
Initially a left-leaning liberal, she became considerably more right-wing throughout the 2010s. Her show Roseanne returned for a tenth season in 2018, to blockbuster ratings, but was canceled after Roseanne sent a racially-offensive tweet that capped off a longer run of incendiary comments.Roseanne Cherrie Barr
RCB- Actress
- Director
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Stefania Barr is an actor, musician, and filmmaker from the Park City, Utah area. Her career started at the age of seven with a Disney Channel debut. She began working regularly in film and commercials and became one of the top booking actors for her age group. In 2012, Stefania composed her first soundtrack for award-winning short film "Life According to Penny" in which she also starred as the lead. Soon after, she released her first original twelve-song album as front-woman of alt-rock band "Shrink the Giant." In 2014, she was invited to participate at the Sundance Institute labs. In addition to her acting and musical career, Stefania spent time behind the camera in various positions. She directed two short films, both set to release in 2018. She edited and composed the music for upcoming Holocaust film Hanneli and Anne. She has also worked in camera, production, wardrobe, sound, editing, and music departments on numerous projects.Stefania Noelle Barr
SNB- Actress
- Soundtrack
Maria Pilar Canals is an American actress who is known for playing Theresa Russo from Wizards of Waverly Place. She also played Connie Torres in the Camp Rock film series, Hawkgirl from Justice League and Justice League Unlimited, She-Hulk from Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds and Sunset Boulevardez from The Proud Family.Maria Pilar Canals
MPC- Sasha Feline Barrese is the daughter of actress and model Katherine Barrese. Katherine was a model when she gave birth to baby Sasha. The two lived in Maui, Hawaii and soon moved to Paris, France. There, Katherine continued to model and take Sasha to work with her. Sasha got a lot of early modeling experience by going to the photo shoots with her mom.
In 1989, the pair got their debut acting roles in the movie Homer and Eddie (1989). Katherine and little Sasha went on to star as the younger and older versions of a character named "Jezebel" in 1990's Jezebel's Kiss (1990). This film was the only role in which Sasha is credited by her real name, Alexandra Barrese.
Katherine worked hard to put her little girl through good private schools. Pre-teen Sasha attended Ojai Private School in Ojai Valley, California and graduated middle school in 1995. She continued on to Tabor Academy in Marion, Massachusetts and graduated high school in 1999. She did some modeling during her school years for NEXT Agency, Elite, and Guess? Jeans.
After graduation, she went on to do more television and film work, including Supernatural (2005), Hellraiser: Inferno (2000), The Ring (2002), Just Shoot Me! (1997), MTV's Undressed (1999) and WB's Run of the House (2003). Sasha says she and her mom, Katherine, are very close. They lived together for many years in Beverly Hills, California.Alexandra Barrese
AB - California native Imogene Williams (born in Los Angeles, raised in Sherman Oaks) was a student at The Pasadena Playhouse when an agent helped her get a contract with Warner Bros. Under her new name, Claudia Barrett, Warners gave her juicy secondary parts in several films, and freelance work with Republic Pictures earned her leads in a number of horse operas. In 1953 she starred in what would become her most noted picture, Robot Monster (1953), opposite George Nader. Released by third-string distributor Astor Pictures, the film is of an uncommonly low quality, and has generated a wide cult following with fans of bad and campy movies. Following this dubious project, Ms. Barret acted extensively on television for several years. After leaving show business entirely in the early 1960s, she spent 14 years working for AMPAS. More recently, she has kept busy as an artist, whose work is represented in galleries and has been commercially published.Imagene Williams
IW - Edith Barrett was born on 19 January 1907 in Roxbury, Massachusetts, USA. She was an actress, known for I Walked with a Zombie (1943), Jane Eyre (1943) and Ruthless (1948). She was married to Vincent Price. She died on 22 February 1977 in Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA.Edith Williams
EW - Actress
- Producer
- Writer
Majel Barrett (born Majel Leigh Hudec) was an American actress, known for her long association with Star Trek. She had multiple Star Trek-related roles, though she is mostly remembered for her roles as Nurse Christine Chapel in Star Trek, The Original Series (1966-1969) and as Lwaxana Troi in Star Trek, The Next Generation (1987-1994) and Deep Space Nine (1993-1999). Due to her status as the second wife of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry (1921-1991), Barrett was nicknamed "the First Lady of Star Trek".
In 1932, Barrett was born in Cleveland, Ohio. Her father was police officer William Hudec (d. 1955), who was eventually killed while on duty. Barrett had aspirations of becoming an actress since childhood, and took acting classes as a child. She received her secondary education at the Shaker Heights High School, a public high school located in a suburb of Cleveland, and graduated in 1950 at the age of 18. She then enrolled at the University of Miami, a public research university located in Coral Gables, Florida.
Following her graduation from university, started a career as a theatrical actress. In 1955, she was on tour with an off-Broadway road company. She had her first film role in the satirical film "Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?" (1957), which parodied the advertising industry, among other targets of satire. Barrett appeared in an uncredited bit part in a satirical advertisement within the film. Barrett's first credited film role was that Joyce Goodwin, a novice teacher depicted in the high school drama film "As Young as We Are" (1958). The film focuses on a male student who falls in love with his young, female teacher, and resorts to kidnapping her.
In the early 1960s, Barrett had small roles in the romantic comedy "Love in a Goldfish Bowl" (1961) and the World War II-themed war film "The Quick and the Dead" (1963), and appeared in guest star roles in then-popular television series, such as "Leave It to Beaver", "The Lucy Show", and "Bonanza". She was often employed by the television production company Desilu Productions, which at the time was owned by veteran actress Lucille Ball (1911-1989).
One of the television shows she appeared in was an episode of "The Lieutenant" (1964). This short-lived series created and written by Gene Roddenberry provided his first meetings and workings with many of the actors who would later become regulars and guest stars of Star Trek, including its two pilots. Barrett and Roddenberry befriended each other, and eventually started a romantic relationship. Roddenberry was still married to Eileen-Anita Rexroat, but often pursued relationships with other women.
In 1964, Roddenberry was working on the original pilot for Star Trek. He cast Barrett in the role of "Number One", the unnamed first officer of the star-ship USS Enterprise. Number One was depicted as exceptionally intelligent and strictly rational, but seemingly unemotional. The episode hinted at a mutual attraction between Number One and her captain, Christopher Pike (played by Jeffrey Hunter). The alien Talosians try to force them to mate with each other, as part of a breeding project.
This pilot was rejected by NBC executives, who complained about several aspects of the episode. One of them was the characterization of Number One, who was disliked for being overly assertive. In the subsequent retooling of the series, Number One was written out. Her character traits were added to that of a male character, Spock (played by Leonard Nimoy). Spock went on to become one of the franchise's most popular characters, due in large part to his coldly rational behavior.
Still determined to cast Barrett in the series, Roddenberry later created a more traditionally feminine role for her. The role was that of Nurse Christine Chapel, depicted as the main assistant of Dr. Leonard McCoy (played by DeForest Kelley). Chapel was one of the main recurring characters in the series for three years. She was one of the earliest prominent female characters in Star Trek.
In 1969, "Star Trek" was canceled. Barrett and Rodenberry briefly parted ways. Later that year, Rodenberry was in Japan on business. He realized that he missed Barrett and invited her to join him in Japan. On August 6, 1969, the two had a traditional Shinto wedding ceremony. This wedding was unofficial, as Roddenberry's divorce had not been finalized yet. Following the end of the divorce process, the two were officially married on December 29, 1969. Barrett served as a stepmother to Dawn Roddenberry (b.1953), Gene's teenage daughter. Dawn moved into the new couple's residence, and Barrett helped in her upbringing.
Already known for her science fiction roles, Barrett was cast as female android Miss Carrie in the science fiction-Western "Westworld". Her character was the madame of the Westworld bordello. Barrett also had roles in the post-apocalyptic television film "Genesis II" (1973) and the science fiction television film "The Questor Tapes" (1974), both created and scripted by her husband.
Star Trek was revived with the sequel series "Star Trek: The Animated Series" (1973-1974), which used much of the main cast from the original series. Barrett voiced two of the series' main female characters, Christine Chapel and M'Ress. The new character M'Ress was depicted as a female alien in feline form, who served as an officer on the Enterprise. Barrett also voiced many of this series' female guest characters.
Barrett had a small role in the neo-noir film "The Domino Principle" (1977). The film depicted a secretive organization first helping a prisoner escape, and then trying to force him to serve as their newest assassin. When the escaped man refuses, a lethal struggle begins. This film was poorly received due to its convoluted plot.
Barrett's next notable role was the housekeeper Lilith in the horror film "Spectre" (1977). Her character is depicted as a practicing witch, who manages to cure the alcoholic tendencies of one of the main characters. The plot of film depicts the demon Asmodeus assuming a human form and identity, while two occult detectives attempt to stop the demon's scheme. The film was intended as the pilot of a television series, but was rejected.
Barrett played Christine Chapel again in the film "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" (1979), depicting older versions of the characters from the original series. While Chapel was not one of the film's main characters, she was now depicted as a doctor instead of a nurse.
Barrett's last appearance in the 1970s was a minor role in the Christmas television film "The Man in the Santa Claus Suit" (1979). The film depicted Santa Claus (played by Fred Astaire) subtly helping a number of adult characters in resolving their personal problems. The film is mainly remembered as Astaire's last television role.
Barrett played Christine Chapel for the last time in the film "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home" (1986). She had a supporting role in the film, which depicted the former nurse as having achieved the rank of Commander. A year later, a third Star Trek television series was launched: "Star Trek: The Next Generation", which featured entirely new characters. Barrett guested in a few episodes as alien ambassador Lwaxana Troi, the eccentric mother of counselor Deanna Troi (played by Marina Sirtis). Barrett would play this role several times in this and the next Star Trek series, "Deep Space Nine", from 1987 to 1996. A subplot involving the character was that Lwaxana's other daughter had died young in an accident, causing Lwaxana to be overly protective of Deanna. Another subplot centered on her love relationship with Deep Space 9's shape-shifting security chief Odo.
In 1991, Gene Roddenberry died from natural causes. Barrett never remarried. In the 90s, she lent her voice talents to several Star Trek video games and the animated Spider Man TV series, and had roles in two theatrical movies. As Roddenberry had left behind archives with unfinished projects, Barrett further developed one of these projects into the science fiction television series "Earth: Final Conflict" (1997-2002). She served as the series' executive producer and acted as one of the main characters, Dr. Julianne Belman, in 11 episodes in the first three seasons. The premise of the series was that a group of seemingly benevolent aliens share their advanced technology with the people of Earth. Many humans suspect that the aliens have ulterior motives, and consequently form a militant resistance organization which opposes the aliens. The series lasted 5 seasons and 110 episodes.
Barrett fleshed out another of Roddenberry's unfinished projects into the space opera television series "Andromeda" (2000-2005). The series started in a distant future, where three galaxies are unified under the control of the Systems Commonwealth. When the Commonwealth attempts to resolve a war with another space-faring civilization by ceding territory to them, an uprising against the Commonwealth begins. In an early part of the conflict the spaceship "Andromeda Ascendant" is frozen in time. It emerges from stasis 303 years later, to find that the Commonwealth has collapsed and civilization has considerably declined. Main character Dylan Hunt (played by Kevin Sorbo) has the mission of restoring the Commonwealth. Like the previous Roddenberry series, "Andromeda" also lasted 5 seasons and 110 episodes. It was canceled largely due to a change of ownership of the production company Fireworks Entertainment. It was Barrett's last effort as an executive producer.
In her last years, Barrett was suffering from leukemia. She died in December 2008, at her home in Bel Air, Los Angeles. She was 76-years-old. Her funeral was held in early January 2009, with about 250 people in attendance. Several of her former co-stars from Star Trek attended the funeral. Prior to her death, Barrett had recorded a number of voice roles in several Star Trek fan films and series, resulting in some posthumous releases of her last roles. She is still remembered as a major figure of Star Trek.Majel Leigh Hudec
MLH- Actress
- Soundtrack
After endless stage and television work, Barrie received a Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress for her performance in the ground-breaking racial drama One Potato, Two Potato (1964), as Julie, a young, white mother who marries a black man after she and her daughter are abandoned by her husband. The following decade, Barrie portrayed Evelyn in Breaking Away (1979), which earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress, and later, an Emmy nomination, when she reprised the role in the television series based on the film. Later in her career, Barrie also was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Female for her performance as Sue Berlin, mother to the title character, Judy Berlin (1999).Barbara Ann Berman
BAB- Actress
- Writer
Elaine Jacobs was a 16-year-old high school student in New York in 1931 when she went to see the John Barrymore film Svengali (1931). From that moment, she later said, she fell in love with Barrymore and vowed that one day she would marry him, even going so far as to change her name to Elaine Barrie. A few years later she read in the newspaper that Barrymore was in a New York hospital due to an "illness" (he was actually undergoing one of his periodic "cures" for his severe alcoholism). She sent him an adoring fan letter asking for an interview, and Barrymore wrote back and granted her one. After that first interview she returned to see him every day for more "interviews", and when Barrymore was finally discharged from the hospital he moved into the Jacobs' family apartment in New York City. Barrymore's divorce from actress Dolores Costello was still not final, and Elaine was 30 years younger than Barrymore, and when the press discovered the situation, they had a field day. Barrymore took Elaine and her mother out to nightclubs, parties and theaters all over the city, with reporters and photographers in hot pursuit. The coverage of the pair was so extensive that in 1935 the Associated Press named Elaine (along with presidential candidate Alf Landon) as one of the people who made that year most interesting.
Barrie and Barrymore were finally married in 1936, and it turned out to be a stormy one. She appeared in one of his films and made two shorts (one of which, How to Undress in Front of Your Husband (1937), was made by low-rent exploitation legend Dwain Esper) capitalizing on her status as Barrymore's wife. She also co-starred with him on Broadway and in several radio dramas. However, Barrymore's heavy drinking and serial infidelity resulted in several trial separations, and they finally divorced in 1940.
After the divorce Barrie wrote a book about her life with Barrymore, "All My Sins Remembered", and took a job at a New York brokerage firm. In the early 1950s she and her mother went to Haiti for a vacation, and they wound up staying there for nine years, developing a successful business exporting straw hats and handbags to high-end retail stores in the US. However, the worsening and dangerous political climate in Haiti resulted in their returning to New York in 1963. A few years later she and her mother moved the business and their residence to Trinidad. After her mother died, Elaine returned to the US.
She died in New York City on March 1, 2003.Elaine Jacobs
EJ- Actress
- Producer
- Writer
Fantasia Barrino was born on 30 June 1984 in High Point, North Carolina, USA. She is an actress and producer, known for The Color Purple (2023), The Butler (2013) and American Idol (2002). She has been married to Kendall Taylor since 19 July 2015. They have one child.Fantasia Monique Barrino
FMB- Actress
- Producer
Bessie Barriscale was born on 30 September 1884 in Hoboken, New Jersey, USA. She was an actress and producer, known for Rose of the Rancho (1914), Home (1916) and The Painted Soul (1915). She was married to Howard Hickman. She died on 30 June 1965 in Kentfield, California, USA.Elizabeth Barry Scale
EBS- Actress
- Additional Crew
Joan Barry was born in 1903. At the age of 15 she had her first small part in "Luck of the Navy". Some of her talking pictures were: "Head Waiter", A Man of Mayfair (1931) and Rome Express (1932), while her her first title role was in the film Sally Bishop (1932).
Joan is likely to be remembered best for the uncredited role as the voice of Anny Ondra in the first British Talkie Blackmail (1929) - directed by Alfred Hitchcock. She worked with him again in East of Shanghai (1931). Joan Barry retired from the business in 1934 instead choosing marriage and motherhood.Mary Louise Gribble
MLG- Patricia received her first break into acting very soon after she graduated from Stephens College in the mid 1940s. Almost immediately after graduating, she received a contract from Columbia Pictures. They recognized that she had the rare combination of beauty, grace and intelligence that would serve her well throughout her long and well-respected career. When she first signed with Columbia Pictures, she was known as Patricia White. A few years later, in the late 1940s, she met Philip Barry Jr., who was to become her husband. Philip was a television producer-director and the son and namesake of the well-known playwright Philip Barry. By 1950, Patricia began using her married name, Barry. Patricia and Philip shared a long and happy marriage that only ended upon his death on May 16, 1998. During their marriage, they collaborated on several projects. Her husband Philip wrote and she acted in episodes of Matinee Theatre (1955) in the late 1950s. Her husband also produced several television programs that she acted in. They include: The Alcoa Hour (1955), a major dramatic TV series than ran from 1955 to 1957, a well-known TV horror film called Crowhaven Farm (1970), and two made-for-TV biographies, First, You Cry (1978), and Bogie (1980). Patricia Barry may well have been one of the hardest working actresses of her time, having performed over 130 movie and television roles. She died of age-related causes on October 12, 2016, at age 93.Patricia Allen White
PAW - Viola Barry was born on 4 March 1894 in Evanston, Illinois, USA. She was an actress, known for Evangeline (1911), The Sea Wolf (1913) and Martin Eden (1914). She was married to F. McGrew Willis and Jack Conway. She died on 2 April 1964 in Hollywood, California, USA.Gladys Viola Wilson
GVW - Actress
- Writer
"Too Much, Too Soon" was the story of Diana's life, and the title of her autobiography. Her father was stage and screen legend John Barrymore and her mother was Blanche Oelrichs (who wrote under the masculine pseudonym Michael Strange), who had just divorced Mr. Thomas and had 2 children (Leonard and Robin) from that marriage. Diana's parents got married on August 15, 1920, and Diana was born 7 months later, on March 3, 1921.
At age 6, Diana was attending school in Paris and rarely saw her father as he was romancing Dolores Costello (whom he'd later marry) and divorcing Diana's mother. Next year, she was back in USA and by 1929, her mom had married Harrison Tweed. By age 14, she had already spent a few years in boarding school so she saw little of her mother and years had gone by without her meeting her father.
In 1934, when her father did come for one rare visit, he took Diana and an older schoolmate friend of hers to dinner and a movie and he got drunk and hit on Diana's 17-year-old schoolmate. In rebellion against years of getting no attention from her parents, Diana attended a dance wearing a "lurid red satin dress with a plunging neckline and hardly any back," and a pair of borrowed high heels. She had decided to stop feeling miserable and stop being a victim of her parents who had ignored her her entire life.
By 1937, Diana was enrolled in the American Academy of Dramatic Art in New York and vacationing summers in Europe on her $500 a month allowance (a fortune in those days). In November 1938, David Selznick gave Diana a screen test to play Scarlett O'Hara in "Gone With the Wind' and although she didn't get the part, the following year Diana was doing summer stock in Maine for $10 a week. By 1940, her salary had increased to $150 per week when she appeared in "Outward Bound" in the Harris Theatre in Chicago, right next door to where John Barrymore was performing "My Dear Children" at the Selwyn Theatre, his first theatrical work in 15 years (he had exclusively made movies since 1925).
At 19 years of age, Diana made her Broadway debut playing Caroline Bronson in "Romantic Mr. Dickens." Later, helping the war effort, she also campaigned for "Bundles for Britain." In January 1942, Diana left the stage for Hollywood when producer Walter Wanger had promised to cast her in movies at $1,000 a week, and she would appear in two of his films: Eagle Squadron (1942) with screen legend Robert Stack and later Ladies Courageous (1944). Actor Van Heflin proposed to Diana, and introduced her to producer Joe Pasternak, who had collaborated with director Henry Koster on many films; Koster was set to direct Between Us Girls (1942). Diana got the role, but not Van Heflin, two days later he married Frances Neal.
Diana visited the hospital the night her father died on May 29, 1942 (of cirrhosis of the liver, from decades of too much alcohol). She let years of pent-up emotions out when she wrote, "Damn mother for her indifference and disdain of me, and damn daddy for the crazy, mixed-up life he led."
Diana quickly married Bramwell Fletcher, who was 18 years older than her, on July 30, 1942 (they would divorce in 1947). Diana gave a standout performance in the starring role in the film noir classic Nightmare (1942) costarring Oscar-nominated veteran actor Brian Donlevy but problems started with the filming of Fired Wife (1943); even though her salary was now raised to $2,000 per week, and Universal had advertised her as "1942's Most Sensational New Screen Personality"; it seemed it was all too much, too soon. The box office didn't deliver as they had counted on her Barrymore name so the studio had wanted to cash in on her instantly instead of grooming her for roles, and finding suitable projects. When Universal, clutching at straws, asked if she'd work with Abbott and Costello, Diana refused and was put on unpaid suspension. The suspension lasted 6 months and when Diana was cast in "Ladies Courageous" it was in a secondary role, the lead had been reassigned to Loretta Young.
December 1943, Diana and her husband headed back to New York and despite achieving some recognition in movies, her film career was over and Diana considered herself a has-been before her 23rd birthday. The couple took the Theatre Guild production of "Rebecca" on the road to Cleveland, Detroit, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, Cincinnati. By the summer of 1945, Diana returned to Hollywood she couldn't find any parts in movie but was instead offered $1,000 a week to be on Jack Carson's NBC radio show. In 1947, Diana divorced her husband and married again on the rebound. This time it was to a John R. Howard who was a 6'2" tennis pro (5th ranked in the nation) whom Diana met and married (January 17, 1947), and divorced after living with him as man and wife for 6 months; he was 2 years younger than her. John was broke, sponged off Diana's money and got them both arrested one night in June in his hometown of Louisville, Kentucky for drunk driving and he'd assaulted the policemen. After only 6 months of marriage, Diana asked for a divorce but John would only agree to give it to her for a large sum of money. Diana refused to pay him and got the divorce after 3 years.
Diana went to Salem, MA, to do summer stock where the producer introduced her to actor Robert Wilcox, who would become husband number three. Wilcox had been in about 2 dozen B-movies, was 11 years older than Diana and was also a recovering alcoholic. They celebrated his release from the rehab clinic by drinking martinis. Summer stock became a winter tour in Atlanta, with Diana earning $750 a week and Wilcox $250 but Wilcox drank so heavily that soon nobody wanted to hire him but were forced to retain him as Diana refused to act without him. After summer stock in 1948, they returned to New York where the jobs soon ran out and they were forced to live on the trust fund John Barrymore had set up for her, becoming even more broke by the minute.
Early in 1950, CBS offered Diana a new opportunity: television. They offered her a live talk show, "The Diana Barrymore Show" at 11:00 p.m., and had guests like Earl "the Pearl" Wilson lined up. Diana showed up the first night, too drunk to work and the show was canceled before it aired. (To make matters worse, the show became "The Faye Emerson Show" which launched the former movie actress' television career into almost a dozen TV series).
When the FBI threw husband number two in jail (for white slavery), he no longer contested the divorce and Diana married Robert Wilcox on October 17, 1950 but her hopeful new start would soon come crashing down with the year ending with Diana's mother's death on November 5 1950. As the year 1951 started, Diana was at an all-time low point, she'd been drinking steadily for weeks, got the DTs and had gone through all her money ($250,000 from her Hollywood earnings, and almost $50,000 she'd inherited when her half-brother Robin had died). Diana pawned all her jewelry (diamond bracelets, pins, etc.) and took a job in Vaudeville which was considered demeaning but where she was at least earning a weekly salary again.
Rather than face humiliation in New York ("a Barrymore following a juggling act!"), Diana and Robert got booked for 3 weeks in the Celebrity Club in Sydney, Australia in the autumn of 1951--and stayed in Australia for 6 months, mainly doing stage performances at the Princess Theatre in Melbourne. Whereas she'd been shunned in New York, she was a big celebrity in Australia, for a while but Diana's drinking got her in trouble, again and even got her fired for her drinking in Brisbane, while booked into a vaudeville house with a girlie show called "the Nudie-Cuties." By March 1952, Diana and Robert were working in half empty houses in Tasmania.
Back in Hollywood later that year, they were so flat broke they got locked out of their hotel room because the rent was 2 weeks overdue; Diana mooched money from old friends like Tyrone Powers. In November 1952 came the shocking news that her late mother's estate, the once Barrymore millions, came to a mere $8,000-- decades of lavish spending had spent it all. Diana and Robert tried to get help at an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting; however, they "fortified" themselves with drinks before the meeting, and made straight for a bar after it was over. Wilcox never worked, he just sat around the hotel room all day getting drunk, and sponging off Diana. She, in turn, started a love affair with Tom Farrell. Before it was all over, Robert had cracked both their skulls, leaving them bloodied where Diana needed stitches from a doctor, and then announcing she was divorcing Robert. Even though Tom Farrell had been "the other man" only a few weeks before, when Tom spotted Diana having a drink with an old friend, he went berserk. In their hotel room, in a jealous rage, he beat Diana to a bloody pulp, breaking her nose while he hit her with fists until she fell, and then kicking her repeatedly when she was on the floor. This would be the second time in such a short time where a doctor would have to tend to her injuries caused by her problematic relationships. For the next 3 months, Diana kept herself sequestered in her apartment, drinking heavily and taking pills; her weight dropped from a healthy 130 pounds to a skeletal 97. Being close to death, with cirrhosis, Diana took Robert back. Diana, once from the enormously rich family, was so broke she shopped for supermarket sales, getting beef liver for 33 cents a pound. When the electricity was turned off in their apartment (they hadn't paid the electric bill in months), they didn't even have money to buy candles.
They finally got summer stock work, and then a 6-month tour but Robert caught another colic attack of pancreatitis, his fourth which proved to be fatal. In November 1954, when Diana was in a French bedroom farce "Pajama Tops," where they showed her posters showing her half naked. Humiliated, she carried on with the job as she needed the money and by that time, more than half of the theatres in the country had blacklisted her.
On June 11, 1955, after Diana told him in a phone conversation that she wanted a divorce, Robert spent the next few hours drinking at a bar and he eventually collapsed of a heart attack while he was on a train to Rochester.
Diana checked herself into rehab at Towns Hospital in New York for 8 weeks, to get treatment for her alcoholism and barbiturate dependence. She returned to work on the stage sober. In 1957, Diana wrote her autobiography (along with Gerold Frank), and the 300+ page book was turned into a whitewashed, vague movie Too Much, Too Soon (1958). Diana finally took her own life on January 25, 1960 at only 38 years old. In her book, she had lamented: "So much has been dreamed, so little done; there was so much promise and so much waste."Diana Blanche Barrymore Blythe
DBBB- Producer
- Actress
- Director
Since melting audiences' hearts at the age of just six in E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), Drew Barrymore has emerged as one of the most beloved and singularly gifted actresses of her generation. Born in Culver City, California to John Drew Barrymore and Jaid Barrymore, the clutches of fame were near inescapable for young Drew, her father being a member of the esteemed showbiz dynasty fronted by stage star Maurice Barrymore, his thespian wife Georgiana and their three children: Lionel Barrymore, Ethel Barrymore, and John Barrymore.
Tailgating a turbulent adolescence that saw her grapple with insobriety, substance abuse, and cutthroat media vitriol, a diligent Barrymore threw herself into her career throughout the early-mid nineties, first with a succession of 'bad girl' parts in cultish B-pictures like Poison Ivy (1992), Guncrazy (1992) and - fittingly - Bad Girls (1994); then warmly received turns in prestige vehicles such as Boys on the Side (1995), Woody Allen's Everyone Says I Love You (1996), and Wes Craven's game-changing Scream (1996). Equal portions of goofball - The Wedding Singer (1998), Never Been Kissed (1999), Charlie's Angels (2000) - and gravitas - Riding in Cars with Boys (2001), Donnie Darko (2001), Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (2002) - came next, with a Golden Globe-grabbing pièce de résistance - her divine incarnation of Edith Bouvier Beale in Grey Gardens (2009) - confirming that her skill set was every bit as forceful and far-reaching as imagined.
Having already set in motion a bunch of lucrative projects via production house Flower Films (co-est. with Nancy Juvonen in '95), Barrymore fastened an additional string to her bow when she spearheaded the sports dramedy Whip It (2009), her glowingly appraised directorial debut. Fresh off a healthy run of movie parts at the launch of the 2010s, her star turn as zombified suburban realtor Sheila Hammond - a tour de force at once dizzy and detailed - on Netflix's Santa Clarita Diet (2017) saw her step with trademark resolve into newer territory still: the flourishing world of small screen entertainment, a metamorphosis she continues to espouse with her role as compère of spirited daytime staple The Drew Barrymore Show (2020).Drew Blythe Barrymore
DBB- Ethel Barrymore was the second of three children seemingly destined for the actor's life of their parents Maurice and Georgiana. Maurice Barrymore had emigrated from England in 1875, and after graduating from Cambridge in law had shocked his family by becoming an actor. Georgiana Drew of Philadelphia acted in her parents' stage company. The two met and married as members of Augustin Daly's company in New York. They both acted with some of the great stage personalities of the mid Victorian theater of America and England. The Barrymore children were born and grew up in Philadelphia. Though older brother Lionel Barrymore began acting early with his mother's relatives in the Drew theater company, Ethel, after a traditional girl's schooling, planned on becoming a concert pianist.
The lure of the stage was perhaps congenital, however. She made her debut as a stage actress during the New York City season of 1894. Her youthful stage presence was at once a pleasure, a strikingly pretty and winsome face and large dark eyes that seemed to look out from her very soul. Her natural talent and distinctive voice only reinforced the physical presence of someone destined to command any role set before her. After the opportunity to appear on the London stage with English great Henry Irving in "The Bells" (1897) and later in "Peter the Great" (1898), she returned to New York to star in the Clyde Fitch play "Captain Jinks of the Horse Marines" (1901) (produced by her friend and benefactor Charles Frohman), which brought her initial American acclaim. Lead roles, such as Nora in Henrik Ibsen's "A Doll's House" (1905) and starring in "Alice By the Fire" (also 1905), "Mid-Channel" (1910) and "Trelawney of the Wells" (1911) proved her popularity as a warm and charismatic star of American stage. In the meantime she married stockbroker Russell Griswold Colt in 1909 and gave birth to three children while continuing her acting career.
Although the stage was her first love, she did heed the call of the silver screen, and though not achieving the matinée idol image that younger brother John Barrymore garnered in silent movies after similar chemistry on stage, she won over audiences from her first film appearance in The Nightingale (1914). However, her early film roles, steady through 1919, took a back seat to continued stage triumphs: "Declassee" (1919), her impassioned Juliet in "Romeo and Juliet" (1922), "The Second Mrs. Tanqueray" (1924) and, especially, "The Constant Wife" (1926).
She harnessed her considerable talents in the role of an activist as well, being a bedrock supporter of the Actors Equity Association and, in fact, had been a prominent figure in the actors strike of 1919. By 1930 she was entering middle age and her movie roles reflected this. Except for Rasputin and the Empress (1932) with her brothers, the roles were elderly mothers and grandmothers, dowager ladies and spinster aunts. Perhaps wisely she put off Hollywood for over a decade, with stage work that included her most endearing role in "The Corn is Green" (a tour that lasted from 1940 to 1942). She finally moved to Southern California in 1940.
Yet the consummate actress glowed still in the films that came steadily in the mid-'40s and through much of the 1950s. As the mother of Cary Grant in the pensive None But the Lonely Heart (1944) she started off her late film career brilliantly by receiving the Oscar for Best Actress in a supporting role, though she was not satisfied with that effort. Her engaging wit and humanity stood out in even supporting roles, such as, the politically savvy mother of Joseph Cotten in The Farmer's Daughter (1947) and, once again with Cotton, as sympathetic art dealer Miss Spinney, with those eyes, in the haunting screen adaptation of Robert Nathan's novel Portrait of Jennie (1948). There was also a mingling of some TV work to round out her last movies in the late 1950s. In 1955 she saw her book "Memories, An Autobiography" see publication. For the enduring legacy she had already begun years before, a theater named for her was dedicated in New York in 1928. When she passed away in 1959, she was interred near her brothers at Calvary Cemetery in East Los Angeles.Ethel Mae Blythe
EMB - The only child of Jozsef Barsi and Maria Benko, Judith Eva Barsi beat 10,000-to-1 odds when she was discovered at a San Fernando Valley skating rink at age 5 1/2 in 1983 and mistaken for a three-year-old. Her first commercial was for Donald Duck Orange Juice and she went on to appear in anywhere between fifty and a hundred commercials, several episodes of various T.V. series, and three major motion pictures. Her mother Maria was the main thrust of her career as a Hollywood starlet, but also took great pains to try to give her a normal, happy childhood; bringing her Hungarian meals like duck for her school lunch. But this happy childhood did not last long. Beginning in 1985, Jozsef would often be home drunk instead of working as a plumber, and he refused to let Maria work. As a result, the family briefly went on welfare until Judith's career took off in 1986 and 1987. By the time she entered fourth grade, she was pulling in an estimated $100,000 a year, which bought her family a nice four-bedroom house on a quiet street in West Hill. As her career soared, her father became an increasingly abusive recluse who constantly threatened to kill his wife and daughter. In stressful moods Judith bit her nails and plucked out her eyebrows and eyelashes and her cats' whiskers. C.P.S. was called in numerous times, but as Maria was reluctant to press charges and many of the reports/accounts were emotional and not physical abuse, the case was not pursued.
On Wednesday, July 27th, Eunice Daly, a next-door neighbor, heard a loud bang next door while watering her plants. The house had been set on fire, and later the Barsis' bodies were discovered shot dead. All of Judith's toys that were not destroyed by the fire were given to the local Goodwill, and her best friend continued to feed her cats for months afterward.Judith Eva Barsi
JEB - Actress
- Producer
- Director
Lynsey Bartilson was born in Edina, Minnesota on July 1, 1983, and moved to Los Angeles with her family at four. A dancer from a very young age, Lynsey won her first talent competition at the age of seven, in solo dance. She discovered her love for comedy in a summer drama class, when she was cast as the Wicked Witch in The Wizard of Oz, even though she was the smallest child in the class. With a soon-revealed instinct for comedic timing, Lynsey had 'Dorothy' shaking with fear, and the audience roaring with laughter.
Lynsey began acting professionally at the age of 9, with guest appearances on television and video. At the same time, she was performing in professional musical theater productions across Los Angeles. She played Annie in three different productions; starred as Ramona Quimby, and got great notices as Effie Lou in the world premiere of Amelia Bedelia. She won a Dramalogue Award for her performance as Young Maxine in Situation Tragedy. She also continued dancing professionally, appearing twice in the Joffrey Ballet's annual Nutcracker. All of that musical theater experience paid off when CBS began looking for a young triple-threat to star opposite Angela Lansbury in the Hallmark Christmas musical special, Mrs. Santa Claus. Lynsey was chosen from more than 500 girls who auditioned for the part.
Lynsey enjoys helping others achieve their goals. The director and choreographer for Celebrity Centre's Kids on Stage for a Better World, Lynsey works with 40-50 youngsters to create positive-message benefit concerts for the disadvantaged. Under Lynsey's direction, the group was awarded the Young Artists Awards Michael J. Landon Community Service Award. In addition, Lynsey is currently the International Spokesperson for Youth for Human Rights. The purpose of this group is: "To teach youth around the globe about human rights, thus helping them to become valuable advocates for the promotion of tolerance and peace."Lynsey Marie Bartilson
LMB- Erinn Bartlett was born on 26 February 1973 in Longmeadow, Massachusetts, USA. She is an actress, known for The Benchwarmers (2006), Shallow Hal (2001) and Little Nicky (2000). She has been married to Oliver Hudson since 9 June 2006. They have three children.Erinn Anne Bartlett
EAB - Writer
- Actress
- Executive
Hania Marsden-Barton was born on 18 February 1988 in London, England, UK. She is a writer and actress, known for Marilyn Monroe Back?, By Love Reclaimed: The Untold Story of Jean Harlow and Paul Bern and Alessandro Valtulini Untitled BioPic.Hania Claire Barton
HCB- Actress
- Writer
Mischa Barton is a versatile actress with a passion for storytelling and an impressive career spanning over two decades. Working with such acclaimed directors and writers as M. Night Shyamalan, James Lapine and Naomi Wallace, she is known for her magnetic on-screen presence and natural acting abilities that have captivated audiences worldwide. She has earned her reputation as one of the most talented performers of her generation.
Born in London, England, Barton quickly made her mark in the entertainment industry with her debut film role in "Lawn Dogs" (1997). From there, she continued to showcase her versatility in a variety of film and television projects, including the hit supernatural thriller "The Sixth Sense" (1999) and the critically acclaimed drama series "Once and Again" (2002-2003).
However, it was her iconic role as Marissa Cooper in the hit television series "The O.C." (2003-2006) that truly launched Barton to superstardom. Her portrayal of the troubled, yet lovable character resonated with audiences worldwide, cementing her place as a pop culture icon and earning her widespread critical acclaim with critics praising her nuanced portrayal of a complex character.
She has appeared in several stage productions throughout her career, including the acclaimed Off-Broadway productions of "Where the Truth Lies," "Twelve Dreams," and "One Flea Spare." Her performances were praised for their depth, nuance, and emotional range, demonstrating her versatility as an actress.Mischa Anne Barton
MAB- Laurie Bartram was born on 16 May 1958 in St. Louis, Missouri, USA. She was an actress, known for Friday the 13th (1980), Emergency! (1972) and Another World (1964). She was married to Gregory McCauley. She died on 25 May 2007 in Lynchburg, Virginia, USA.Laurie Lee Bartram
LLB - Ashley Bashioum started her acting career at age 15. Her first role was "Mackenzie Browning" on daytime's #1 soap, The Young and the Restless (1973). She finished her high-schooling while continuing to act. Her hopes and dreams were to go to college. Due to not being able to come to contract agreements, she has not renewed her contract. Her final episode aired February 14th 2002, after which her character was recast. However, she returned to "The Young and the Restless" and played Mackenzie again in 2004. A year later, she left to act in other roles for a few more years. However, she retired from acting permanently in 2013 when she married Trevor Conner. She has two sons (Brooklyn and Cade) and a daughter (Lennox) with her husband.Ashley Noel Bashioum
ANB - Actress
- Additional Crew
- Director
Toni Basil began her career as a dancer and assistant choreographer, working on such shows as Hullabaloo (1965) choreographed by David Winters. Later, she choreographed the hit film American Graffiti (1973) and also began appearing in films, including the now-classic Easy Rider (1969). After several films, she launched her music career with her first album, "Word of Mouth", in 1981, which was released both as a record and a video, quite an innovation at the time. Culled from that album was a innocent little ditty called "Mickey", which soon became a massive hit all over the world, first in Britain. The song topped the American music charts in December 1982, and the video (directed by Basil, as were all of her others) still receives airplay, today. In 1984, Toni Basil's self-titled follow-up album was released, which included the American Top 40 hit "Over My Head". Although she found future chart success elusive, Basil remained busy appearing in such films as Rockula (1990) and has appeared in a guest shot on Baywatch (1989) in the late 1990s. Her choreographer talents have also been utilized lately by superstars Bette Midler and David Bowie and, in 1998, she choreographed a successful ad for "The Gap".Antonia Christina Basilotta
ACB- Actress
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Kim Basinger was born December 8, 1953, in Athens, Georgia, the third of five children. Both her parents had been in entertainment, her dad had played big-band jazz, and her mother had performed water ballet in several Esther Williams movies. Kim was introspective, from her father's side. As a schoolgirl, she was very shy. To help her overcome this, her parents had Kim study ballet from an early age. By the time she reached sweet sixteen, the once-shy Kim entered the Athens Junior Miss contest. From there, she went on to win the Junior Miss Georgia title, and traveled to New York to compete in the national Junior Miss pageant. Kim, who had blossomed to a 5' 7" beauty, was offered a contract on the spot with the Ford Modeling Agency. At the age of 20, Kim was a top model commanding $1,000 a day. Throughout the early 1970s, she appeared on dozens of magazine covers and in hundreds of ads, most notably as the Breck girl. Kim took acting classes at the Neighborhood Playhouse, performed in various Greenwich Village clubs, and she sang under the stage name Chelsea. Kim moved to Los Angeles in 1976, ready to conquer Hollywood. Kim broke into television doing episodes of such hit series as Charlie's Angels (1976). In 1980, she married Ron Snyder (they divorced in 1989). In movies, she had roles like being a Bond girl in Never Say Never Again (1983) and playing a small-town Texan beauty in Nadine (1987). Her breakout role was as photojournalist Vicki Vale in the blockbuster hit Batman (1989). There was no long-orchestrated campaign on her part to snag this plum role, Kim was a last-minute replacement for Sean Young. This took her to a career high.
With perhaps too much disposable income, Kim headed up an investment group that purchased the entire town of Braselton, in her native Georgia, for $20 million (she would later have to sell it). In 1993, Kim married Alec Baldwin, and in 1995 they had a daughter, Ireland Eliesse. Kim took some time off to stay at home with her child. Kim, who loves animals and is a strict vegetarian, devoted energy to animal rights issues, and PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals), even posing for some ads. In 1997, Kim gave an Oscar-winning performance in the film noir classic L.A. Confidential (1997). Kim's salary for I Dreamed of Africa (2000) was $5,000,000, putting her firmly in the category of big-name movie star. And no doubt there are still many great things ahead, in the career of cover girl turned Oscar-winning actress Kim Basinger.Kimila Ann Basinger
KAB- Journalist Adela Rogers St. Johns once dubbed Lina Basquette "The Screen Tragedy Girl." In retrospect, Lina's private life bore a similar description. While six of her eight marriages ended up "I Don'ts" (she was widowed twice), she would also have to contend with a flurry of legal confrontations, stormy affairs and suicide attempts. Once she gave a fond farewell to her entertainment career in the late 1930s, her life literally went to the dogs.
The full-faced, raven-haired California-born actress was christened Lena Baskette, the daughter of Frank Baskette, a drug store owner. Lina trained in dance while very young and at the San Francisco World's Fair of 1915, the eight-year-old was featured as a baby ballerina for the Victor Talking Machine Company's exhibition. Movie maker Carl Laemmle saw her perform and signed her to a long-term contract with his Universal Pictures company at $50 a week. Lina headlined her very own short programs, the "Lena Baskette Featurettes," between 1916-1917, and also garnered young leads in a number of full-length features including What Love Can Do (1916), Shoes (1916), A Prince for a Day (1917), The Weaker Vessel (1919) and, more notably, Penrod (1922).
In 1916, Lena's father died and mother Gladys remarried. Gladys and her new husband, dance director Ernest Belcher, had a daughter together who became Lena's half-sister and future dancing star Marge Champion. Lena's mother was an avid stage mother and eventually, with Belcher's help, managed to prod Lena into the Ziegfeld Follies of 1923. She stayed with the Follies for a couple of years. Billed third as "America's Prima Ballerina," Lena's marquee name was changed to the more exotic spelling of "Lina Basquette." Her act was caught by the legendary Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova, who offered to take on Lina as her protégée. Lina's mother nixed the offer, wishing to make bigger bucks for her daughter with the Follies and other shows, Texas Guinan's notorious speakeasies notwithstanding.
At age 18, Lina married 38-year-old Warner Bros. mogul Sam Warner. Lina greatly influenced Warner to pursue sound pictures and even encouraged him to star Al Jolson in The Jazz Singer (1927). Sam died unexpectedly at age 40 of a brain hemorrhage the night before the film's premiere. This heartbreak jump-started an avalanche of problems for Lina. She not only became embroiled in a series of legal battles with her in-laws over her husband's estate, she lost custody of her daughter Lita in the process. She would not see her daughter for another 30 years. This crisis led to Lina's first attempt at suicide.
Lina valiantly returned to films and made such silents as Ranger of the North (1927), The Noose (1928) and Wheel of Chance (1928), while scoring two noteworthy roles in Frank Capra's The Younger Generation (1929) and Cecil B. DeMille's The Godless Girl (1928). In the latter she played an avowed atheist. This powerful film should have made Lina a sultry star had it not been released as a silent film right at the advent of talkies.
Within a very short time Lina married twice more -- a quickie union to cameraman J. Peverell Marley, and in 1931 the widow (once again) of third husband, actor Ray Hallam, who suddenly died at the age of 26 after only a few months of wedded bliss. Lina subsequently started up a highly publicized affair with famed boxer Jack Dempsey. Their stormy breakup led to her second suicide try and a rebound marriage to his personal trainer Theodore Hayes in December of 1931. This fourth marriage was not valid as it was discovered that Hayes was already married. The couple remarried in 1933 and had a son, Edward Alvin, in 1934 before divorcing the following year.
At this juncture Lina's private life received more interest from the public than her films. Her career had down-sized to "B" westerns opposite such stars as Buck Jones and Hoot Gibson and a few mellers here and there. After touring the stages of Australia, New Zealand and various South African cities in the plays "Private Lives," "Black Limelight" and "Idiot's Delight" in 1938 and 1939, and after appearing in the films Rose of the Rio Grande (1938), Four Men and a Prayer (1938) and A Night for Crime (1943), she called it quits.
Misfortune, however, continued to follow her. In August of 1943 she brought up assault and rape charges against a 22-year-old Army GI. The soldier was found guilty and sentenced to 20 years in the brig. Completely retired, she found emotional solace with her new post-war profession -- the breeding and handling of Great Danes. In 1949, she became the owner of Honey Hollow Kennels, a 25 acre estate in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. There she bred and raised champion dogs for best-in-shows and also became a respected judge. More marriages came and fell by the wasteside and at least one of her later unions lost out to an either/or ultimatum with her Great Danes. Lina also wrote the non-fiction book "Your Great Dane" in 1972. She moved to Wheeling, West Virginia, in 1975 and lived there until her death of lymphoma at age 87 on September 30, 1994.
Out of nowhere, the octogenarian grandmother had one last chance to bask in the limelight when she was touchingly cast as Nada in Daniel Boyd's independent feature Paradise Park (1992) playing an Appalachian trailer park granny who dreams that God is coming and granting a wish on all its residents. The film also featured country music stars Porter Wagoner and Johnny PayCheck. Boyd had met the actress at a West Virginia film festival.Lena Copeland Baskette
LCB - Actress
- Producer
- Director
Captivating, gifted, and sensational, Angela Bassett's presence has been felt in theaters and on stages and television screens throughout the world. Angela Evelyn Bassett was born on August 16, 1958 in New York City, to Betty Jane (Gilbert), a social worker, and Daniel Benjamin Bassett, a preacher's son. Bassett and her sister D'nette grew up in St. Petersburg, Florida with their mother. As a single mother, Betty stressed the importance of education for her children. With the assistance of an academic scholarship, Bassett matriculated into Yale University. In 1980, she received her B.A. in African-American studies from Yale University. In 1983, she earned a Master of Fine Arts Degree from the Yale School of Drama. It was at Yale that Bassett met her husband, Courtney B. Vance, a 1986 graduate of the Drama School.
Bassett first appeared in small roles on The Cosby Show (1984) and Spenser: For Hire (1985), but it was not until 1990 that a spate of television roles brought her notice. Her breakthrough role, though, was playing Tina Turner, whom she had never seen perform before taking the role, in What's Love Got to Do with It (1993). Bassett's performance earned her an Academy Award nomination and a Golded Globe Award for Best Actress.Angela Evelyn Bassett
AEB- Writer
- Director
- Producer
Born in Rye, New York, writer/director/producer/author Justine Bateman's directorial feature film debut of her own script, Violet (2021), stars Olivia Munn, Luke Bracey, and Justin Theroux. The film premiered at SXSW and The Toronto Film Festival in 2021. It was released in theaters, to much acclaim, in Oct 2021.
Her best-selling first book, "Fame," a non-fiction about society's need for its presence, was published in 2018 by Akashic Books. Her second book, "Face," is also an Akashic Books best-seller and was published in 2021.
Bateman has an impressive former acting resume that includes Family Ties (1982), Satisfaction (1988), Arrested Development (2003), and many more. She has earned a Golden Globe nomination and two Emmy nominations. An advocate for Net Neutrality, Justine holds a degree from UCLA in Computer Science and Digital Media Management. Her producing credits include Easy to Assemble (2008) with Illeana Douglas and Jared Drake's Z (2011). Bateman wrote and produced her directorial film short debut, Five Minutes (2017), which premiered at the 2017 Toronto Film Festival and was chosen by seven more festivals, including the 2018 Tribeca Film Festival. It was one of the winners of the 2019 Amazon Prime Video Direct Festival Stars Program and was chosen by both Short of the Week and Vimeo's Staff Picks. Her follow-up film short was the drama, PUSH (2017).Justine Tanya Bateman
JTB- Actress
- Soundtrack
The American character actress, Florence Rabe, was the daughter of an antique store owner. She gained a degree in Mathematics from the University of Texas in 1906 and went on to a career in teaching and social work. She changed course after being persuaded by a friend to study law, and, passing her bar exam in 1914, practised for four years in San Antonio. When her parents died, she took over the business and travelled abroad extensively to acquire stock, all the while adding to her knowledge of foreign languages (she was, for instance, a fluent Spanish speaker). After the Wall Street crash of 1929, Florence sold the antique store and married Texan oilman William F. Jacoby. Jacoby eventually went bankrupt and the couple moved to California in the late 1930's, briefly becoming proprietors of a bakery.
At this time, Florence, a heavy-set woman of matronly appearance and well into her middle age, developed an interest in acting and auditioned for the part of Miss Bates in the Pasadena Playhouse production of Jane Austen's 'Emma'. This proved to be a momentous career choice. Her popularity became such, that she went on to leading roles with the same company, changing her name to Florence Bates as a nod to her perceived good fortune. In 1939, she screen tested for Alfred Hitchcock, who was sufficiently impressed to cast her as the demanding, imperious dowager Mrs. Edythe Van Hopper in Rebecca (1940). Her excellent performance was the first in a gallery of memorable characters: wealthy socialites, irritable, henpecking wives, hotel managers (The Moon and Sixpence (1942)), theatre owners (Tonight and Every Night (1945)) and unctuous, gossipy landladies (Portrait of Jennie (1948)). She was equally adept at comedy, appearing to great effect in Heaven Can Wait (1943) and Lullaby of Broadway (1951), with frequent co-star S.Z. Sakall, aka 'Cuddles'. She was enjoyably larger-than-life as Danny Kaye's prospective mother-in-law in The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1947) and as Vera-Ellen's inebriated Russian dance teacher, Madame Dilyovska, in On the Town (1949). Bates even essayed a murderess in The Brasher Doubloon (1947). Destined never to win any awards, Florence Bates continued in films until her death in 1954. She was pre-deceased by her sister, her only daughter and her husband.Florence Rabe
FR- Actress
- Director
- Producer
Multi-talented, multi-award-winning actress Kathleen (Doyle) Bates was born on June 28, 1948, and raised in Memphis, Tennessee. She is the youngest of three girls born to Bertye Kathleen (Talbot), a homemaker, and Langdon Doyle Bates, a mechanical engineer. Her grandfather was author Finis L. Bates. Kathy has English, as well as Irish, Scottish, and German, ancestry, and one of her ancestors, an Irish emigrant to New Orleans, once served as President Andrew Jackson's doctor.
Kathy discovered acting appearing in high school plays and studied drama at Southern Methodist University, graduating in 1969. With her mind firmly set, she moved to New York City in 1970 and paid her dues by working everything from a cash register to taking lunch orders. Things started moving quickly up the ladder after giving a tour-de-force performance alongside Christopher Walken at Buffalo's Studio Arena Theatre in Lanford Wilson's world premiere of "Lemon Sky" in 1970, but she also had a foreshadowing of the heartbreak to come after the successful show relocated to New York's off-Broadway Playhouse Theatre without her and Walken wound up winning a Drama Desk award.
By the mid-to-late 1970s, Kathy was treading the boards frequently as a rising young actress of the New York and regional theater scene. She appeared in "Casserole" and "A Quality of Mercy" (both 1975) before earning exceptional reviews for her role of Joanne in "Vanities". She took her first Broadway curtain call in 1980's "Goodbye Fidel," which lasted only six performances. She then went directly into replacement mode when she joined the cast of the already-established and highly successful "Fifth of July" in 1981.
Kathy made a false start in films with Taking Off (1971), in which she was billed as "Bobo Bates". She didn't film again until Straight Time (1978), starring Dustin Hoffman, and that part was not substantial enough to cause a stir. Things turned hopeful, however, when Kathy and the rest of the female ensemble were given the chance to play their respective Broadway parts in the film version of Robert Altman's Come Back to the 5 & Dime Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean (1982). It was a juicy role for Kathy and film audiences finally started noticing the now 34-year-old.
Still and all, it was the New York stage that continued to earn Kathy awards and acclaim. She was pure textbook to any actor studying how to disappear into a role. Her characters ranged from free and life-affirming to downright pitiable. Despite winning a Tony Award nomination and Outer Critic's Circle Award for her stark, touchingly sad portrait of a suicidal daughter in 1983's "'night, Mother" and the Obie and Los Angeles Drama Critics Award for her powerhouse job as a romantic misfit in "Frankie and Johnny in the Claire de Lune," Kathy had no box-office pull, however, and was never a strong consideration when the roles transferred to the screen. Her award-winning stage went to established film stars. First Sissy Spacek took over her potent role as the suicidal Jessie Cates in 'night, Mother (1986), then Michelle Pfeiffer seized the moment to play her dumpy lover character in Frankie and Johnny (1991). It would take Oscar glory to finally rectify the injustice.
It was Kathy's fanatical turn as the drab, chunky, porcine-looking psychopath Annie Wilkes, who kidnaps her favorite author (James Caan) and subjects him to a series of horrific tortures, that finally turned the tide for her in Hollywood. With the 1990 shocker Misery (1990), based on the popular Stephen King novel, Bates and Caan were box office magic. Moreover, Kathy captured the "Best Actress" Oscar and Golden Globe award, a first in that genre (horror) for that category. To add to her happiness she married Tony Campisi, also an actor, in 1991.
Quality film scripts now started coming her way and the 1990s proved to be a rich and rewarding time for her. First, she and another older "overnight" film star, fellow Oscar winner Jessica Tandy, starred together in the modern portion of the beautifully nuanced, flashback period piece Fried Green Tomatoes (1991). She then outdid herself as the detached and depressed housekeeper accused of murdering her abusive husband (David Strathairn) in Dolores Claiborne (1995). Surprisingly, she was left out of the Oscar race for these two excellent performances. Not so, however, for her flashy political advisor Libby Holden in the movie Primary Colors (1998), receiving praise and a "Best Supporting Actress" nomination.
Kathy has continued to work prolifically on TV as a 14-time Emmy winner or nominee thus far. She has also taken to directing a couple of TV-movies on the sly. As most actors, she has been in hit and miss TV shows. On the hit side, she has earned a Golden Globe and Emmy nomination for her portrayal of Jay Leno's manager playing tough politics in The Late Shift (1996) and played to the hilt the cruel-minded orphanage operator, Miss Hannigan, in Annie (1999) for which she also earned an Emmy nom. She has done some eye-catching, offbeat turns on regular series such as Six Feet Under (2001) (for which she also earned a DGA award for helming an episode), The Office (2005), Harry's Law (2011) and especially American Horror Story (2011) for which she won an Emmy as Ethel Darling. She also won an Emmy for a guest episode on the hit sitcom Two and a Half Men (2003).
Interesting millennium filming have included a Catholic school's Mother Superior in the comic drama Bruno (2000); Jesse James' mother in American Outlaws (2001); a quirky, liberal mom in About Schmidt (2002) for which she earned another "Best Supporting Actress" Oscar nomination; a brief but potent turn as Gertrude Stein in Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris (2011); Queen Victoria in the adventurous remake of Around the World in 80 Days (2004); wacky parent types in the comedies Failure to Launch (2006) and Relative Strangers (2006); Mother Claus in the seasonal farce Fred Claus (2007); an over-gushy foster mother in the dramedy The Great Gilly Hopkins (2015); and a wrenching performance as the mother of a suspected terrorist in Richard Jewell (2019) for which she earned her third "Best Supporting Actress" Oscar nomination.
Divorced from husband Campisi since 1997, Kathy has been the Executive Committee Chair of the Actors Branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Board of Governors.Kathleen Doyle Bates
KDB- Simone Battle was born on 17 June 1989 in Los Angeles, California, USA. She was an actress, known for Zoey 101 (2005), What We Need (2014) and Meanamorphosis (2012). She died on 5 September 2014 in West Hollywood, California, USA.Simone Sherise Battle
SSB - Actress
- Producer
- Writer
Elise Baughman was born in Monroe, Louisiana, USA. Elise is an actor and producer, known for Dragon Ball GT (1996), Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3 (2007) and Kiddy Grade (2002).Elise Paige Baughman
EPB- Actress
- Additional Crew
- Soundtrack
Frances Bavier was born in New York City on December 14, 1902. Her first Broadway appearance was in April 1925 in "The Poor Nut," the start of a successful Broadway career. She traveled with the USO to entertain the U.S. troops in the Pacific during World War II. Her last appearance on Broadway was in the 1951 play, "Point of No Return" starring Henry Fonda. It ran for 356 performances.
Her first movie was the 1951 sci-fi classic The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), which was also the first time Frances appeared with Olan Soule. He later went on to play Mayberry's choir director, John Masters, on the The Andy Griffith Show (1960). In the movie, they were both boarders in the rooming house where the alien stayed. She made many movies during the 50s and appeared on TV as featured characters on shows like It's a Great Life (1954) and The Eve Arden Show (1957) before what would become her most famous role, that of Aunt Bee to Andy Taylor (Andy Griffith) and Opie Taylor (Ron Howard) on The Andy Griffith Show (1960).Frances Elizabeth Bavier
FEB- Barbara Angie Rose Baxley was born on New Year's Day 1923 to Emma A. & C. Bert Baxley in Porterville, CA. She was the youngest of their two daughters and was named after her grandmothers; Angie Sibley-Tyler and Iva Matilda Rose-Baxley. Barbara attended and graduated with honors from the University of the Pacific in Stockton where she was raised, and won a scholarship to the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York where she studied with Sanford Meisner. She made her 1948 Broadway debut in Noël Coward's Private Lives, starring Tallulah Bankhead and Donald Cook. In 1960 she received a Tony nomination for her role in the Tennessee Williams play Period of Adjustment. She was a charter member of the Actors Studio where she studied with Elia Kazan. She was good friends with and shared an apartment with Tallulah Bankhead for many years. She had many television & film roles, and won critical praise for her role as Sally Field 's mother in Norma Rae (1979), but her love was Broadway. Barbara loved cats and had one named Tulah.Barbara Angie Rose Baxley
BARB - Actress
- Producer
- Additional Crew
Meredith Baxter is an American actress from California, better known for television roles. Her most famous roles include Catholic teacher Bridget Fitzgerald in the sitcom "Bridget Loves Bernie" (1972-1973), divorced mother Nancy Lawrence in the family-themed drama "Family" (1976-1980), and architect Elyse Keaton in the sitcom "Family Ties" (1982-1989).
In 1947, Baxter was born in South Pasadena, California. South Pasadena is a small city in Los Angeles County, located within San Gabriel Valley. The larger city of Pasadena is located north of Baxter's hometown. Baxter was the daughter of radio announcer Tom Baxter (John Thomas Baxter, Jr.) and actress Whitney Blake (1926-2002). Baxter's maternal grandfather was Harry C. Whitney, an agent of the United States Secret Service. Harry Whitney had served as a bodyguard to President Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924, term 1913-1921).
In 1953, Baxter's parents divorced. Whitney Blake received custody of Baxter and her two older brothers. In 1957, Blake married talent agent Jack Fields. This marriage ended in divorce in 1967. In 1968, Blake married television writer Allan Manings (1924-2010). This marriage lasted until Blake's death in 2002. Baxter reportedly maintained a familial relationship with her second stepfather until his own death.
Baxter received part of her secondary education at James Monroe High School, located in the neighborhood of Sepulveda (later renamed to North Hills) in Los Angeles. She later transferred to Hollywood High School. She graduated in 1965. During her senior year, Baxter also received voice lessons at the Interlochen Center for the Arts. Interlochen was an arts education institution located in Michigan.
In 1966, Baxter married Robert Lewis Bush. At the time, she was only 19-years-old. They had two children, son Theodore Justin "Ted" Bush (born1967) and daughter Eva Whitney Bush (born 1969) . The couple separated in 1969, and their divorce was finalized in 1971.
Baxter aspired to an acting career, like her mother. She remained fairly obscure until the early 1970s. Her highest-profile work were guest-star roles in then-popular television series, such as "The Doris Day Show" and "The Partridge Family". Baxter received her big break when cast as the female lead in the sitcom "Bridget Loves Bernie" (1972-1973). The main premise was an interfaith marriage between Catholic teacher Bridget Fitzgerald and Jewish taxi driver Bernie Steinberg. The series was the 5th highest-rated show on television during its single season, though it was controversial due to its subject matter. Jewish organizations protested that the show violated Judaism's prohibition against interfaith marriage, and organized protest campaigns. Baxter herself received threatening house visits by members of the Jewish Defense League, a vigilante organization known for violent crimes. The controversy led to the series' cancellation by the network CBS. Only 24 episodes were ever broadcast. As of 2002, the series remained the highest-rated American show to be canceled after a single season.
Following the series' cancellation, Baxter maintained a relationship with her co-star David Birney (1939-). In 1974, Baxter and Birney married each other. Their marriage lasted until 1989. They had three children: daughter Kathleen Jeanne "Kate" Birney (born 1974) and twins Mollie Elizabeth and Peter David Edwin Birney (born 1984). Several years following the end of their marriage, Baxter claimed that she had been physically abused by Birney during their marriage. Her co-workers were reportedly unaware that she had a problematic family life, or that she had struggled with alcoholism for several years.
During the 1970s, Baxter started regularly appearing in television films. She had a starring role in the horror film "The Cat Creature" (1973), involving a curse by the cat goddess Bastet. The film was scripted by noted horror writer Robert Bloch (1917-1994), and paid tribute to classic horror films of the 1940s. She also had starring role in the romantic drama "The Stranger Who Looks Like Me" (1974), as a grown woman who is searching for the birth parents who had abandoned her.
Baxter had one of her few feature films roles in the political thriller "All the President's Men" (1976), which depicted the early phases of the Watergate scandal. She played the supporting role of Debbie Sloan, the pregnant wife of witness Hugh W. Sloan Jr. (1940-). The real-life Hugh Sloan was the treasurer of the Committee to Re-elect the President, and later testified about the Committee's criminal activities. Sloan was depicted as one of the few honest men involved in Richard Nixon's shady organization. The film earned about 70.6 million dollars at the domestic box office, one of the greatest commercial hits in Baxter's career.
Baxter had another shot at television stardom when cast as Nancy Lawrence in the family-themed drama "Family" (1976-1980). The series depicted a middle-aged couple who still lives with their three grown-up children. The character of Nancy was depicted as a divorced mother who moved back in with her parents. She was trying to raise her own child, while attending law school. Baxter's role was critically acclaimed, and she was twice nominated for the "Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series". The award was instead won by rival actresses Kristy McNichol (1962-) and Nancy Marchand (1928-2000).
"Family" lasted for 5 seasons, and 86 episodes. It maintained solid ratings for most of its run, though a change to its time slot had led to rapid decline in ratings. Afterwards, Baxter was again in high demand for television roles. In 1981, Baxter co-starred in a television production of the play "Vanities" (1976) by Jack Heifner. The play follows the life of three best friends over an 11-year-period (1963-1974), from their high school and college years to adulthood. The friendship dissolves when the women discover that they no longer have any common interests. Joanne has become a conservative housewife and is trapped in an unhappy marriage, Mary owns a gallery specializing in erotic art and has become an advocate of sexual liberation, and Kathy has become a bookworm with a jaded view of life.
Baxter gained her next major role as successful architect Elyse Keaton in the hit "Family Ties" (1982-1989). The main premise of the series was an exploration of the generation gap, between two generations with different political views. The parents of the Keaton family were former hippies, lifelong liberals, and successful professionals. Their only son Alex was a Young Republican who was mainly driven by his own greed and ambition, their eldest daughter Mallory was a typical "material girl" with apolitical views, and their youngest daughter Jennifer was a tomboy mainly interested in athletics,.
"Family Ties" maintained high-ratings for most of its run, though it was not particularly well-liked by critics. The series lasted for 7 seasons, a total of 176 episodes, and a television film. It was considered indicative of the conservative political landscape of the 1980s. Its main legacy was turning actor Michael J. Fox (who played Alex) into a household name. Baxter was at the height of her popularity in the 1980s. However, she later claimed that she had no actual social life for its duration. She went straight from home to the television studio, and from the studio back to home.
In 1986, Baxter played the main role in the television film "Kate's Secret". It was acclaimed for its groundbreaking depiction of eating disorders. The main character Kate Stark (played by Baxter) appears to have an idyllic life. She is married to a man with a successful career, appears to have a loving family, and a close social circle. The truth depicted is less than idyllic. Kate's husband prioritizes his career over their marriage, and there is little actual affection in their relationship. Kate's "loving" mother is a domineering woman who criticizes her daughter for many perceived flaws. Kate's friends have no idea that she is suffering from bulimia nervosa, and Kate systematically hides her problems from everyone. The problems escalate until they become apparent to people surrounding Kate.
In 1989, Baxter received a divorce. At the time, she was 42-years-old. In 1990, the then-recently divorced Baxter managed to overcome her alcoholism. She has reportedly been sober ever since. Also in 1990, Baxter played kidnapper Florence Tulane in the television film "The Kissing Place". She was playing against type, as she had previously mostly played morally upright characters in television.
In 1992, Baxter had another well-received role in a television film. She played the main character in "A Woman Scorned: The Betty Broderick Story". The film dramatized the life of Betty Broderick (1947-), a divorced woman who had murdered her ex-husband Daniel T. Broderick III and his second wife Linda Kolkena. The case had attracted much publicity because Daniel Broderick was the president of the San Diego Bar Association, and had apparently used his legal influence to to win sole custody over their children, to sell their house against Betty's wishes, and to bilk Betty out of her rightful share of his income. For this role, Baxter was nominated for the "Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie". The award was instead won by rival actress Gena Rowlands (1930-).
In 1994, Baxter received an award by the "National Breast Cancer Coalition". Baxter had reportedly helped raise awareness of breast cancer and its effects through her then-recent work. In 1999, Baxter herself was diagnosed with breast cancer. She received medical treatment, and she is thought to have fully recovered.
In 1995, Baxter married the novelist (and screenwriter) Michael Blodgett (1939-2007). This was Baxter's third marriage and Blodgett's fourth and last marriage. Baxter became the stepmother of Blodgett's three daughters from previous marriages. The couple received a divorce in 2000. A few years later, Blodgett died due to heart disease.
In 1996, Baxter starred in the short-lived sitcom "The Faculty". The series was set in a typical middle school, with Baxter playing vice-principal Flynn Sullivan. Flynn was depicted as a single mother who was trying to balance her career and her family life. While the series was praised for its dignified main character, most critics found that the show lacked memorable supporting characters and was not particularly humorous in its depiction of school life. The series never had high ratings, and was canceled after a single season. Only 13 episodes were broadcast.
In 1997, Baxter guest-starred in a two-part episode of the politically-themed sitcom "Spin City" (1996-2002). She played Macy Flaherty, the mother of protagonist Mike Flaherty (played by Michael J. Fox) Mike was depicted as the deputy mayor of New York City, skilled in politics but inept in managing his personal life. In this two-part episode, Macy has a brief romantic relationship with mayor Randall Winston (played by Barry Bostwick) , Mike's boss. She is then asked to help cover-up Randall's past relationship with a prostitute, which is thought to be damaging to his political career. The episodes were thought to be memorable for reuniting Baxter with her former co-star Michael J. Fox.
In the early 2000s, Baxter had been reduced to playing one-shot characters in various television series. In 2006, Baxter joined the cast of the police procedural series "Cold Case" (2003-2010). She played the supporting character Ellen Rush, mother of the protagonist Lilly Rush (played by Kathryn Morris). Lilly was depicted as a homicide detective, who specialized in resolving decades-old cold cases. Ellen was depicted as an alcoholic single mother, who had managed to raise two daughters despite her personal problems. In seasons 3 and 4 of the series, Ellen was slowly dying from cirrhosis of the liver and Lilly had to take care of her. The storyline of the character was concluded with Ellen's death, and Baxter left the series in 2007.
In 2009, Baxter publicly came out as a lesbian. She had been dating general contractor Nancy Locke since 2005. Baxter married Locke in 2013, and their marriage is still ongoing (as of 2021). This is Baxter's fourth and (so far) last marriage. Baxter revealed that she had been dating women since 2002, having previously had no same-sex relationships.
In 2011, Baxter published her memoir "Untied", revealing previously unknown details about her personal and family life. Some of the details came as a surprise to longtime co-workers of Baxter, as she had never confided in them about her personal problems. Baxter's former husband David Birney publicly disputed the veracity of the book's narrative. The book became a New York Times bestseller.
In 2014, Baxter briefly joined the cast of the long-running soap opera "The Young and the Restless" (1973-). She played Maureen Russell, a new drinking buddy for prominent character Nikki Newman (played by Melody Thomas Scott). Maureen was described as a charming middle-class woman with social-climbing aspirations. This was the first recurring television role Baxter since departing "Cold Case". For this role, Baxter was nominated for the "Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Performer in a Drama Series". The award was instead won in a tie by three rival actors: Donna Mills (1940-), Fred Willard ( 1933-2020), and Ray Wise (1947-).
From 2014 to 2015, Baxter had a recurring role in the short-lived teen drama "Finding Carter" (2014-2015). The premise of the series was that teenage girl Carter Stevens (played by Kathryn Prescott) reunites with her biological family, after years of being raised by a kidnapper. Carter has trouble acclimating to her new life. Baxter played Grandma Joan (nicknamed Gammy), Carter's wealthy grandmother. The main subplot involving Joan was that she had never accepted her daughter's marriage to a professional writer with no fixed income. The series lasted for 2 seasons, and a total of 36 episodes. So far, this has been Baxter's last recurring role in television.
As of 2021, Baxter is 74-years-old. She has never fully retired from acting, though she infrequently appears in new roles. Several of her past roles are still fondly remembered. Baxter has never won any major acting award, despite multiple nominations over several decades. But she has remained quite popular with the general public.Meredith Ann Baxter
MAB- Cute, tiny, and prolific little old lady character actress Frances Bay worked constantly in both films and TV shows alike after making her debut at the age of 59 in life with a small part in the comedy Foul Play (1978) in 1978.
She frequently portrayed eccentric elderly women and good-hearted grandmothers in all kinds of pictures and television programs. Frances acted several times for David Lynch: she's Kyle MacLachlan's sweet doddery aunt in Blue Velvet (1986), a gruff, profane whorehouse madam in Wild at Heart (1990), and the spooky Mrs. Tremond in the cult TV series Twin Peaks (1990) and its spin-off feature Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992). Frances popped up in two movies for director Stuart Gordon: she's a kind witch in The Pit and the Pendulum (1991) and a fortune teller in Edmond (2005).
Other notable film roles include a snippy librarian in The Attic (1980), a mysterious blind nun in the offbeat Nomads (1986), another librarian in In the Mouth of Madness (1994), and Adam Sandler's loving grandmother in the hit comedy Happy Gilmore (1996). Frances had the unique distinction of guesting on the final episodes of the TV shows Happy Days (1974), Who's the Boss? (1984), and Seinfeld (1989).
Among the many TV series Bay had guest spots on are Charmed (1998), ER (1994), Matlock (1986), The X-Files (1993), Murder, She Wrote (1984), The Commish (1991), L.A. Law (1986), Hill Street Blues (1981), Touched by an Angel (1994), The Golden Girls (1985), and Amazing Stories (1985).
She won a Gemini Award for her performance in the Disney TV program Avonlea (1990). Frances was also in the music video for Jimmy Fallon's "Idiot Boyfriend." In addition to her substantial movie and TV credits, Bay also acted in both Off-Broadway stage productions and regional theater; these plays include "Finnegan's Wake," "Grease," "Genuis," "The Caucasion Chalk Circle," "Number Our Days," "Uncommon Women," "Sarcophagus," and "The Pleasure of His Company." Frances won two DramaLogue Awards and was nominated for a Los Angeles Dramatic Critics' Award.
In 2002 Bay was the unfortunate victim of an automobile accident which resulted in having part of her right leg amputated. Her husband Charles sadly died in 2002 as well.
In real life Frances Bay was a very practical and unassuming woman with an avid love for jazz music.Frances Evelyn Goffman
FEG - Actress
- Producer
- Additional Crew
Susan Bay Nimoy (DGA) is a filmmaker, writer, actress, art institutional philanthropist, and lover of all four legged creatures. She began her career as theatre and film actor. Later Bay Nimoy went behind the camera, working as a producer, TV director and documentary filmmaker, including "Twyla Tharp", "Liza Lou", and "Mother Jones". She was one of the original 6 DGA women directors that banded together to challenge the male-run Hollywood machine in 1979. She lives in Los Angeles and New York.Susan Linda Bay
SLB- Brigid Bazlen was born on 9 June 1944 in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, USA. She was an actress, known for How the West Was Won (1962), King of Kings (1961) and The Honeymoon Machine (1961). She was married to Marlin Greene and Jean-Paul Vignon. She died on 25 May 1989 in Seattle, Washington, USA.Brigid Mary Bazlen
BMB - Actress
- Producer
Nashville-born Dovie Leona Osborne(b. August 5, 1932), was a piano teacher before her brief tenure in B and C grade movies. Dovie's greatest notoriety, however, would come following her 1968-1970 fling with Phillipines President Ferdinand Marcos. After allegedly audio-recording their sexual trysts in secret, Dovie presented the tapes to the press and divulged the affair. This ignited a scandal which shook that country to its roots for years to come, significantly damaging Marcos' reputation, and marking Dovie as a potential assassination target. Since leaving the Phillipines in the wake of this sordid situation, Dovie's film career has stonewalled, and she remains far from the public eye. The Beams/Marcos scandal was chronicled in Hermie Rotea's 1983 book "Marcos' Lovey Dovie", though controversy persists concerning the book's factually.Dovie Leona Osborne
DLO- Actress
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Elizabeth Greer "Beanie" Feldstein is an American actress. She first gained recognition for her starring roles in the comedy film Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising (2016), the comedy-drama film Lady Bird (2017), and the coming-of-age comedy film Booksmart (2019), the latter of which earned her a nomination for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture Comedy or Musical.
Feldstein has also appeared on the Broadway stage, making her debut as Minnie Fay in Hello, Dolly! (2017-18) and then portraying the lead role of Fanny Brice in the first revival of Funny Girl (2022), a performance for which she earned a nomination for the Drama League Award for Distinguished Performance. In 2021, she portrayed Monica Lewinsky in the third season of the FX anthology series American Crime Story: Impeachment.Elizabeth Feldstein
EF- Actress
- Soundtrack
Allyce Beasley was born on 6 July 1951 in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA. She is an actress, known for Moonlighting (1985), Legally Blonde (2001) and Loaded Weapon 1 (1993). She has been married to James G Bosche since 15 January 1999. She was previously married to Vincent Schiavelli and Christopher Wilson Sansocie.Alice Tannenberg
AT- Actress
- Director
- Producer
Stephanie Beatriz was born on 10 February 1981 in Neuquén, Argentina. She is an actress and director, known for Encanto (2021), Brooklyn Nine-Nine (2013) and Short Term 12 (2013). She has been married to Brad Hoss since 6 October 2018. They have one child.Stephanie Beatriz Bischoff Alvizuri
SBBA- Actress
- Writer
- Producer
Alison Helene Becker was born in Allamuchy, New Jersey. After graduating from high school by the age of 16, she attended Georgetown University and because of her fascination with grammar and reading literature, she decided to get a degree in English and eventually graduated cum laude. She then began pursuing a career in the performing arts, mainly focusing on writing and doing sketch comedies and developing a wide array of original characters/personalities. She has gotten a variety of acting stints in venues all over New York City, where she moved after graduation. She's a regular player in the Upright Citizens Brigade, a theatre improv comedy group, and has performed on stage in Hopscoth: A New York Sex Comedy, Caroline's on Broadway, and several other comedy clubs. Alison has also made her way in the commercial world for Subway, Mastercard, and Hershey and appeared in a few independent films including the critically acclaimed "Four Dead Batteries." These past two years, the New Jersey native has continuously added credentials to her name, this time on TV, by quirkily hosting the shows "AV Squad" and "Comedy Academy" in the small, yet growing National Lampoon Network and as a cast member of MTV's hidden camera show "Boiling Points," where she uses her improv acting skills to play pranks on unsuspecting people/contestants. Aside from these projects, she has had bit parts in more TV programs as well.Alison Helene Becker
AHB- Actress
- Soundtrack
The native New Yorker was born Bonnie Bedelia Culkin on March 25, 1948, the daughter of Phillip Harley Culkin, a journalist, and Marian Ethel Wagner Culkin, a writer and editor. Trained in ballet, her parents guided all of the children at one time or another into acting (which included Kit Culkin, Terry Culkin and Candace Culkin). Bonnie herself attended Quintano School for Young Professionals in New York at one point and Bonnie and Kit went on to appear on the local stage and TV. Brother Kit would later be known more for siring a handful of talented child actors and/or stars (Macaulay Culkin, Kieran Culkin, and the rest).
It was Bonnie who was first spotted among the other acting siblings by a talent scout who happened to catch her in a school production of "Tom Sawyer", and encouraged her. She made her professional debut at age 9 in a 1957 North Jersey Playhouse production of "Dr. Praetorius" and then was handed a full scholarship to study at George Balanchine's New York City Ballet. But the acting bug had bitten and after dancing in only four productions (including playing the role of Clara in "The Nutcracker"), she decided to hang up her ballet slippers. She proceeded to study at both the HB Studio and Actors Studio in New York.
Bonnie nabbed a five-year role as young teen "Sandy Porter" in the New York-based daytime soap Love of Life (1951) starting in 1961. During that time, she took her first Broadway bow in "Isle of Children", a show that lasted but a week in March of 1962. She was also a replacement in the established hit comedy "Enter Laughing", a year later. After appearing in the stage play "The Playroom" in 1965, she earned strong reviews for her touching performance in "My Sweet Charlie", for which she won the 1967 Theatre World Award for "promising new artist". In it, she played a pregnant young Southern girl on the lam with a black lawyer. Patty Duke recreated the role a few years later on TV and captured an Emmy.
Films beckoned at this point and Bonnie made her debut lending topnotch support in The Gypsy Moths (1969) which reunited From Here to Eternity (1953) stars Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr. She earned even better marks in her next two films, one performance simply haunting and the other one hilarious. Once again playing pregnant and once again delivering a touching pathos, she played the dirt-poor marathon dancer who pitches songs for pennies and the almost-mother of Bruce Dern's child in the superb, award-winning, Depression-era drama They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (1969). On the other end of the acting spectrum, she played the lovable bride-to-be in the side-splitting comedy classic Lovers and Other Strangers (1970).
By this time, Bonnie had started concentrating on family values. She married scriptwriter Ken Luber on April 24, 1969, and bore him a son, Yuri, the following year. The time off to focus on motherhood (she had second son, Jonah Luber, in 1976) proved detrimental to her rising star. The remaining decade was uneventful at best, despite some fine showings in a splattering of TV-movies. Her big comeback came again on the movie trail in the early 1980s when she absolutely nailed the role of race car driver Shirley Muldowney in Heart Like a Wheel (1983). She was surprisingly overlooked at Oscar time, however, despite the praise she received. Despite respected work in subsequent movies such as Violets Are Blue... (1986), The Prince of Pennsylvania (1988), Presumed Innocent (1990) and a running role as Bruce Willis's put-upon wife in Die Hard (1988) and its sequel, she found better and more frequent parts on TV. She found her niche in TV-movies with social themes and tugged at more hearts in Switched at Birth (1991), A Mother's Right: The Elizabeth Morgan Story (1992), Any Mother's Son (1997) and To Live Again (1998).
In a change of pace, Bonnie joined the ensemble cast of the low-budget cult comedy Sordid Lives (2000), as "Latrelle", a homophobic woman dealing with her mother's death, the imprisonment of her gay brother and her own son's "coming out". The movie evolved into the TV series Sordid Lives: The Series (2008) which reunited her with original cast members Leslie Jordan and Olivia Newton-John. She repeated her role again in still another film -- A Very Sordid Wedding (2017).
More recent independent movie credits include Berkeley (2005), Her Secret Sessions (2016), The Scent of Rain & Lightning (2017), A Stone in the Water (2019). She also managed a few regular TV series roles: The Division (2001) as a police captain, and Parenthood (2010) as a family matriarch opposite Craig T. Nelson.
Divorced from the father of her two children, she is presently married to third husband (or fourth, depending on your source of reference) actor Michael MacRae, whom she married in 1995.Bonnie Bedelia Culkin
BBC- Actress
- Soundtrack
Barbara Bedford was born on 19 July 1903 in Eastman, Wisconsin, USA. She was an actress, known for The Last of the Mohicans (1920), Sunshine of Paradise Alley (1926) and The Spoilers (1923). She was married to Terry Spencer, Alan Roscoe and Irvin Willat. She died on 25 October 1981 in Jacksonville, Florida, USA.Violet Mae Rose
VMR- Janet Beecher, daughter of the German vice-consul in Chicago, studied acting at the Art Students League in New York. For almost three decades she made a name for herself as a leading actress in plays on the Broadway stage, beginning with a bit part in 'The Two Orphans' in 1903. Her hits included 'The Lottery Man' (1909-10), 'The Concert' (1910-11), 'A Bill of Divorcement' (1921-22) and 'Courage' (1928-29).
She made her Hollywood debut in 1933. Despite consistently good critical reviews, her theatrical stardom never translated to the screen. She was destined to be typecast as forthright wives and was particularly droll as Mrs.Barnum in The Mighty Barnum (1934), opposite Wallace Beery. She also played sympathetic dowagers, genial friends of the heroine and a multitude of steadfast mothers (best of those being Margaret Sullavan's in So Red the Rose (1935) and Tyrone Power's in The Mark of Zorro (1940). In 1943, she returned to the stage and made her theatrical curtain call as the wife of the title character in 'The Late George Apley' the following year.Janet Meysenburg
JM - Actress
- Soundtrack
Auburn-haired, green-eyed, convent-educated Jacqueline Beer succeeded Christiane Martel as Miss France in 1954. Like her predecessor, she travelled to Long Beach, California, to compete for the Miss Universe title. Jacqueline didn't win, but picked up a two-year Paramount studio contract as a consolation prize. A reluctant starlet, she was quoted in an interview, saying "people in the movie and television business think that if you're a beauty contest winner you cannot be a good actress". This view of prevailing attitudes was borne out by her subsequent film assignments which amounted to a succession of stereotypical mademoiselles in films like Screaming Eagles (1956) and Pillow Talk (1959). The Hitchcockian thriller The Prize (1963) saw her in a small role as the mistress of a chemistry laureate.
Better served on the small screen, she had a few solid guest roles in Maverick (1957), Bronco (1958), The Rogues (1964), The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (1964), Daniel Boone (1964), among other shows, but became ultimately best known for her regular stint as switchboard operator Suzanne Fabray, a.k.a. "Frenchy", in the classic Warner Brothers private detective series 77 Sunset Strip (1958), starring Efrem Zimbalist Jr..
Following a previous marriage to Jean Antoine Garcia Roady (reportedly an accountant and/or French instructor), she became the third wife in 1991 of Norwegian adventurer, explorer and ethnographer Thor Heyerdahl. The couple lived in Tenerife on the Canary Islands and collaborated for several years on archaeological projects, especially in Peru, and in Azov, Russia ("the search for Odin"). Following Heyerdahl's death in 2002, Jacqueline has continued his work as director of the Thor Heyerdahl Research Centre in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, and as chair of the Thor Heyerdahl Institute in Larvik (his birth place), which, in 2020, merged with The Museums of Vestfold.Jacqueline Vangramberg
JV