TCM Remembers - Males

1. Miklós Rózsa

Composer | Ben-Hur

A child prodigy, Miklos Rózsa learned to play the violin at the age of five and read music before he was able to read words. In 1926, he began studying at the Leipzig Conservatory where he was considered a brilliant student. He obtained his doctorate in music in 1930. Moving to Paris the following ...

Composer

2. Burl Ives

Actor | The Big Country

Burl Ives was one of six children born to a farming family in Hunt City, Jasper, Illinois, the son of Cordellia "Dellie" (White) and Levi Franklin Ives. He first sang in public for a soldiers' reunion when he was age 4. In high school, he learned the banjo and played fullback, intending to become a...

Actor

3. Grady Sutton

Actor | The Bank Dick

Grady Sutton was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee. He arrived in California in 1924. He got his first break in Hollywood from director William A. Seiter who used him as an extra in The Mad Whirl (1925) starring May McAvoy. Grady remained a Hollywood staple for the next 55 years.

He specialized in ...

Actor

4. Arthur Lubin

Director | Phantom of the Opera

A graduate of Carnegie Tech, Arthur Lubin entered films as an actor in the 1920s, and after appearing in many films turned to directing in 1934, mainly for Universal. His forte was light comedy, but he helmed many different types of pictures for the studio. Lubin was the director Universal ...

Diector

5. Donald Pleasence

Actor | Halloween II

Balding, quietly spoken, of slight build and possessed of piercing blue eyes -- often peering out from behind round, steel-rimmed glasses -- Donald Pleasence had the essential physical attributes which make a great screen villain. In the course of his lengthy career, he relished playing the ...

Actor

6. Albert Hackett

Writer | Seven Brides for Seven Brothers

Albert Hackett was born on February 16, 1900 in New York City, New York, USA. He was a writer and actor, known for Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954), The Thin Man (1934) and Easter Parade (1948). He was married to Gisella (Svetlik) Orkin and Frances Goodrich. He died on March 16, 1995 in New ...

Screenwriter

7. David Wayne

Actor | The Andromeda Strain

His father was an insurance executive; his mother died when he was four. He attended Western Michigan University then worked as a statistician in Cleveland where he joined a Shakespeare repertory company. Two years later he had a minor role in "The American Way" in New York. He was rejected by the ...

Actor

8. Elisha Cook Jr.

Actor | House on Haunted Hill

Although this pint-sized actor started out in films often in innocuous college-student roles in mid-30s rah-rahs, playing alongside the likes of a pretty Gloria Stuart or a young, pre-"Oz" Judy Garland, casting directors would soon enough discover his flair for portraying intense neurotics or ...

Actor

9. Dean Martin

Soundtrack | The Dean Martin Show

Martin was born Dino Paul Crocetti in Steubenville, Ohio, to Gaetano Alfonso "Guy" Crocetti, an Italian immigrant and barber, and his Ohio-born wife, Angela (Barra) Crocetti. He spoke only Italian until age five. Martin came up the hard way, with such jobs as a boxer ("Kid Crochet"), a steel mill ...

Actor / Singer (my revision)

10. Alexander Knox

Actor | Wilson

A Presbyterian minister's son, softly-spoken, intellectual-looking Alexander Knox received his education from the University of Western Ontario where he studied English literature. An excellent elocutionist (a member of the university's Hesperian Club) he had his first fling with dramatic acting ...

Actor

11. Ralph Blane

Soundtrack | Meet Me in St. Louis

Ralph Blane was born on July 26, 1914 in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, USA. He was a composer and actor, known for Meet Me in St. Louis (1944), Jurassic World (2015) and The Godfather (1972). He was married to Emajo Stage. He died on November 13, 1995 in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, USA.

Songwriter

12. Roy Rowland

Director | Meet Me in Las Vegas

Roy Rowland studied law at the University of Southern California, then joined MGM as a script clerk. As if getting that job wasn't enough good luck in the middle of the Depression, he also married the niece of MGM chief Louis B. Mayer.

He sharpened his directing chops at MGM with a series of shorts ...

Director

13. Woody Strode

Actor | Spartacus

An athlete turned actor, Strode was a top-notch decathlete and a football star at UCLA. He became part of Hollywood lore after meeting director John Ford and becoming a part of the Ford "family," appearing in four Ford motion pictures. Strode also played the powerful gladiator who does battle with ...

Actor

14. George Abbott

Writer | The Pajama Game

Legendary Broadway writer/producer/director George Abbott was born in 1887 in Forestville, New York. His father was mayor of Salamanca, New York, for two terms. In 1898 his family moved to Cheyenne, Wyoming, and Abbott attended Kearney Military Academy. The family returned to New York, where Abbott...

Broadway Legend

15. Gene Nelson

Actor | Oklahoma!

Gene Nelson was barely a teen when he saw the Fred Astaire movie Flying Down to Rio (1933), which would change his life. It was then that he decided he would be a dancer. After graduating from high school, Nelson joined the Sonja Henie Ice Show and toured for 3 years before joining the Army in ...

Dancer / Actor

16. George Burns

Actor | Oh, God!

George Burns was an American actor, comedian, singer, and published author. He formed a comedy duo with his wife Gracie Allen (1895-1964), and typically played the straight man to her zany roles. Following her death, Burns started appearing as a solo performer. He once won an Academy Award for Best...

Comedian

17. Pandro S. Berman

Producer | Father of the Bride

Pandro S. Berman was born into the film industry. His father, Harry, was distributor and exhibitor of films. Pandro also had a number of relatives in the film industry. When he started working in the 1920's he started as a script clerk and then rose to film editor. By 1931, the 26 year old Berman ...

Producer

18. Guy Madison

Actor | The Beast of Hollow Mountain

Handsome American leading man Guy Madison stumbled into a film career and became a television star and hero to the Baby Boom generation. As a young man he worked as a telephone lineman, but entered the Coast Guard at the beginning of the Second World War. While on liberty one weekend in Hollywood, ...

Actor

19. Ben Johnson

Actor | The Last Picture Show

Born in Oklahoma, Ben Johnson was a ranch hand and rodeo performer when, in 1940, Howard Hughes hired him to take a load of horses to California. He decided to stick around (the pay was good), and for some years was a stunt man, horse wrangler, and double for such stars as John Wayne, Gary Cooper ...

Actor

20. Lash La Rue

Actor | The Dark Power

He looked so much like superstar Humphrey Bogart that character actress Sarah Padden asked if the two were related. LaRue said he didn't think so. After a long pause studying the young actor's face, she asked, "Did your mother ever meet Humphrey Bogart?"

Alfred "Lash" LaRue was born in Louisiana (...

Cowboy Star

21. Jack Weston

Actor | Dirty Dancing

In a 40-year stage, film, and television career, Weston played sleazy villains to hapless men going through midlife crises to clumsy comics. He was one of the bad guys who victimize a blind Audrey Hepburn in the 1967 cult classic Wait Until Dark (1967) but meets his end at the hands of the number ...

Actor

22. Saul Bass

Director | Why Man Creates

Saul Bass was born in New York City in 1920 and is a widely acclaimed graphic designer with a career spanning over 40 years. Among his most famous works are the title sequences for such classic films as The Man with the Golden Arm (1955), North by Northwest (1959), and Psycho (1960). Bass used his ...

Graphic Designer

23. Lyle Talbot

Actor | The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet

Lyle Talbot, who appeared in over 150 movies from leads in Warner Bros.' "pre-Code" pictures to countless supporting roles, and later enjoyed a steady TV career as a character actor, was born Lysle Henderson on February 8, 1902, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He grew up in a small town in Nebraska, ...

Actor

24. Ross Hunter

Producer | Airport

Noted Hollywood producer Ross Hunter served in Army intelligence during World War II. After the war he signed with Columbia Pictures and appeared in a number of forgettable B-movies. He then became a producer and produced more than 60 films. Most of his films tended to be bright confections, many ...

Producer

25. Martin Balsam

Actor | All the President's Men

Martin Henry Balsam was born on November 4, 1919 in the Bronx, New York City, to Lillian (Weinstein) and Albert Balsam, a manufacturer of women's sportswear. He was the first-born child. His father was a Russian Jewish immigrant, and his mother was born in New York, to Russian Jewish parents. ...

Actor

26. Albert R. Broccoli

Producer | Moonraker

Albert Romolo Broccoli was born in Astoria, Queens (New York City) on April 5th, 1909. His mother and father, Cristina and Giovanni Broccoli, raised young Albert in New York on the family farm. The family was in the vegetable business, and Albert claimed one of his uncles brought the first broccoli...

Producer

27. Whit Bissell

Actor | The Magnificent Seven

Whit Bissell came to Hollywood in the 1940s, and by the time he retired he had appeared in more than 200 movies and scores of TV series. He is best known for playing the evil scientist who turned Michael Landon into a half beast in the 1957 cult classic film I Was a Teenage Werewolf (1957). Bissell...

Actor

28. Irving Caesar

Soundtrack | Entrapment

Composer, songwriter ("Swanee", "Tea for Two", "Crazy Rhythm", "Just a Gigolo"), author and publisher, educated at Chautauqua Mountain Institute and City College of New York. He was a stenographer aboard the Henry Ford Peace Ship during World War I. He joined ASCAP in 1920 and was a director ...

Songwriter

29. Marcello Mastroianni

Actor | La dolce vita

Marcello Mastroianni was born in Fontana Liri, Italy in 1924, but soon his family moved to Turin and then Rome. During WW2 he was sent to a German prison camp, but he managed to escape and hide in Venice. He debuted in films as an extra in Marionette (1939), then started working for the Italian ...

Actor

30. John Alton

Camera_department | An American in Paris

Starting out in 1924 as a lab technician at MGM, John Alton left there for Paramount to become a cameraman. He traveled to France and then to South America, where he wrote, photographed and directed several Spanish-language films. Returning to Hollywood in 1937, he soon achieved a reputation as one...

Cinematographer

31. Gene Kelly

Soundtrack | Singin' in the Rain

Eugene Curran Kelly was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the third son of Harriet Catherine (Curran) and James Patrick Joseph Kelly, a phonograph salesman. His father was of Irish descent and his mother was of Irish and German ancestry.

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer was the largest and most powerful studio in...

Dancer / Actor

32. Stubby Kaye

Actor | Guys and Dolls

Sunny, lovable tenor Stubby Kaye with his butterball frame kept his real name a secret for his entire career. He was born Bernard Kotzin in New York and started off in the world of entertainment in 1939 after winning a radio contest. Touring as a comedian in vaudeville for over a decade, he also ...

Actor

33. Sheldon Leonard

Producer | Make Room for Daddy

Sheldon Leonard was born in New York City's lower Manhattan, the son of Jewish parents. He studied acting at Syracuse University and, after graduating, landed a job on Wall Street. Following the Wall Street crash of 1929, he found himself unemployed and resolved to become a professional actor on ...

Actor

34. Jesse White

Actor | It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World

Lovable, laid-back Jesse White made acting seem fun and easy. He was born Jesse Marc Weidenfeld in Buffalo, New York, and was raised in Akron, Ohio. He made his first amateur appearance on the local stage at age 15. Before breaking into professional theater in the 1940s, he held many different jobs...

Actor

35. Gabriel Figueroa

Cinematographer | La perla

Gabriel Figueroa was born on April 24, 1907 in Mexico City, Distrito Federal, Mexico. He was a cinematographer, known for The Pearl (1947), The Young and the Damned (1950) and Maria Candelaria (1944). He died on April 27, 1997 in Mexico City, Distrito Federal, Mexico.

Cinematographer

36. Pat Paulsen

Actor | The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour

Pat Paulsen was a comedian specializing in satire who thrived on television in the late 1960s. The highlight of his career came in the watershed year 1968 when - emulating Gracie Allen''s quixotic 1940 Presidential bid as the Surprise Party candidate - he launched his own campaign for the U.S. ...

Comedian

37. Sydney Guilaroff

Make_up_department | North by Northwest

Sydney Guilaroff was born on November 2, 1907 in London, England, UK. He was an actor, known for North by Northwest (1959), The Time Machine (1960) and An American in Paris (1951). He died on May 28, 1997 in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA.

Hair Stylist

38. Ronald Howard

Actor | Come September

The British actor Ronald Howard was born in Norwood, London, England, in 1918. He and his younger sister Leslie Ruth Howard were raised by their mother Ruth Evelyn Martin and their father, the renowned actor Leslie Howard. After college, Howard became a newspaper reporter for a while but decided to...

Actor

39. William Hickey

Actor | National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation

Son of Edward & Nora Hickey. Best known as the ancient Mafia don in Prizzi's Honor (1985), Hickey had a long, distinguished career in film, television, and the stage. Began career as a child actor on the variety stage. Made Broadway debut as walk-on in George Bernard Shaw's "Saint Joan" (1951 ...

Actor (my revision)

40. Burgess Meredith

Actor | Clash of the Titans

One of the truly great and gifted performers of the century, who often suffered lesser roles, Burgess Meredith was born in 1907 in Cleveland, Ohio. He was educated in Amherst College in Massachusetts, before joining Eva Le Gallienne's Student Repertory stage company in 1929. By 1934 he was a star ...

Actor

41. Saul Chaplin

Music_department | West Side Story

Composer, songwriter ("Bei Mir Bist Du Schon," "Until the Real Thing Comes Along," "Anniversary Song"), pianist, conductor, arranger, author and producer, educated at the NYU School of Commerce. As a young man, he joined an orchestra as pianist, and Sammy Cahn was in that orchestra as a violinist. ...

Music Arranger

42. Richard Jaeckel

Actor | Starman

Stocky tough-guy character actor Richard Jaeckel was one of Hollywood's most prolific supporting stars. Born in Long Island, New York, on October 10, 1926, Jaeckel's family moved to Los Angeles when he was still in his teens. After graduation from Hollywood High School, Jaeckel was discovered by a ...

Actor

43. Jacques-Yves Cousteau

Producer | Le monde du silence

Jacques-Yves Cousteau was born on June 11, 1910, in Saint-André-de-Cubzac (Gironde) in France. He entered the naval academy in 1930, was graduated and became a gunnery officer. Then, while he was training to be a pilot, a serious car accident ended his aviation career. In order to rehabilitate his ...

Director

44. Samuel Fuller

Writer | Shock Corridor

At age 17, Samuel Fuller was the youngest reporter ever to be in charge of the events section of the New York Journal. After having participated in the European battle theater in World War II, he directed some minor action productions for which he mostly wrote the scripts himself and which he also ...

Director

45. Don Porter

Actor | She-Wolf of London

Don Porter was born on September 24, 1912 in Miami, Oklahoma, USA. He was an actor and director, known for She-Wolf of London (1946), Night Monster (1942) and Danger Woman (1946). He was married to Peggy Converse. He died on February 11, 1997 in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA.

Actor

46. Jean Louis

Costume_designer | From Here to Eternity

This Hollywood costume designer is best known for his creation of the strapless black gown worn by Rita Hayworth in Gilda (1946). He also designed the gowns worn by Loretta Young during her swirling entrances in her "Loretta Young Show" on TV during the 50's and 60's. (Decades later, he and Miss ...

Costume Designer

47. Brian Keith

Actor | The Parent Trap

Son of character actor Robert Keith and stage actress Helena Shipman. He grew up on the road with his parents while they toured in plays. First appeared at age 3 in film Pied Piper Malone (1924) with his father. Began acting in radio programs and on stage before World War II. Joined the Marines and ...

Actor

48. Red Skelton

Writer | The Red Skelton Show

The son of a former circus clown turned grocer and a cleaning woman, Red Skelton was introduced to show business at the age of seven by Ed Wynn, at a vaudeville show in Vincennes. At age 10, he left home to travel with a medicine show through the Midwest, and joined the vaudeville circuit at age 15....

Comedian

49. Jack Nance

Actor | Eraserhead

Born in Boston of Irish ancestry and raised in Dallas, Jack Nance traveled throughout the country doing children's theater. For eight years, he performed with the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco. Later, he became involved with avant-garde theater. He first met David Lynch in the ...

Actor (my revision)

50. David Gill

Producer | American Masters

David Gill was born on June 9, 1928 in Territory of New Guinea [now Papua New Guinea]. He was a producer and director, known for American Masters (1985), Unknown Chaplin (1983) and Buster Keaton: A Hard Act to Follow (1987). He was married to Pauline Wadsworth. He died on September 28, 1997 in ...

Film Historian

51. Robert Mitchum

Actor | Out of the Past

Robert Mitchum was an underrated American leading man of enormous ability, who sublimated his talents beneath an air of disinterest. He was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, to Ann Harriet (Gunderson), a Norwegian immigrant, and James Thomas Mitchum, a shipyard/railroad worker. His father died in a ...

Actor

52. Fred Zinnemann

Director | A Man for All Seasons

Initially grew up wanting to be a violinist, but while at the University of Vienna decided to study law. While doing so, he became increasingly interested in American film and decided that was what he wanted to do. He became involved in European filmaking for a short time before going to America to...

Director

53. James Stewart

Actor | Vertigo

James Maitland Stewart was born on May 20, 1908, in Indiana, Pennsylvania, to Elizabeth Ruth (Johnson) and Alexander Maitland Stewart, who owned a hardware store. He was of Scottish, Ulster-Scots, and some English descent. Stewart was educated at a local prep school, Mercersburg Academy, where he ...

Actor

54. Gene Autry

Soundtrack | The Gene Autry Show

After high school Gene Autry worked as a laborer for the St. Louis and San Francisco Railroad in Oklahoma. Next he was a telegrapher. In 1928 he began singing on a local radio station, and three years later he had his own show and was making his first recordings. Three years after that he made his ...

Actor

55. Leonid Kinskey

Actor | Casablanca

Leonid Kinskey, originally from St. Petersburg, Russia, performed across Europe and much of Latin America before his arrival in the United States. By 1932 he landed a small role as a radical in Ernst Lubitsch's comedy, Trouble in Paradise (1932). The next year he played an agitator in Duck Soup (...

Actor

56. Gene Raymond

Actor | Smartest Girl in Town

Gene Raymond was born on August 13, 1908, in New York City as Raymond Guion. He was a child performer and a Broadway veteran by the age of 12. Blond, husky, and handsome, he enjoyed his greatest popularity in the 1930s and early 1940s. His big break came in Personal Maid (1931). He was soon cast in...

Actor

57. Douglas Fowley

Actor | Singin' in the Rain

He was born in the Bronx, New York. As a young man, he moved to Los Angeles and studied at Los Angeles City College. He served in the Navy during World War II. Fowley played everything from cowboys to gangsters, appearing alongside stars like Clark Gable, Ava Gardner, Esther Williams, Gene Kelly ...

Actor

58. Gene Evans

Actor | Ace in the Hole

Gene Evans was born in Holbrook, Arizona, on July 11, 1922, and was raised in Colton, California. He served in the Army during World War II as a combat engineer, and was awarded the Purple Heart and the Bronze Star for bravery in action. He began his acting career there, performing in a theatrical ...

Actor

59. John Derek

Actor | The Ten Commandments

John Derek was born on August 12, 1926 in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA. He was an actor and director, known for The Ten Commandments (1956), Ghosts Can't Do It (1989) and Bolero (1984). He was married to Bo Derek, Linda Evans, Ursula Andress and Pati Behrs. He died on May 22, 1998 in ...

Actor

60. Nicky Blair

Actor | The Godfather Part III

Nicky Blair was born on July 26, 1926 in Brooklyn, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for The Godfather Part III (1990), A Bronx Tale (1993) and Beaches (1988). He died on November 22, 1998 in Los Angeles, California, USA.

Actor

61. Norman Fell

Actor | Three's Company

Norman Fell was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1924. He graduated from Temple University with a bachelor's degree in drama. During World War II, he was an Air Force tail gunner in the Pacific. After the war, he studied acting and obtained small parts in television and on stage. His first ...

Actor

62. Marius Goring

Actor | The Red Shoes

The son of Dr. Charles Buckman Goring M.D. and Kate Winifred (nee MacDonald). Marius Goring was educated at Perse School, Cambridge, England and at the Universities of Frankfurt, Munich, Vienna and Paris. He studied for the stage under Harcourt Williams at the Old Vic dramatic school, London. His ...

Actor

63. Richard Denning

Actor | An Affair to Remember

Born in Poughkeepsie, New York, Louis Albert Denninger Jr. was the son of a garment manufacturer who relocated and set up shop in Los Angeles when Louis Jr. was 18 months old. After finishing school, Denninger enrolled at Woodbury Business College and majored in business and accounting, graduating ...

Actor

64. Hal Baylor

Actor | Big Jim McLain

Hal Baylor was born on December 10, 1918 in San Antonio, Texas, USA. He was an actor, known for Big Jim McLain (1952), Evel Knievel (1971) and Emergency! (1972). He died on January 5, 1998 in Los Angeles, California, USA.

Actor

65. Tom D'Andrea

Actor | Dark Passage

Three sons: Thomas, Jim D'Andrea & Mick D'Andrea.

Grandchildren include: Tom's - Rick D'Andrea, Elizabeth D'Andrea-Schusterman & Jim's- April , Justin & Allison D'Andrea . Mick D'Andrea passed away in 1996 of cancer. Great Grandchildren: Sarah Hipp and Anabella D'Andrea Great Great Grandchildren: ...

Actor

66. Jean Marais

Actor | La Belle et la Bête

Jean Marais was a popular French cinema actor and director who played over 100 roles in film and on television, and was also known for his many talents as a writer, painter and sculptor.

He was born Jean Alfred Villain-Marais on December 11, 1913, in Cherbourg, France. His father practiced ...

Actor

67. Dane Clark

Actor | Destination Tokyo

Dane Clark was born Bernard Elliot Zanville in Brooklyn, New York City, to Rose (Korostoff) and Samuel Zanville, who were Russian Jewish immigrants. He graduated from Cornell University and St. John's Law School (Brooklyn). When he had trouble finding work in the mid-1930s he tried boxing, baseball,...

Actor

68. Lloyd Bridges

Actor | Hot Shots! Part Deux

The star of many land and underwater adventures, Lloyd Vernet Bridges, Jr. was born on January 15, 1913 in San Leandro, California, to Harriet Evelyn (Brown) and Lloyd Vernet Bridges, Sr., who owned a movie theater and also worked in the hotel business. He grew up in various Northern California ...

Actor

69. Jerome Robbins

Writer | West Side Story

Jerome Robbins was one of the founding members of the Ballet Theatre when it was formed in 1940 portraying a variety of roles for several years before devising his own creations such as 'Fancy Free' about 3 sailors on leave in New York which marked a long association with Leonard Bernstein. With ...

Choreographer

70. Roy Rogers

Soundtrack | Cowboy and the Senorita

Roy Rogers (born Leonard Slye) moved to California in 1930, aged 18. He played in such musical groups as The Hollywood Hillbillies, Rocky Mountaineers, Texas Outlaws, and his own group, the International Cowboys. In 1934 he formed a group with Bob Nolan called Sons of the Pioneers. While in that ...

Actor

71. Charles Lang

Cinematographer | Sabrina

One of the outstanding cinematographers of Hollywood's Golden Age, Lang spent most of his career at Paramount (1929-1952), where he contributed to the studio's well-earned reputation for visual style. Lang was educated at Lincoln High School in L.A., then proceeded to the University of Southern ...

Cinematographer

72. Alan J. Pakula

Producer | Sophie's Choice

Alan J. Pakula was an American film director, writer and producer. He was nominated for three Academy Awards: Best Picture for To Kill a Mockingbird (1962), Best Director for All the President's Men (1976) and Best Adapted Screenplay for Sophie's Choice (1982).

He also directed Presumed Innocent (...

Director / Producer

73. E.G. Marshall

Actor | 12 Angry Men

With over 150 Film and TV appearances to his credit, E. G. Marshall was arguably most well known as the imperturbable Juror No. 4 in the Sidney Lumet legal drama 12 Angry Men (1957).

Some of his stand-out performances are in Creepshow (1982), Christmas Vacation (1989), and Nixon (1995).

Marshall ...

Actor

74. J.T. Walsh

Actor | Breakdown

J.T. Walsh was born on September 28, 1943 in San Francisco, California, USA. He was an actor, known for Breakdown (1997), Sling Blade (1996) and Needful Things (1993). He was married to Susan West. He died on February 27, 1998 in La Mesa, California, USA.

Actor

75. Akira Kurosawa

Writer | Kakushi-toride no san-akunin

After training as a painter (he storyboards his films as full-scale paintings), Kurosawa entered the film industry in 1936 as an assistant director, eventually making his directorial debut with Sanshiro Sugata (1943). Within a few years, Kurosawa had achieved sufficient stature to allow him greater...

Director

76. Toshirô Mifune

Actor | Yôjinbô

Toshiro Mifune achieved more worldwide fame than any other Japanese actor of his century. He was born in Tsingtao, China, to Japanese parents and grew up in Dalian. He did not set foot in Japan until he was 21. His father was an importer and a commercial photographer, and young Toshiro worked in ...

Actor (my revision)

77. Freddie Young

Cinematographer | Lawrence of Arabia

Freddie Young was a British cinematographer. He is best known for his work on David Lean's films Lawrence of Arabia (1962), Doctor Zhivago (1965) and Ryan's Daughter (1970), all three of which won him Academy Awards for Best Cinematography.

Young was an cinematographer on 130 films, including ...

Cinematographer

78. Donald Woods

Actor | The Case of the Stuttering Bishop

Donald Woods, a prolific cinema and television character actor whose career spanned 75 films and 150 TV programs over 40 years, was born Ralph L. Zink on December 2, 1906, in Brandon, Manitoba. (He legally changed his name to Donald Woods in 1945.) His family eventually departed Canada for ...

Actor

79. Roddy McDowall

Actor | Fright Night

Roddy McDowall was born in Herne Hill, London, England, to Winifriede Lucinda (Corcoran), an Irish-born aspiring actress, and Thomas Andrew McDowall, a merchant seaman. Roddy was enrolled in elocution courses at age five and by ten had appeared in his first film, Murder in the Family (1938), ...

Actor

80. Robert Young

Actor | Crossfire

Quiet, soft-spoken Robert grew up in California and had some stage experience with the Pasadena Playhouse before entering films in 1931. His movie career consisted of playing characters who were charming, good-looking--and bland. In fact, his screen image was such that he usually never got the girl...

Actor

81. Frank Sinatra

Actor | From Here to Eternity

Frank Sinatra was born in Hoboken, New Jersey, to Italian immigrants Natalina Della (Garaventa), from Northern Italy, and Saverio Antonino Martino Sinatra, a Sicilian boxer, fireman, and bar owner. Growing up on the gritty streets of Hoboken made Sinatra determined to work hard to get ahead. ...

Actor

82. Stanley Kubrick

Director | 2001: A Space Odyssey

Stanley Kubrick was born in Manhattan, New York City, to Sadie Gertrude (Perveler) and Jacob Leonard Kubrick, a physician. His family were Jewish immigrants (from Austria, Romania, and Russia). Stanley was considered intelligent, despite poor grades at school. Hoping that a change of scenery would ...

Director

83. Rory Calhoun

Actor | Motel Hell

Rory Calhoun was born Francis Timothy McCown in Los Angeles, the son of Elizabeth Cuthbert and Floyd McCown. Rory starred in over 80 films and 1,000 television episodes. Before becoming an actor he worked as a boxer, a lumberjack, a truck driver and a cowpuncher. Tall and handsome, he benefited ...

Actor

84. Anthony Newley

Actor | Can Heironymus Merkin Ever Forget Mercy Humppe and Find True Happiness?

Anthony Newley was born in Hackney, London, England, to Frances Grace Newley and George Kirby, a shipping clerk. He was attracted to acting, after seeing an ad for a child actor in a Fleet Street window. He attended the Italia Conti Stage School from the age of 14 and, two years later, played the ...

Actor

85. William 'Billy' Benedict

Actor | The Killing

William Benedict was active in the drama department of his Tulsa, Oklahoma, high school and, at the height of the Depression (1934), decided to relocate to California. At first, he wanted to be a dancer, but when he discovered that dancers were a dime-a-dozen in Hollywood, he concentrated on acting...

Actor

86. Huntz Hall

Actor | Dead End

The 14th of 16 children born to an air conditioning repairman, Henry Richard Hall (he got the name "Huntz" from a brother who said his large nose made him look German) was anything but the tough street kid he played in the East Side Kids/Bowery Boys films. He made his stage debut at the age of 1 in...

Actor

87. Victor Mature

Actor | The Robe

American leading man Victor John Mature was born in Louisville, Kentucky, to Clara P. (Ackley) and Marcellus George Mature, a cutler and knife sharpener. His father, born Marcello Gelindo Maturi in Pinzolo, Trentino, was Italian, and his mother was of Swiss-German and German descent. Mature worked ...

Actor

88. Charles 'Buddy' Rogers

Actor | Wings

"America's Boyfriend" Buddy Rogers was born in Olathe Kansas and became a talented musician on several instruments. He began acting in Hollywood in the 1920's and is probably best remembered as Clara Bow's love interest in "Wings". He also made several appearances in the "Mexican Spitfire" series ...

Actor

89. Abraham Polonsky

Writer | Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here

Writer-director Abraham Lincoln Polonsky, one of the most prominent victims of the Hollywood blacklisting of communists and social progressives in the post-World War II period, was born on December 5, 1910, in New York, New York. An unreconstructed Marxist, Polonsky never hid his membership in the ...

Writer / Director

90. Robert Bresson

Writer | Au hasard Balthazar

Robert Bresson trained as a painter before moving into films as a screenwriter, making a short film (atypically a comedy), Public Affairs (1934) in 1934. After spending more than a year as a German POW during World War II, he made his debut with Angels of Sin (1943) in 1943. His next film, The ...

Director / Screenwriter (my revision)

91. Ernest Gold

Music_department | It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World

Ernest Gold was born on July 13, 1921 in Vienna, Austria. He was a composer, known for It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World (1963), Exodus (1960) and On the Beach (1959). He was married to Jeanette (Jan) Keller, Marni Nixon and Ruth Andree Golbin. He died on March 17, 1999 in Santa Monica, California, USA.

Composer

92. Rudi Fehr

Editor | Prizzi's Honor

Rudi Fehr was born on July 6, 1911 in Berlin, Germany. He was an editor and producer, known for Prizzi's Honor (1985), Key Largo (1948) and Dial M for Murder (1954). He was married to Maris Wrixon. He died on April 16, 1999 in Hollywood, California, USA.

Editor

93. DeForest Kelley

Actor | Star Trek

Jackson DeForest Kelley was born in Toccoa, Georgia, to Clora (Casey) and Ernest David Kelley.

He graduated from high school at age 16 and went on to sing at the Baptist church where his father was a minister. At age 17, he made his first trip outside the state to visit an uncle in Long Beach, ...

Actor

94. Gene Siskel

Self | Siskel & Ebert & the Movies

Gene Siskel was an American film critic and journalist for the Chicago Tribune. He partnered with fellow critic Roger Ebert to present a series of television shows which centered on film reviews. Their partnership lasted from 1975 to Siskel's death in 1999. Siskel became famous for his heated ...

Film Critic

95. Desmond Llewelyn

Actor | GoldenEye

Desmond Llewelyn was born in South Wales in 1914, the son of a coal mining engineer. In high school, he worked as a stagehand in the school's productions and then picked up sporadic small parts. His family would not give up their effort to prevent him from a life on stage, so an uncle who was a ...

Actor (my revision)

96. Henry Jones

Actor | Vertigo

Henry Burk Jones was born in New Jersey and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was the son of Helen (Burk) and John Francis Xavier Jones, and the grandson of Pennsylvania Representative Henry Burk, a Prussian immigrant. He graduated from St. Joseph's College. His Broadway debut was in 1938 in ...

Actor

97. Richard Kiley

Actor | Jurassic Park

Although Richard Kiley's rich baritone and strong vocal talent was much in evidence and received due respect with his award of a Tony for "Man of La Mancha", it was little used in his television and movie appearances. Won two Tony Awards as Best Actor (Musical): in 1959 for "Redhead" and in 1966 ...

Actor

98. Mario Puzo

Writer | The Godfather

Mario Puzo was born October 15, 1920, in "Hell's Kitchen" on Manhattan's (NY) West Side and, following military service in World War II, attended New York's New School for Social Research and Columbia University. His best-known novel, "The Godfather," was preceded by two critically acclaimed novels...

Writer (my revision)

99. Edward Dmytryk

Director | The Caine Mutiny

Edward Dmytryk grew up in San Francisco, the son of Ukrainian immigrants. After his mother died when he was 6, his strict disciplinarian father beat the boy frequently, and the child began running away while in his early teens. Eventually, juvenile authorities allowed him to live alone at the age ...

Director

100. Garson Kanin

Writer | Adam's Rib

Garson Kanin has worked as an actor on stage and as a director on Broadway and in Hollywood, but his best-known work is as a writer. During the Great Depression, he dropped out of high school to help support his family by working as a musician and later as a comedian. He attended the American ...

Writer / Director