List activity
245 views
• 0 this weekCreate a new list
List your movie, TV & celebrity picks.
40 people
- Actress
- Soundtrack
London-born actress, daughter of the King's Counsel, St. John Field, educated in Paris and Vienna. Her mother, a cousin of famous Confederate General Robert E. Lee, chose the name "Virginia" as homage to Lee's beloved home state. Virginia also had an actress aunt, Auriol Lee, who paved the way for her debut on the stage. She first appeared in "This Side Idolatry" in 1933 (with Leslie Howard). She was later signed by 20th Century Fox (actually by standing in at a screen test as a favour to another actress), but was quickly typecast as the "other woman" or as perfunctory second fiddle to "Charlie Chan" and "Mr. Moto". She had greater success on Broadway, where she starred in the screwball comedy "The Doughgirls" (1942) at the Lyceum Theatre, and the Moss Hart farce "Light Up the Sky" (1948), with Sam Levene, Barry Nelson and Glenn Anders.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Dame Judith Anderson was born Frances Margaret Anderson on February 10, 1897 in Adelaide, South Australia. She began her acting career in Australia before moving to New York in 1918. There she established herself as one of the greatest theatrical actresses and was a major star on Broadway throughout the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s. Her notable stage works included the role of Lady Macbeth, which she played first in the 1920s, and gave an Emmy Award-winning television performance in Macbeth (1960). Anderson's long association with Euripides' "Medea" began with her acclaimed Tony Award-winning 1948 stage performance in the title role. She appeared in the television version of Medea (1983) in the supporting character of the Nurse.
Anderson made her Hollywood film debut under director Rowland Brown in a supporting role in Blood Money (1933). Her striking, not conventionally attractive features were complemented with her powerful presence, mastery of timing and an effortless style. Anderson made a film career as a supporting character actress in several significant films including Alfred Hitchcock's Rebecca (1940), for which she was Oscar nominated for Best Supporting Actress. She worked with director Otto Preminger in Laura (1944), then with René Clair in And Then There Were None (1945). Her remarkable performance in a supporting role in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958) fit in a stellar acting ensemble under director Richard Brooks.
Anderson was awarded Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 1960 Queen's New Year's Honours List for her services to the performing arts. Living in Santa Barbara in her later years, she also had a successful stint on the soap opera Santa Barbara (1984) and was nominated for a Daytime Emmy Award in 1984. In the same year, at age 87, she appeared in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984) as the High Priestess, and was nominated for a Saturn Award for that role. She was awarded Companion of the Order of Australia in the 1991 Queen's Birthday Honours List for her services to the performing arts. Anderson died at age 94 of pneumonia on January 3, 1992 in Santa Barbara, California.- Actor
- Additional Crew
- Director
Richard Hunt did not have a face known to many -- his voice was known more than anything else. He was a major stronghold behind Jim Henson's "Muppets". 'Scooter', 'Janice', 'Sweetums' and a few others, were some of the "Muppets" that Richard was a performer and puppeteer of. He helped pave the way for Jim Henson and his company from the 1970s through the early 90s, until his surprising death in 1992 of AIDS.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Respected character actor whose on-screen work included everything from Shakespeare to Dick Tracy (1990) (his last film). After a long apprenticeship in the theatre, the 38-year-old Wolfe finally debuted in films in The Barretts of Wimpole Street (1934), recreating his Broadway role. He then toiled away steadily in Hollywood for the next several decades, working as a supporting player in literally hundreds of film and TV productions well into his 90s. Though capable of a wide range of parts, Wolfe's gentle, patrician manner found him most often cast as a butler, a minister or a kindly doctor. He finally gained his greatest fame at the age of 85, effortlessly stealing scenes as Mama Carlson's doddering yet feisty butler "Hirsch" in several episodes of the MTM sitcom WKRP in Cincinnati (1978).- Actor
- Director
- Additional Crew
José Ferrer was a Puerto Rican actor and film director. He won an Academy Award for Best Actor for playing the title character in Cyrano de Bergerac (1950). Ferrer was the first Puerto Rican actor to win an Academy Award, and also the first Hispanic actor to win an Academy Award.
In 1912, Ferrer was born is San Juan, the capital city of Puerto Rico. Established as a Spanish colonial city in 1521, San Juan is the third oldest European-established capital city in the Americas, following Santo Domingo (established in 1496) and Panama City (established in 1521). Ferrer's father was Rafael Ferrer, a lawyer and author who was born and raised in San Juan. Ferrer's mother was María Providencia Cintrón, a native of the coastal town of Yabucoa. Ferrer's paternal grandfather was Dr. Gabriel Ferrer Hernández, who had campaigned for Puerto Rican independence from the Spanish Empire.
The Ferrer family moved to New York City in 1914, when José was 2-years-old. As a school student, Ferrer was educated abroad at the Institut Le Rosey, a prestigious boarding school located in Rolle, Switzerland. In 1933, Ferrer was enrolled at Princeton University, located in Princeton, New Jersey. He studied architecture, and wrote a senior thesis about French Naturalism and the literary works of Spanish naturalist writer Emilia Pardo Bazán (1851-1921). In 1934, Ferrer transferred to Columbia University, where he studied Romance languages.
In 1934, while still a college student, Ferrer made his theatrical debut in Long Island-based theatre. In 1935, he was hired as the stage manager at the Suffern Country Playhouse. Later in 1935, Ferrer made his Broadway debut in the comedy play "A Slight Case of Murder" by Damon Runyon (1880-1946) and Howard Lindsay (1889-1968). This stage production of the play ran for 69 performances, with Ferrer appearing in all of them.
Ferrer's major success as a Broadway actor was performing in the play "Brother Rat" by John Monks Jr. (1910-2004) and Fred F. Finklehoffe (1910-1977). The play had a ran of 577 performances from 1936 to 1938. Among his subsequent theatrical appearances, the most successful were staged productions of Mamba's Daughters (1938), which ran for 163 performances, and "Charley's Aunt" (1940-1941), which ran for 233 performances. His role in "Charley's Aunt" required him to perform in drag, for the first time in his career.
Ferrer had one of the greatest theatrical successes of his career when playing the villainous Iago in a Broadway production of "Othello' by William Shakespeare. The production had a ran of 296 performances, lasting from 1943 to 1944. Ferrer played his most famous role as the historical figure of Cyrano de Bergerac (1619-1655) in the 1946-1947 Broadway season. For this role, Ferrer won the 1947 Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play.
Ferrer made his film debut in the Technicolor epic "Joan of Arc" (1948). He played the historical monarch Charles VII of France (1403-1461, reigned 1422-1461), the ruler who Joan of Arc served during the Hundred Years' War. For his debut role, Ferrer was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. The Award was instead won by rival actor Walter Huston (1883-1950).
Ferrer's success as a film actor, helped him gain more film roles in Hollywood-produced films. He played the "smooth-talking hypnotist David Korvo" in the film noir "Whirlpool" (1949), and dictator Raoul Farrago in the film noir "Crisis". He had a career highlight with a film adaptation of the play "Cyrano de Bergerac", where he played the title role. For this role, he won the Academy Award for Best Actor.
His next critically successful role was that of artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901) in the historical drama "Moulin Rouge" (1952). For this role, Ferrer was again nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor. The award was instead won by rival actor Gary Cooper (1901-1961). The film also marked a financial success for Ferrer, who received 40% of the film's profits.
Ferrer also appeared in other box office hits of the 1950s, such as the musical "Miss Sadie Thompson" (1953), the Navy-themed drama "The Caine Mutiny" (1954), and the biographical film "Deep in My Heart" (1954). Ferrer was also interested in becoming a film director. He made his directing debut with the film noir "The Shrike" (1955). His subsequent directing efforts included war film "The Cockleshell Heroes" (1955), the film noir "The Great Man" (1956), the biographical film I Accuse! (1958), and the comedy film "The High Cost of Loving" (1958). While still critically well-received, several of these films were box office flops. He took a hiatus from films productions.
Ferrer attempted a comeback as a film director with the sequel film "Return to Peyton Place" (1961) and the musical film "State Fair" (1962). Both films were box office flops. As an actor, Ferrer had a supporting role as a Turkish Bey in the historical drama "Lawrence of Arabia" (1962). While a relatively minor role, Ferrer considered the finest role of his film career.
In television, Ferrer gained a notable role as the narrator in the pilot episode of the hit sitcom "Bewitched" (1964-1972). In films, Ferrer started playing mostly supporting roles. He briefly returned to the role of Cyrano de Bergerac in the French adventure film "Cyrano and d'Artagnan". He had another notable role as a historical monarch, playing Herod Antipas, Tetrarch of Galilee and Perea (reigned 4 BC-39 AD) in the Biblical epic "The Greatest Story Ever Told" (1965).
Ferrer had his first notable role as a voice actor, playing the villain Ben Haramed in the Rankin/Bass Christmas "The Little Drummer Boy" (1968). But at this time, he started having legal troubles. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) accused Ferrer of still owing unpaid taxes since 1962.
Ferrer had many film roles in the 1970s, but no outstanding highlights. As a voice actor, he voiced Cyrano de Bergerac in an episode of "The ABC Afterschool Special". In the 1980s, Ferrer played a monarch again, playing Padishah Emperor Shaddam IV in the science fiction film "Dune". The film was an adaptation of the 1965 novel "Dune" by Frank Herbert (1920-1986), and Shaddam was one of the film's villains. This was among the last notable roles of Ferrer's long career.
Ferred retired from acting entirely in 1991, due to increasing health problems. His last theatrical performance was a production of the generation-gap drama "Conversations with My Father". Ferrer died in 1992, due to colorectal cancer. He was 80-years-old. He died in Coral Gables, Florida, but was buried in the Santa María Magdalena de Pazzis Cemetery of Old San Juan, Puerto Rico. Several of his children had acting careers of their own.- Actor
- Director
- Producer
Handsome and smooth natured leading man who often played oily individuals, Ray Danton was born in New York and dramatically trained at Carnegie Tech. First debuted on-screen as a moody Native American in Chief Crazy Horse (1955) and regularly guest-starred in many 1950s TV shows including Playhouse 90 (1956), Wagon Train (1957), and 77 Sunset Strip (1958)...often as a gunslinger or a slippery criminal.
Danton found plenty of demand for his talents and appeared in several minor films including The Night Runner (1957), Tarawa Beachhead (1958), in which he starred with his wife, Julie Adams, and then as a serial rapist in The Beat Generation (1959). However, his most well remembered role was as the vicious prohibition gangster Jack Diamond in the superb The Rise and Fall of Legs Diamond (1960) also starring a young Warren Oates and directed by Budd Boetticher. Danton reprised his Legs Diamond role only a year later in the unrelated, and not as enjoyable Portrait of a Mobster (1961).
Cornering the market on playing shady characters, Danton then portrayed troubled actor George Raft in The George Raft Story (1961), but he was back on the side of good in 1962 playing an Allied officer at the invasion of Normandy in The Longest Day (1962). Europe then beckoned for the virile Danton, and like many other young US actors in the early 1960s, he made several films in Italy and Spain between 1964 and 1969 with a mixture of success. Danton returned to the USA in the early 1970s and appeared in several other low budget features; however, he also turned his hand to direction and his first film was the AIP production of Deathmaster (1972) starring Robert Quarry who was riding high on the success of the Count Yorga vampire films. Danton directed another couple of minor horror films before becoming involved in television and directing episodes of some of the most popular TV series of the 1970/80s including Quincy M.E. (1976), The Incredible Hulk (1978), Magnum, P.I. (1980) and Cagney & Lacey (1981).
His final directorial work was on the TV series Vietnam War Story (1987) in 1987. Danton passed away in 1992 from kidney failure aged only 60.- Actor
- Soundtrack
The gangly York is best remembered as the first and most frustrated "Darrin Stephens" on the long-running TV series Bewitched (1964). He left the series in 1969 because of a chronic back ailment. He later founded Acting for Life, a private fund-raising effort for the homeless which he managed from his home, where he was bedridden with a degenerative spine injury.- It would not be easy for anyone to out-do one of American theater's finest thespians, but somehow actress Sandy Dennis managed to even out-quirk the legendary Geraldine Page when it came to affecting nervous tics and offbeat mannerisms on stage and in film. She and Page had few peers when it came to the neurotic-dispensing department. The two Actor's Studio disciples developed fascinating characterizations that seemed to manifest themselves outwardly to such physical extremes and, like a bad car accident, their overt styling was capable of both drawing in, and repelling audiences. There was no gray area. Either way, both had a searing emotional range and were undeniably transfixing figures who held up Oscar trophies to prove there was a "Method" to their respective madness. Sandy's signature quirks--her stuttering, fluttering, throat gulps, eye twitches, nervous giggles, hysterical flailing--are all a part of what made her so distinctive and unforgettable. Her untimely death of cancer at age 54 robbed the entertainment industry of a remarkable talent.
The Nebraska-born-and-bred actress was born Sandra Dale Dennis in Hastings, on April 27, 1937, the daughter of postal clerk Jack Dennis and his secretary wife Yvonne (née Hudson), who divorced in 1966 after a 38-year marriage. Living in both Kenesaw (1942) and Lincoln (1946) while growing up, she and brother Frank went to Lincoln High School with TV host Dick Cavett. Her passion for acting grew and grew while still at home. A college student at both Nebraska Wesleyan University and the University of Nebraska, she eventually found her career direction after appearing with the Lincoln Community Theater Group.
The toothy actress left Nebraska and towards the Big Apple at age 19 just to try her luck. An intense student of acting guru Uta Hagen, Sandy made her New York stage debut in a Tempo Theatre production of "The Lady from the Sea" in 1956 and that same year won her first TV role as that of Alice Holden in the daytime series Guiding Light (1952). A year later she made it to Broadway as an understudy (and eventual replacement) for the roles of Flirt and Reenie in the William Inge drama "The Dark at the Top of the Stairs," directed by Elia Kazan at the Music Box Theatre. She toured with that production and also found regional work in the plays "Bus Stop" and "Motel" while continuing to shine as a budding New York fixture in "Burning Bright," "Face of a Hero" and "Port Royal".
Along with fellow newcomers Gary Lockwood and Phyllis Diller, Sandy made her movie debut in playwright Inge's Splendor in the Grass (1961), a movie quite welcoming of Sandy's neurotic tendencies. In the minor but instrumental role of Kay, she is an unwitting instigator of friend Deanie's (played by an ambitiously unbalanced Natalie Wood) mental collapse. Despite this worthy little turn, Sandy would not make another film for five years.
Instead, the actress set her sights strongly on the stage and for this she was handsomely rewarded, most notably in comedy. After appearing in a two-month run of the Graham Greene drama "The Complaisant Lover" at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre in 1961, stardom would be hers the very next year with her outstanding social worker role in the lighter-weight "A Thousand Clowns". Winning the Theatre World as well as the coveted Tony Award for her performance, she continue her run of prizes with a second consecutive Tony for her sexy turn in the comedy "Any Wednesday" (1964). Having made only one picture at this juncture, Sandy was not in a good position to transfer her award-winning characters to film and when they did, they went to Barbara Harris and Jane Fonda, respectively.
TV was also a viable medium for Sandy and she appeared sporadically on such programs as The Fugitive (1963), Naked City (1958) and Arrest and Trial (1963). In 1965, she appeared in London as Irina in a heralded Actor's Studio production of Chekhov's "The Three Sisters" with fellow devotees Geraldine Page, Kim Stanley, Shelley Winters, Luther Adler and Kevin McCarthy. The play was subsequently videotaped and directed by Paul Bogart, and is valuable today for the studied "Method" performances of its cast. It, however, received mixed reviews upon its release.
Returning to film in 1966, Sandy seemed to embellish every physical and emotional peculiarity she could muster for the role of the mousy wife Honey in the four-character powerhouse play Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966) by Edward Albee. It is a mouth-dropping, emotionally shattering performance, and both she and a more even-keeled George Segal as the drop over guests of the skewering cutthroat couple George and Martha (Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton) more than held their own. While the distaff cast won Oscars for this (Taylor for "Best Actress" and Dennis for "Best Supporting Actress"), this ferocious landmark film blew open the "Production Code" doors once and for all and a wave of counterculture filming tackling formerly taboo subjects came to be.
Firmly established now with her Oscar win, Sandy found highly affecting lead showcases for herself. She starred as a young, naive English teacher challenged by a New York "Blackboard Jungle"-like school system in Up the Down Staircase (1967). She also stirred up some controversy along with Anne Heywood playing brittle lesbian lovers whose relationship is threatened by a sexy male visitor (Keir Dullea) in another ground-breaking film The Fox (1967). Sandy remained intriguingly off-kilter in the odd-couple romantic story Sweet November (1968) opposite Anthony Newley, the bizarre Robert Altman thriller That Cold Day in the Park (1969), and the gloomy British melodrama A Touch of Love (1969) [aka Thank You All Very Much].
Off-camera, Sandy lived for over a decade with jazz musician and saxophonist Gerry Mulligan, which began in 1965 following his devoted relationship with actress Judy Holliday who had died of cancer earlier in the year. They eventually parted ways in 1976. Rumors that they had married at some point were eventually negated by Sandy herself. Sandy also went on to have a May-December relationship with the equally quirky actor Eric Roberts from 1980 to 1985. She had no children.
At the peak of her film popularity, Sandy began the 1970s in more mainstream fashion. She and Jack Lemmon were another odd-couple hit in Neil Simon's The Out of Towners (1970) as married George and Gwen Kellerman visiting an unmerciful Big Apple. Sandy is at her whiny, plain-Jane best ("Oh, my God...I think we're being kidnapped!") as disaster upon disaster befalls the miserable twosome. Both she and Lemmon were nominated for Golden Globes. Following this, however, Sandy again refocused on the stage with an avalanche of fine performances in "How the Other Half Loves," "And Miss Reardon Drinks a Little," "A Streetcar Named Desire" (as Blanche), "Born Yesterday" (as Billie Dawn), "Absurd Person Singular," "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" (as Maggie the Cat), "Same Time, Next Year," "The Little Foxes," "Eccentricities of a Nightingale," "The Supporting Cast" and even the title role in "Peter Pan".
A few TV and movie roles came Sandy's way in unspectacular fashion but it wasn't until the next decade that she again stole some thunder. After a moving support turn as a cast-off wife in the finely-tuned ensemble drama The Four Seasons (1981), Sandy proved terrific as a James Dean extremist in another ensemble film Come Back to the 5 & Dime Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean (1982), which she played first to fine acclaim on Broadway. Reunited with director Robert Altman as well as her stage compatriots Cher, Karen Black, Kathy Bates, Sudie Bond and Marta Heflin, the film version was equally praised. Her last films included Another Woman (1988), 976-EVIL (1988) and Parents (1989).
Seen less and less in later years, she gave in to her eccentric tendencies as time went on. A notorious cat lover (at one point there was a count of 33 residing in her Westport, Connecticut home), close friends included actresses Brenda Vaccaro and Jessica Walter. Her father Jack died in 1990 and around that same time Sandy was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. Undergoing chemotherapy at the time she filmed the part of a beaten-down mother in Sean Penn's The Indian Runner (1991), the role proved to be her last.
Sandy died in Westport on March 2, 1992. Her ashes were placed at the Lincoln Memorial Park in Lincoln, Nebraska. A foundation in her home state was set up to "memorialize the accomplishments of Sandy Dennis, to perpetuate her commitment to education and the performing arts, to promote cultural activities, and to encourage theatrical education, performance, and professionals". A book, "Sandy Dennis: A Personal Memoir," was published posthumously in 1997. - Tall, dark, and handsome, Italian actor Cesare Danova (pronounced Chez-a-ray Da-NO-va) was a true Renaissance man. As a boy, it appeared he might become a professional athlete. But his family wanted him to become a doctor. Cesare, by his own account, studied medicine with such diligence that he suffered a nervous breakdown shortly before he was to take his degree. While recuperating, he was sent by a friend to see Dino De Laurentiis, the famous Italian producer, who was so impressed that he gave Danova a screen test. Thinking it was a joke, Danova insisted on seeing the screen test for himself. Soon, he was cast as the lead in La figlia del capitano (1947) (The Captain's Daughter). Thus began his career as an Italian Errol Flynn. In almost 20 European films, Danova played the dashing lead, riding horses, jumping through windows, dueling, and romancing beauties such as Gina Lollobrigida.
Known for his aristocratic bearing, he often played noblemen. The six-foot-four Danova was also an expert athlete. A devotee of strenuous daily workouts from age 12, Danova was a fencing champion by age 15 and a member of the Italian National Rugby Team by age 17. In addition to playing golf, tennis, and croquet, Danova was an amateur swimming champion, an expert horseman and polo player, and a master archer. He won the Robin Hood Trophy when he shot and embedded one arrow inside another arrow within the target's bull's eye. He was also a licensed pilot who flew his own planes (Beechcraft, Piper, Cherokee, and Cessna).
A descendant of famed medieval artist Filippo Lippi, Danova collected antiques and paintings. Describing himself as a fair painter, he taught himself to draw by studying a 75-cent how-to-draw book. Danova owned a library of over 3,000 books, each written in one of the five languages he knew-Italian, English, Spanish, French, and German.
Danova loved the theater and appeared onstage in Rome, Venice, Spain, New York, and Los Angeles. He was in the habit of carrying a small leprechaun good luck charm (and a shamrock ) he'd bought in Ireland, The actor traveled to the Emerald Isle many times. 'I love Ireland and I go there every chance I get,' he once said.
With almost 20 European films under his belt, Danova was spotted by MGM's head of talent in the German-backed 'Don Giovanni'(1955), his first film shown in the U.S. Impressed, the studio signed Danova to a long-term contract in June of 1956, and he traded his flourishing career in Europe for Hollywood. Rumors abounded that MGM had found its Ben-Hur (a role coveted by Tony Curtis and Kirk Douglas, among others) for the upcoming super-epic remake by director William Wyler. The studio said it expected big things from Danova but that it was too soon to say whether he'd play the lead until he'd perfected his English. Still, it was no secret that Danova had been brought to America by Wyler to be groomed for the lead role. Hollywood columnist Bob Thomas referred to Danova as the 'new Italian sensation' and others compared him to 'Tyrone Power (I)' and Robert Taylor, a glamour boy to fill the shoes of Rudolph Valentino.
When Danova arrived, he didn't speak English and insisted on not learning his lines by rote. He spent the next six months learning the language, a not-terribly-difficult feat for a man with a self-professed love of words who already spoke four languages. With a background in classical acting, and his newfound English fluency, Danova was ready for his big break. But just as filming was to get underway in March, 1957, Wyler decided he didn't want an actor with an accent playing Ben-Hur (1959) and, instead, chose Charlton Heston (who would win the best actor Oscar for the role). Danova was shocked - the role would almost certainly have made him an international star.
Although Wyler didn't want Danova, MGM did. The studio said it expected important things from him when they signed him. But now they had no definite alternative plans for him. Danova's career idled for the next two years. MGM kept him on its payroll, paying him well for doing nothing at all. Danova admitted that, although he was not bitter, the lack of work day after day was enough to drive him crazy. He stayed busy reading, writing, taking diction lessons, building furniture, and playing with his two small sons, Fabrizio and Marco, by English actress Pamela Matthews, whom he had wed in 1955.
Finally, with MGM's consent, Danova made his American debut in Los Angeles opposite Paul Muni in a musical version of Grand Hotel (1932). When it flopped, he traveled to Cuba to appear in Catch Me If You Can (1959), a film starring Gilbert Roland and Dina Merrill. Financed by soon-to-be-deposed Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista, it was apparently never released. Danova's American film debut was as the lover of Leslie Caron in the now-forgotten The Man Who Understood Women (1959), starring Henry Fonda.
When Danova first came to America, he was quoted as saying that he wished to lose his accent so that he would be able to play the role he most wanted, that of an American cowboy. In 1958, he got his wish. He made his American television debut in a first-season episode of The Rifleman (1958) called 'Duel of Honor,' the first of three appearances. United Press International summed up Danova's reversal of fortune this way: "Televiewers will have the opportunity to see the man who almost played the title role in Ben-Hur (1959) - but in place of a chariot he'll be bouncing around in a stage coach...Danova, a ruggedly handsome Italian import, is making his American debut in ABC-TV's The Rifleman (1958). It's quite a comedown from his original intent to star in the most expensive movie in history."
Cesare Danova got a second chance at stardom when he was cast as Cleopatra's court advisor, Apollodorus, in the Cleopatra (1963), starring Elizabeth Taylor. As originally scripted, Danova's character was to be Cleopatra's lover, servicing her when she wasn't being romanced by costars Rex Harrison and Richard Burton. "I'm sort of the third man-the real lover," Danova was quoted as saying.
But then the torrid, real-life love affair between Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton became a worldwide media sensation. The resulting scandal, since both stars were married but not to each other, generated badly needed public interest in the troubled, bloated, fantastically over-budget production. Le Scandale (as the French dubbed it) upstaged everything about the film not related to Taylor & Burton. As a result, Danova's performance was now a distraction and most of it was cut, dashing predictions that Danova "should be in big demand after this one."
In October 1963, not quite two-and-a-half months after Cleopatra's release, Pamela and Cesare Danova were divorced. The Associated Press headline stated merely: Wife Divorces Cleopatra Slave.
In his early years in America, Danova turned down the opportunity to appear as a series regular on TV for fear of being typecast and locked out of movies altogether. When he finally accepted, it was for the WWII ensemble cast Garrison's Gorillas (1967), a show patterned somewhat after The Dirty Dozen (1967). Danova said he accepted because he was the first to be cast and his was the best part. He appeared as actor, a con man, expert at disguises and spreading disinformation behind the lines among the Nazis. Although he took pains to distinguish the two roles, Danova's character was obviously similar to that played by TV contemporary Martin Landau on Mission: Impossible (1966). In any event, Garrison's Gorillas (1967) did not last beyond the 1967-1968 season.
In time, as movie roles became fewer, Danova did a great deal of television work. Two of his most memorable later screen roles (and the ones for which he is best remembered) were as Mafia Don Giovanni Cappa in Mean Streets (1973), directed by Martin Scorsese, and as corrupt mayor Carmine DePasto in National Lampoon's Animal House (1978).
Cesare Danova died of a heart attack on March 19, 1992, shortly after his 66th birthday, during a meeting of the Foreign Language Film committee of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), at its Los Angeles headquarters. - Actor
- Director
- Producer
Born in Canada, John Ireland was raised in New York. Performing as a swimmer in a water carnival, he moved into the legitimate theater, often appearing in minor roles in Broadway plays. His first big break in pictures came in 1945 when he appeared as Windy the introspective letter-writing G.I. in the classic war epic A Walk in the Sun (1945). Ireland was then often featured (mostly as a heavy) in several films. In 1949, he was nominated for best supporting actor for his role as the reporter in All the King's Men (1949). During the early 1950s, Ireland often starred as the emoting, brooding hero, almost exclusively in "B" pictures. In 1953, with his son Peter Ireland and wife, Joanne Dru, Ireland co-produced and co-directed the western mini-classic Hannah Lee: An American Primitive (1953) (aka Outlaw Territory). From the mid-'50s on. he appeared mainly in Italian "quickie" features and showed up occasionally in supporting roles in major pictures (Spartacus (1960)). Occasionally, his name was mentioned in tabloids of the times, in connection with young starlets, namely Natalie Wood and Sue Lyon. He was to play the role of the patriarch on the Ponderosa in Bonanza: The Next Generation (1988) but the series was not picked up. In addition to Hannah Lee: An American Primitive (1953), his best work was in Little Big Horn (1951) and The Bushwhackers (1951). In his later years, he owned and operated a tiny restaurant, Ireland's, in Santa Barbara, California.- Actress
- Director
- Soundtrack
They say big things often come in small packages, and never was that saying more true than when sizing up the talents of that diminutive dynamo Nancy Walker. Born Anna Myrtle Swoyer in Philadelphia on May 10, 1922, she lived a born-in-a-trunk existence as the daughter of vaudevillian Dewey Barto (né Stewart Steven Swoyer). At the time of his run of Broadway's "Hellzapoppin", Barto was part of the comedy team of Barto & Mann (George Mann). Her younger sister, Betty Lou Barto (born 1930), had a less impressive and briefer performing career. Although she had designs on becoming a legit singer, it was hard for others to take Nancy seriously with her naturally aggressive manner backed up by this tiny frame. Comedy became her forte.
Broadway legend George Abbott picked up on her innate comic abilities immediately and set her up as his blind date in the Broadway musical smash "Best Foot Forward" in 1941. The show, starring June Allyson, was a certifiable hit, and when MGM turned Best Foot Forward (1943) into a musical film, Nancy, as well as June, went right along with it. Nancy continued giving top support for MGM in the Judy Garland/Mickey Rooney starrer Girl Crazy (1943) and in Broadway Rhythm (1944). Back on Broadway, Nancy all but stole the proceedings as the hoydenish cabbie Hildy Esterhazy, who pursues a sailor on leave, in "On the Town" (1944). After a brief first marriage, she met vocal coach David Craig during the 1948 run of "Look, Ma, I'm Dancing", when she was plagued by vocal problems. They married a few years later and had a daughter, Miranda. When Nancy left the show, she was replaced by her sister, Betty Lou Barto. Other musical plaudit came her way, including Tony nominations for the revue "Phoenix '55" and for her lead role in "Do Re Mi" with Phil Silvers.
Nancy experienced some tough, lean years in the late 1950s and 1960s until she found TV an accepting medium. She became popular all over again, and a household name to boot, as Rosie the waitress in a series of Bounty paper-towel commercials. At around the same time, she won a regular role as Mildred, the sardonic maid on McMillan & Wife (1971). Her prototypical wisecracking role, however, came as the outlandish Jewish mom Ida Morgenstern, mother of Valerie Harper's "Rhoda" character on The Mary Tyler Moore Show (1970).
When Harper spun off into her own series--Rhoda (1974)--interfering Ida was right alongside her still-unmarried daughter, wreaking havoc. Alas, nominated for eight Emmys and four Golden Globe Awards for her collective work on series TV, she never won. Her renewed popularity, however, led to a couple of TV star vehicles that plainly didn't suit her second-banana talents. Neither lasted very long. She eventually moved into stage and film directing. Nancy made her final regular TV-series appearance on the sitcom True Colors (1990), playing another of her long line of delightfully brash buttinskys. During the run of the show, she was diagnosed with lung cancer and died about six weeks before her 70th birthday in 1992. She was survived by her husband, daughter, and sister.- Director
- Actor
- Producer
Paul Henreid was born Paul Georg Julius Freiherr von Hernreid Ritter von Wasel-Waldingau in Trieste, in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He was the son of Marie Luise Heilig (Lendecke) and Baron Karl Alphons Hernreid. His father was an aristocratic banker, who was born to a Jewish family whose surname was changed from Hirsch to Hernreid.
Paul grew up in Vienna and studied at the prestigious Maria Theresa Academy (graduating in 1927) and the Institute of Graphic Arts. For four years, he worked as translator and book designer for a publishing outfit run by Otto Preminger, while training to be an actor at night. Preminger was also a protégé (and managing director) of Max Reinhardt. After attending one of Henreid's acting school performances, Preminger introduced him to the famous stage director and this led to a contract. In 1933, Paul made his debut at the Reinhardt Theatre in "Faust". He subsequently had several leading roles on the stage and appeared in a couple of Austrian films. Paul, like his character Victor Laszlo in Casablanca (1942), was avidly anti-fascist. He accordingly left continental Europe and went to London in 1935, first appearing on stage as Prince Albert in "Victoria the Great" two years later.
Henreid made his English-speaking motion picture debut in the popular drama Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939), as the sympathetic German master Max Staefel, who proves to be Chipping's truest friend and ally. After that, however, he became incongruously typecast as Nazi henchmen in Mad Men of Europe (1940) and Night Train to Munich (1940). That year, he moved to the United States (becoming a citizen the following year) and quickly established himself on Broadway with "Flight to the West", as a Ribbentrop-type Nazi consul. His powerful performance led to radio work in the serial "Joyce Jordan-Girl Interne" and a film contract with RKO in 1941.
This marked a turning point in Paul Henreid's career. He finally escaped the stereotypical Teutonic image and began to play heroic or romantic leads, his first being Joan of Paris (1942), opposite Michèle Morgan, as French RAF pilot Paul Lavallier. Significantly, his next film, Now, Voyager (1942), defined his new screen persona: debonnaire, cultured and genteel, lighting two cigarettes simultaneously, then passing one to Bette Davis. According to Henreid, this legendary (and later often lampooned) scene was almost cut from the film because the director, Irving Rapper, had concerns about it. Next came "Casablanca", where Henreid played the idealistic, sensitive patriot Victor Laszlo; the poorly received Bronte sisters biopic Devotion (1946), as an Irish priest; and a stalwart performance as a Polish count and Ida Lupino's love interest, In Our Time (1944).
After several dull romantic leads, Henreid reinvented himself yet again. He played a memorably athletic and lively Dutch pirate, the 'Barracuda', in RKO's colourful swashbuckler The Spanish Main (1945). Another of his best later performances was as a sadistic South African commandant in the underrated film noir Rope of Sand (1949), which re-united him with his former "Casablanca" co-stars Peter Lorre and Claude Rains. After the Arabian Technicolor adventure, Thief of Damascus (1952), Henreid's star began to fade. His last noteworthy appearance during the fifties was as an itinerant magician in the oriental extravaganza Siren of Bagdad (1953) . The most memorable of several in-jokes, had Henreid lighting two hookahs (water pipes) for one of his harem girls, spoofing his famous scene from "Now, Voyager".
Outspoken in his opposition to McCarthyism and adhering to his rights under the First Amendment, he was subsequently blacklisted as a "communist sympathizer" by the House Committee on Un- American Activities. In spite of the damage this did to his career, he re-emerged as a director of second features and television episodes for Screen Gems, Desilu and other companies. In 1957, Alfred Hitchcock (in defiance of the blacklist) hired him to direct several episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955). Towards the end of his career, Paul Henreid directed his former "Now, Voyager" co-star Bette Davis in the camp melodrama Dead Ringer (1963) and toured with Agnes Moorehead on stage in a short-lived revival of "Don Juan in Hell"(1972- 73). Henreid died of pneumonia in a Santa Monica hospital in April 1992, after having suffered a stroke. He has the distinction of having not just one but two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, one for his films, and one for his television work.- Actor
- Writer
- Composer
Sam Kinison was a popular stand-up comedian from Yakima, Washington, mainly active in the 1980s and the early 1990s. He also had a few acting roles in film and television. His only recurring role was that of Hugh, the main character's alter ego in the short-lived sitcom "Charlie Hoover" (1991). The series only lasted 7 episodes. Kinison had previously worked as a Pentecostal preacher, and his comedy routine incorporated sudden tirades and distinctive screams in the style of charismatic preachers. Kinison was noted for a tendency to use black comedy, and to often satirize Christian evangelist scandals.
In 1953, Kinison was born in Yakima, Washington. The city's economy is mostly based on agriculture. Yakima is the primary producer of hops in the United States, a key ingredient in the production of beer. Kinison's parents were the Pentecostal preacher Samuel Earl Kinison and his wife Marie Florence Morrow. Samuel "pastored several churches " throughout the United States, never settling for long in one place and always earning a meager income.
In 1956, Kinison was accidentally hit by a truck. He survived the accident, but suffered brain damage. His childhood was otherwise uneventful until 1964, when his parents divorced. Marie gained custody over Kinison, despite the boy's protestations. Kinison decided to follow in his father's footstep's, training to become a preacher.
From 1968 to 1969, Kinison attended the "Pinecrest Bible Training Center", an unaccredited bible school located in Salisbury Center, New York. From 1970 to 1977, Kinison was employed as a preacher. He reportedly used a typical "fire and brimstone" style in his sermons, punctuated with shouting. Like his father, Kinison earned a meager income and struggled with poverty.
Deciding to change his career path and become a comedian, Kinison moved to Houston, Texas. He found work at the Houston-based comedy club "Comedy Workshop" (1978-early 1990s). He received training at the Workshop's school for improvisational comedic actors, and joined the club's team of "Texas Outlaw Comics". The team reportedly was intended to consist of comedians "who speak their minds" and "who aren't interested in selling out."
In 1980, Kinison decided to move to Los Angeles. He wanted to be hired by the West Hollywood-located comedy club "The Comedy Store" (1972-), where young comedians received press exposure and had a shot of appearing in HBO's "Young Comedians" television specials.
Kinison was initially hired as a doorman by "The Comedy Store", but eventually started performing as a comedian again. While struggling to find work, Kinnison reportedly developed addictions to both cocaine and alcohol. He hired his brother Bill as his manager.
Kinison's big break came when he was chosen as one of 8 performers in the "The 9th Annual Young Comedians Special" (1985). Most of the featured performers failed to impress the critics of the day, but Kinison won praise for voicing the frustrations of a typical married man in his routine. Kinison was next featured as a guest on the talk show "Late Night with David Letterman", and was cast in a supporting role in the comedy film "Back to School".
Kinison was at the height of his popularity by 1989. He was cast in the role of an angel in an episode of then-popular sitcom "Married... with Children" (1987-1997). In 1990, he had a role in the horror anthology series "Tales from the Crypt" (1989-1996). In 1991, he had a co-starring role in the sitcom "Charlie Hoover" (1991). The series' premise was that Charlie was a depressed, middle-aged office worker who is confronted by his own alter ego, who convinces him to turn his life around.
Having divorced twice, on April 4, 1992 Kinison married his long-time girlfriend Malika Souiri. She worked as a dancer. Following the wedding, the couple vacationed in Hawaii for 5 days. They returned to Los Angeles on April 10, as Kinison had to prepare for a performance at the Riverside Resort Hotel and Casino of Laughlin, Nevada. Later that day, Kinison's Pontiac Trans Am was "struck head-on" by a pick-up truck. The driver of the other vehicle was an inebriated 17-year-old boy.
Kinnison was found dead at the scene, with his head having smashed his car's windshield. At the time of the accident, Kinnison was not wearing his seat belt. He was 38-years-old at the the time of his death. His wife was also injured at the accident, but was able to recovered at a hospital. The driver responsible for the death pled guilty to charges of "vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence". He was sentenced to a single year of probation and 300 hours of community service.
Kinison was buried in a family grave plot at Memorial Park Cemetery in Tulsa, Oklahoma. In 1993, archival footage of him was used for the television special "A Tribute to Sam Kinison". Kinnison's brother Bill wrote a biography of him, called "Brother Sam: The Short, Spectacular Life of Sam Kinison". Despite a relatively short career, Kinnison has been fondly remembered. He has been cited as an influence by other comedians.- Neville Brand joined the Illinois National Guard in 1939, bent on a career in the military. His National Guard unit was activated into federal service shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941. It was while he was in the army that he made his acting debut, in Army training films, and this experience apparently changed the direction of his life. Once a civilian again, he used his GI Bill education assistance to study drama with the American Theater Wing and then appeared in several Broadway plays. His film debut was in Port of New York (1949). Among his earliest films was the Oscar-winning Stalag 17 (1953). His heavy features and gravelly voice made Brand a natural tough guy (and he wasn't just a "movie" tough guy--he was among the most highly decorated American soldiers in World War II, fighting in the European Theater against the Germans). "With this kisser, I knew early in the game I wasn't going to make the world forget Clark Gable," he once told a reporter. He played Al Capone in The George Raft Story (1961), The Scarface Mob (1959), and TV's The Untouchables (1959). Among his other memorable roles are the sympathetic guard in Birdman of Alcatraz (1962) and the representative of rioting convicts in Riot in Cell Block 11 (1954). Perhaps his best-known role was that of the soft-hearted, loud-mouthed, none-too-bright but very effective Texas Ranger Reese Bennett of Backtrack! (1969), Three Guns for Texas (1968), and TV's Laredo (1965).
- Actor
- Writer
- Soundtrack
Francis Alick Howerd, who grew up to become popular British comedian Frankie Howerd, was born in 1917 and first stepped onstage at age 4. As a teen he taught Sunday school; not long after his Army-man father died in 1934, 17-year-old Frankie was invited to audition for RADA. After a poor audition, he knew his calling was as a comedian instead of an actor. At 19 he put together revues for music halls that included monologues, impressions, jokes, and comic songs. This was difficult since he suffered from major stage fright, a life-long debilitation. Following war service, Frankie refocused on his career with radio and theatre appearances. In the 1950s he finally earned his own TV variety show, but his burgeoning reputation, coupled with a lack of self-confidence, led the painfully shy man to suffer severe emotional conflicts with this newfound success. In the 1960s this culminated in a severe nervous breakdown. Prone to melancholia and deep depression, he somehow managed to recover, and he earned high praise for both his musical-comedy performance in the London production of "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum" (in the Zero Mostel role) and his work on the popular satire series That Was the Week That Was (1962). Though never a strong film performer, he managed to find work in such films as The Ladykillers (1955), Further Up the Creek (1958), The Great St. Trinian's Train Robbery (1966), some 'Carry On' appearances, and the lead role in The House in Nightmare Park (1973). Frankie was awarded the OBE in 1977, the year his autobiography, "On My Way I Lost It," was published. In early April 1992 he went to the hospital for respiratory problems; he died of heart failure on April 19. He was buried at St. Gregory's Church in Weare, Somerset.- Writer
- Actor
- Music Department
He was born Alfred Hawthorn Hill. It was his grandfather who introduced him to Burlesque Shows and the theatre from where the young Benny Hill was to draw much of his comic inspiration. After his national service with the army during WW2, Benny came to London, adopted the stage name Benny Hill (in homage to his all time favourite comedian Jack Benny) and began appearing in variety shows. He briefly formed a double act with Reg Varney and did radio shows. But it was his talent for impressions and comic timing that were to give him his first big break on TV with the show "Hi There" in 1949. The Benny Hill Show (1955) began in 1955. Its pioneering combination of cheeky humour, songs and impressions were to make it a hit for the next 40 years.
Benny also broadened his career with cameo appearances in films such as The Italian Job (1969), Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968) and Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines or How I Flew from London to Paris in 25 Hours 11 Minutes (1965). He also had a hit record in 1971 with "Ernie The Fastest Milkman In The West". In 1979 The Benny Hill Show (1955) was shown in America for the first time and Benny went on to become one of the biggest stars on US TV. The show itself has been seen in 109 countries and won a BAFTA as well as Golden Rose Of Montreaux Award. Benny Hill's TV career came to an end in 1989, when his show was dropped, but his popularity continued and he completed a US TV special, Benny Hill's World Tour: New York! (1991) shortly before his death in 1992.- Actor
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
- Director
After giving up college, George Murphy decided to become a dancer. Starting in 1927, he worked with his wife and partner Julie Johnson on Broadway. In 1934, after his wife retired from show business, he worked with Shirley Temple, in Hollywood, as well as Eleanor Powell, Fred Astaire, and Ronald Reagan. A Republican since 1939, in 1945 he became president of the Screen Actors Guild. He retired from the silver screen in 1952, became a TV producer and in 1964 was elected as Senator of California.- Actress
- Music Department
- Soundtrack
Her father was a police lieutenant and imbued in her a military attitude to life. Marlene was known in school for her "bedroom eyes" and her first affairs were at this stage in her life - a professor at the school was terminated. She entered the cabaret scene in 1920s Germany, first as a spectator then as a cabaret singer. In 1923, she married and, although she and Rudolf Sieber lived together only 5 years, they remained married until his death. She was in over a dozen silent films in increasingly important roles. In 1929, she was seen in a Berlin cabaret by Josef von Sternberg and, after a screen test, captured the role of the cabaret singer in The Blue Angel (1930) (and became von Sternberg's lover). With the success of this film, von Sternberg immediately took her to Hollywood, introducing her to the world in Morocco (1930), and signing an agreement to produce all her films. A series of successes followed, and Marlene became the highest paid actress of her time, but her later films in the mid-part of the decade were critical and popular failures. She returned to Europe at the end of the decade, with a series of affairs with former leading men (she had a reputation of romancing her co-stars), as well as other prominent artistic figures. In 1939, an offer came to star with James Stewart in a western and, after initial hesitation, she accepted. The film was Destry Rides Again (1939) - the siren of film could also be a comedienne and a remarkable comeback was reality. She toured extensively for the allied effort in WW II (she had become a United States citizen) and, after the war, limited her cinematic life. But a new career as a singer and performer appeared, with reviews and shows in Las Vegas, touring theatricals, and even Broadway. New success was accompanied by a too close acquaintance with alcohol, until falls in her performance eventually resulted in a compound fracture of the leg. Although the last 13 years of her life were spent in seclusion in her apartment in Paris, with the last 12 years in bed, she had withdrawn only from public life and maintained active telephone and correspondence contact with friends and associates.- One of six children born to an immigrant Norwegian glassblower, John Lund had a rather unsettled childhood. He dropped out of school at the age of 14. For a while, he tried his hand at several part-time jobs but never stayed long. He then devised various entrepreneurial ways to generate an income, including a quit-smoking program (a fairly novel idea at the time) and a mail order manual on mind-reading (!). Unsurprisingly, none of these ventures caught on. On the off-chance, Lund then got a small part in a local Rochester production in the Clifford Odets play "Waiting for Lefty". He went on from there to work in summer stock, eventually made his way to New York and finagled another small theatrical role while working at the 1939 World's Fair. For the next two years -- still restless -- Lund alternated jobs in advertising with acting and writing for radio.
In October 1941, he landed a plum role on Broadway in "As You Like It" and the following year penned both book and lyrics for the successful musical revue "New Faces of 1943". A much acclaimed leading role in the Bretaigne Windust production of "The Hasty Heart" followed in January 1945 and led to a six-year contract with Paramount. For the blue-eyed, saturnine, Nordic-looking Lund, the beginning of his career as a Hollywood leading man would also be his apex. He was at his best playing the dual role of an ill-fated World War I flying ace romancing Olivia de Havilland (subsequently, he played her grown-up illegitimate son in To Each His Own (1946)). Lund was also effectively cast as the romantic interest for both Marlene Dietrich and Jean Arthur in A Foreign Affair (1948).
There were further good roles to come: Lund showed unexpected comedic flair in the madcap farce Miss Tatlock's Millions (1948) as a Hollywood stunt man posing as an eccentric relative to help beleaguered heiress Wanda Hendrix against predatory gold-diggers. He gave reliable support to Barbara Stanwyck in the underrated melodrama No Man of Her Own (1950) and co-starred with Gene Tierney as one of newlyweds facing class barriers in The Mating Season (1951) (though Oscar-nominated Thelma Ritter as Lund's outspoken mother walked away with the acting honors for this one). By the end of 1951, Lund's star was in decline. He was briefly signed at Universal, but relegated to appearing primarily in routine westerns. His final major appearance was as George Kittredge, the stuffy fiancée who doesn't get the girl - this being Grace Kelly in her acting swansong High Society (1956).
Lund persisted for several more years on CBS radio as the titular insurance investigator of "Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar", a role he made his own between November 1952 and September 1954. He appeared in largely forgettable films thereafter and retired from acting altogether by 1963. In the end, he seems to have succeeded in setting up a moderately successful business and spent his remaining years at his house in Coldwater Canyon (Hollywood Hills) where he died in May 1992. - Actor
- Director
- Soundtrack
Robert Reed was an American actor, mostly known for television roles. His most famous role was that of pater familias Michael Paul "Mike" Brady in the popular sitcom "The Brady Bunch" (1969-1979). He returned to this role in several of the sitcom's sequels and spin-offs.
Reed was born under the name "John Robert Rietz Jr. " in 1932. His birthplace was Highland Park, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. His parents were government worker John Robert Rietz Sr. and homemaker Helen Teaverbaugh. The couple were childhood sweethearts and married each other at age 18. Reed was their only child.
Due to his father's career transfers, Reed moved often as a child. He spend part of his childhood in Navasota, Texas and Shawnee, Oklahoma. The senior Reitz eventually retired from his government positions, and started a new life as a cattle farmer in Muskogee, Oklahoma. The Reitz family moved to a farm there.
As a youth, Reed joined the 4-H agricultural club, and demonstrated calves in agricultural shows. He was already fascinated with acting and music, and started performing as a theatrical and singer before he graduated high school. He had a side career as a radio announcer for local radio stations, and also helped produce radio dramas.
Reed graduated from Muskogeee's Central High School in 1950. He soon enrolled at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, where he studied drama. His mentor was acting coach Alvina Krause (1893-1981). During his university years, Reed played the leading role in 8 different plays. Following his graduation, Reed studied abroad at Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London.
With the completion of his studies, Reed started a career as a theatrical actor. He appeared in summer stock productions in Pennsylvania, and joined the off-Broadway theatre group "The Shakespearewrights" which (as their name suggested) specialized in Shakespearean plays. Reed had leading roles in the group's productions of "Romeo and Juliet" and "A Midsummer Night's Dream". He left the group to join the Chicago-based Studebaker Theatre company.
By the late 1950s, Reed remained a relatively obscure theatrical actor. He moved to Los Angeles in hope of finding higher-profile roles in film or television. In 1959, Reed made his television debut in a guest star role in the sitcom "Father Knows Best". He next had guest star roles in the science fiction series "Men into Space" (1959-1960), and the Western series "Lawman" (1958-1962). His film debut was the horror film "Bloodlust!" (1961), playing the human prey of a sadistic hunter. The film was a loose adaptation of the short story "The Most Dangerous Game" (1924) by Richard Connell (1893-1949).
Reed had his first major role in television as lawyer Kenneth Preston in the courtroom drama series "The Defenders" (1961-1965). Reed played the son and junior partner of lawyer Lawrence Preston (played by E. G. Marshall), in a series featuring a father-son legal team. The series lasted for 132 episodes, and was a ratings hit. The series earned a total of 22 Primetime Emmy Award nominations during its run.
Following the cancellation of "The Defenders", Reed was mostly reduced to supporting roles in television. He appeared in (among others) "Family Affair"," Ironside", "The Mod Squad", and "Bob Hope Presents The Chrysler Theatre". In 1968, Reed signed a contract to play a lead role in the television adaptation of the play "Barefoot in the Park" (1963) by Neil Simon. When it was decided that the television adaptation would feature a mostly African-American cast, Reed was offered a leading role in "The Brady Bunch" as a consolation prize.
"The Brady Bunch" lasted for 117 episodes, though it never was among the highest-rated shows on television. It found a larger audience in syndication after its cancellation, and has remained a cult favorite. Reed was not happy with the often silly scripts of the sitcom, and had regular arguments about suggested re-writes with the show's producer Sherwood Schwartz (1916-2011). On the other hand, Reed formed long-lasting friendships with most members of the series' main cast.
Reed refused to appear in the fifth season finale of "The Brady Bunch", because he felt its script was unacceptable. He was fired from the series, and the production team considered replacing him with a new actor for the series' sixth season. However, the fifth season turned out to be the final one, with network ABC deciding to cancel the series.
While "The Brady Bunch" was still ongoing, Reed had the recurring role of Lt. Adam Tobias in the detective series "Mannix". He played the role for 22 episodes, running from 1968 to 1975. With the series' cancellation in 1975, Reed was left with no regular roles for the first time since the late 1960s.
Reed's next notable role was that of transgender Dr. Pat Caddison in the two-part episode "The Fourth Sex" (1975) of the medical drama Medical Center". The role was critically well-received, and Reed was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award, the "Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series". The award was instead won by rival actor Ed Asner (1929-).
Reed had a regular role as Teddy Boylan in the dramatic miniseries "Rich Man, Poor Man" (1976), and a prominent guest appearance as Dr. William Reynolds in the miniseries "Roots" (1977). For the first role, Reed was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series. The Award was instead won by rival actor Anthony Zerbe (1936-). For the second role, Reed was nominated again for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series. The award was instead again won by rival actor Ed Asner.
Reed reunited with his friends from the Brady Bunch in the sequel series "The Brady Bunch Hour" (1976-1977), which only lasted for 9 episodes. He next played Mike Brady in the television film "The Brady Girls Get Married" (1981), the television film "A Very Brady Christmas" (1988), and the short-lived sequel series "The Bradys" (1990). The attempts to turn the popular sitcom into a dramatic series were not met with success.
Reed had another lead role in television as Dr. Adam Rose on the medical drama "Nurse" (1981-1982). The series only lasted for 25 episodes. Otherwise, Reed was reduced to mostly playing guest star roles again. His last guest star role appeared in 1992 episode of the crime drama "Jake and the Fatman".
In November 1991, Reed was diagnosed with colon cancer. As his health deteriorated, Reed increasingly isolated himself. He only allowed visits from his daughter Karen Rietz and close friend Anne Haney (1934-2001). In May 1992, he died at Huntington Memorial Hospital in Pasadena, California. He was 59-years-old. He was buried at Memorial Park Cemetery in Skokie, Illinois.
Following his death, his death certificate revealed that Reed was HIV positive. While he was not suffering from AIDS, doctors were unable to determine whether HIV contributed to the deterioration of his health and his eventual death. How and when Reed contracted HIV remains unknown. Reed had managed to avoid having information about his personal life leaking to the press during his career, and also avoided sharing details about it even with his friends.
Reed is still fondly remembered for his television work, while his theatrical career has largely faded from memory.- Actor
- Writer
- Director
Bushy-browed, triple-chinned and plummy-voiced English actor and raconteur of wide girth and larger-than-life personality. The son of a career army officer, Morley was expected to join the diplomatic corps. As a 'compromise', he tried his hand as a beer salesman. However, bitten by the acting bug since first performing in a kindergarten play, he prevailed over the wishes of his parents and enrolled at RADA. He made his theatrical debut at London's Strand Theatre, in a 1929 production of "Treasure Island", playing the part of a pirate for $5 a week. During the next few years, Morley honed his craft by touring regional theatres, writing or co-writing the occasional play, and, when money was hard to come by, selling vacuum cleaners. For a while, he managed his own repertory company in tandem with fellow actor Peter Bull in the Cornish seaside resort of Perranporth. Morley eventually returned to the London stage in a much acclaimed performance as "Oscar Wilde", a role he took to Broadway in October 1938.
On the strength of this, he was invited to Hollywood and garnered an Oscar nomination for his first screen role as the effete, simple-minded monarch Louis XVI, in MGM's lavish production of Marie Antoinette (1938). Back in Britain, he then played the armaments millionaire Andrew Undershaft in George Bernard Shaw's Major Barbara (1941), a performance praised by Bosley Crowther as "deliciously satanic, profoundly suave and tender" (NY Times, May 15 1941). Happily managing to avoid military participation in the Second World War, Morley spent the remainder of the decade acting in such prestigious theatrical showpieces as "The Man Who Came to Dinner", and as star and co-author of "Edward, My Son". His defining performance in the play led the critic Brooks Atkinson to comment on his "studied authority ... which might sound like an affectation in an actor of inferior style"(NY Times, June 4 1992).
Morley acted on screen in a variety of very British, sometimes eccentric, sometimes giddy, often pompous, but rarely dislikeable characters. At his best, he was the expatriate Elmer Almayer, at once pitiable and overbearing, in Outcast of the Islands (1951); the Sydney Greenstreet parody Peterson in John Huston's Beat the Devil (1953); as another languid monarch, George III in the colourful period drama Beau Brummell (1954); as Oscar Wilde (1960), recreating his original stage triumph; and as a food critic in the hugely enjoyable Who Is Killing the Great Chefs of Europe? (1978). He also performed occasionally in TV movies and miniseries. His wit was much appreciated on chat shows, both in Britain and the U.S., where was a frequent and popular guest. He was also the voice of British Airways in commercials of the 70's and early 80's, promising "we'll take good care of you" -- something he did with his acting for over half a century. Robert Morley was awarded a CBE in 1957. He died as the result of a stroke in Reading, Berkshire, at the age of 84.- Actor
- Soundtrack
The British character actor Laurence Naismith was a Merchant Marine seaman before becoming an actor. He made his London stage debut in 1927 in the chorus of the musical "Oh, Boy." Three years later, he joined the Bristol Repertory and remained with them until the outbreak of World War II. After serving nine years in the Royal Artillery (with the final rank of Acting Battery Commander), Naismith returned to the stage and also made his film debut. His seafaring background came in handy in a number of film roles, including the steamboat captain in Mogambo (1953), Dr. Hawkins in Boy on a Dolphin (1957), the captain of the Titanic in A Night to Remember (1958), and the First Sea Lord in Sink the Bismarck! (1960). Naismith also made numerous television appearances, including the recurring roles of Judge Fulton on The Persuaders! (1971) and Father Harris on Oh, Father! (1973).- Actor
- Composer
- Music Department
Larry D Riley was born June 20 1952. He is the son of George C Bass Sr and Corrine Riley. He started acting around 1975. He moved to New York and was in a lot of plays.
He was cremated and ashes where spread on the beach in Malibu, California.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Morris Carnovsky was one of the more prominent victims of the Hollywood blacklist, being named as a Communist party member by both Elia Kazan -- the most infamous of the informers who sang before the House Un-American Activities Committee in the era blacklistee Lillian Hellman called the "Scoundrel Time" -- and Sterling Hayden. However, he had been effectively blacklisted -- unofficially banned from appearing in Hollywood films -- since 1950, two years before Kazan sang before HUAC, when Carnovsky himself refused to "name names" before the Committee. Carnovsky did not make any more movies for the better part of a decade -- in fact, his movie acting career essentially was over -- but he did have a thriving career on the Broadway stage, the venue where he established his reputation as a thespian back in the 1930s.
Morris Carnovsky was born in St. Louis, Missouri on September 5, 1898, the son of a grocer. Upon graduation from high school he attended St. Louis' Washington University.
Like most actors of his generation, he worked his way up the ladder by first appearing with traveling stock companies. Eventually, he landed in New York City, where he became a member of the Theatre Guild, the legendary theatrical company appearing as Kublai Khan in Nobel Prize winner 'Eugene O'Neill's play "Marco Millions' (I)'. Subsequently, he became one of the founding members of the left-wing Group Theatre.
Founded in 1931 by Lee Strasberg and Harold Clurman, and Cheryl Crawford, The Group Theatre contained Luther Adler, Stella Adler, Elia Kazan, and playwright Clifford Odets; the latter three were major forces in transforming American theater and acting, a process that began with the Provincetown Theatre. Stella Adler, Elia Kazan and Lee Strasberg, including their students/latter Group Theatre members like Bobby Lewis, were instrumental in making "The Method" -- a variation of Konstantin Stanislavski's acting theories, based on finding and cultivating "motivation" -- revolutionized American acting on stage and in the movies, most famously through Adler's student Marlon Brando. Kazan and Strasberg later founded the Actors Studio, America's premier acting school that promulgated "The Method" via such alumni as James Dean, Paul Newman and hundreds of others.
Carnovsky was a member of the Group Theater until it broke up in 1940. He appeared prominently in Odets' plays "Awake and Sing" and Golden Boy (1939). Carnovsky's talents were in demand by other theatrical troupes, and he appeared on Broadway in the 1930s in multiple non-Group Theatre productions.
Eventually, Hollywood beckoned and Carnovsky made his screen debut in The Life of Emile Zola (1937), playing Anatole France in support of Paul Muni. Settling in Los Angeles after the Group Theatre breakup, Carnovsky was one of the founders of the Actor's Laboratory and became involved with the the Hollywood Communist Party, whose cultural apparatchik, screenwriter John Howard Lawson, was later one of the Hollywood Ten, the first group of leftists blacklisted by the film industry. While Carnovsky was never involved in espionage or any overt acts against the interests of the United States (as were none of the Hollywood Ten or other blacklistees), he led Marxist study groups in his home, as Sterling Hayden testified to before HUAC.
In his 1952 testimony before HUAC, Elia Kazan named Carnovsky as a member of the Communist Party cell he had belonged to in the Group Theatre. Other members included Lee Strasberg's wife, Paula (best known as Marilyn Monroe's acting coach). Kazan had quit the cell in the mid-1930s, he said, when it was ordered by the Party to undermine Harold Clurman and Lee Strasberg (who did not know his wife was a communist) and take over the Group Theatre. The attempted coup was never launched.
In 1950, Carnovsky was hauled before HUAC, where he refused to "name names." This resulted in his blacklisting, not Kazan's testimony. (Kazan said that Carnovsky, like others he named, already were known by the Committee.) The blacklist did not exist on Broadway, and producer (and future Osar-winning actor) John Houseman cast Carnovsky in the Broadway production of Henrik Ibsen's "An Enemy of the People," whose script was written by future HUAC target Arthur Miller. He acted in many Broadway productions throughout the 1950s and into the '60s.
A part in Sidney Lumet's film version of Arthur Miller's A View from the Bridge (1962) did not revive his movie career, and he continued to act on stage. He died on September 1, 1992, at the age of 94.- Mervyn Johns was born on 18 February 1899 in Pembroke, Wales, UK. He was an actor, known for Dead of Night (1945), A Christmas Carol (1951) and The Day of the Triffids (1963). He was married to Diana Churchill and Alice Maud Steele Wareham. He died on 6 September 1992 in Norwood, England, UK.
- Actor
- Director
- Writer
Anthony Perkins was born April 4, 1932 in New York City, to Janet Esselstyn (Rane) and Osgood Perkins, an actor of both stage and film. His father died when he was five. Anthony's paternal great-grandfather was engraver Andrew Varick Stout Anthony. Perkins attended the Brooks School, the Browne & Nichols School, Columbia University and Rollins College. He made his screen debut in The Actress (1953), and was nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar Friendly Persuasion (1956). Four years later, he appeared in what would be his most noted role, Norman Bates in Psycho (1960), memorializing him into film history forever.- Actor
- Soundtrack
A solid film and TV player bearing a strong, honest persona for most his career, this innocent-eyed, boyishly handsome blond "B" actor of the 1940s and '50s was born in Brooklyn on May 21, 1915, and educated there at the Pratt Institute. A natural athlete, Bill Williams was a professional swimmer who broke into the entertainment business combining his swimming and dancing skills performing in aquatic underwater shows. Gaining experience as a performer in vaudeville and stock shows (both here and England), he started appearing in extra or bit parts in films following WWII army duty. He made his debut in Murder in the Blue Room (1944) and could be glimpsed here and there as various student, soldier or rookie types for the first couple of years.
By the time the war ended, RKO Pictures had him under contract and gave him co-star billing in such promising entries as Till the End of Time (1946) in which he played Robert Mitchum's ex-GI buddy, and the film noir piece Deadline at Dawn (1946) as a sailor who gets tangled up with both murder and lovelies Susan Hayward and Lola Lane. In 1945 fellow RKO actress Barbara Hale asked the director of West of the Pecos (1945), Edward Killy, to hire Bill so they could spend time together (see Barbara Hale's personal quotes). They married a year later and went on to co-star together in the light comedy A Likely Story (1947) and the film noir suspense film The Clay Pigeon (1949). They had two daughters and a son.
Bill was a reliable "nice guy" lead and second lead. While he showed steady improvement and likability in films, he had a difficult time rising above the benign "B" adventure material he was shoehorned into playing (Fighting Man of the Plains (1949), Rookie Fireman (1950), The Cariboo Trail (1950), to name a few). In the early '50s he started checking out the relatively new medium of TV as a viable means of employment. He scored big with the kiddies as the title hero in the syndicated The Adventures of Kit Carson (1951), which ran for three seasons, and later shifted to lighter, less strenuous work as Betty White's hubby in the promising but short-lived domestic comedy Date with the Angels (1957). In 1960 he returned to his watery roots with the "Sea Hunt" inspired adventure Assignment: Underwater (1960) but the program was short-lived. He also appeared in guest assignments in such popular TV shows as "Rawhide," "77 Sunset Strip," and "Hawaiian Eye," not to mention multiple episodes of wife Barbara's series "Perry Mason," in which she co-starred as girl Friday Della Street.
While Bill continued to perform throughout the 1970s and into the early '80s in character roles, he was seen less and less as his interest waned. Bill and Barbara did appear together in the films Buckskin (1968) and The Giant Spider Invasion (1975), as well as occasionally on TV. Their middle child, son William Katt, a blond stunner who went on to fame in the movie Carrie (1976) and the weekly series spoof The Greatest American Hero (1981), obviously got his incredibly good looks from his dad. Bill died of a brain tumor in 1992.- Actor
- Composer
- Music Department
Paul Jabara was born on 31 January 1948 in Brooklyn, New York, USA. He was an actor and composer, known for Thank God It's Friday (1978), Eraser (1996) and All Good Things (2010). He died on 29 September 1992 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Denholm entered RADA at the age of 17, but dropped out after a year having hated every minute being there. He joined the RAF in 1940, trained as a gunner/radio operator, and was shot down over Germany in 1942. In the POW camp he and his fellow prisoners staged various productions in a theatre constructed out of old packing cases. After the war he joined a London repertory company and his career took off particularly when Laurence Olivier chose him for the starring role in Venus Observed, for which he won a Clarence Derwent award. When another Olivier production Ring Around the Moon transferred to New York Denholm replaced Paul Schofield in what became a Broadway hit. Returning to Britain he was signed to a film contract and appeared in such movies as The Cruel Sea, The Sound Barrier, Alfie, King Rat, and others in addition to appearing on television and making countrywide theatre tours. In 1983 he won a BAFTA Award for his role as the butler in Trading Places and followed it with a Best Supporting Actor Award for his role in A Private Function. Prior to that he won an Evening Standard Best Actor award for Bad Timing.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Character actress Shirley Booth could play everything in all facets of show business, whether it was Miss Duffy the Tavern Owner's Man Crazy Daughter on "Duffy's Tavern", the sassy maid on TV's Hazel (1961) or the pathetic woman in Come Back, Little Sheba (1952). For those who only know her through her sitcom, it might be hard to believe she was a seasoned theatrical veteran, having appeared on Broadway from 1925-70. She was highly regarded as a stage actress and ranks as one of the premier talents of the 20th-century theatre.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Versatile, charismatic actor Cleavon Little was born on June 1, 1939, in Oklahoma but grew up in California and attended San Diego College. He earned a scholarship to Juilliard and moved to New York, then trained at the American Academy of Dramatic Art and was soon appearing off-Broadway. Classically trained ("Hamlet" "A Midsummer Night's Dream"), he won the Tony award for a less weighty musical, "Purlie", which took him west. A few film roles came his way with What's So Bad About Feeling Good? (1968), John and Mary (1969), Cotton Comes to Harlem (1970), and the cult film Vanishing Point (1971) but it was the 1972 sitcom The New Temperatures Rising Show (1972) that finally got him some leverage in Hollywood. The by-now popular actor caught the eye of film producers. With his sly charm and appeal, he was a natural for comedy and hit the apex of his career after winning a co-starring role opposite Gene Wilder in the Mel Brooks western spoof Blazing Saddles (1974). He never matched that success but did continue with important stage roles ("I'm Not Rappaport") and other TV series work (Bagdad Cafe (1990)). A hard-working, heavily driven man, Little was plagued by ulcers and stomach disorders for much of his life. He died at age 53 of colon cancer in 1992.- Actor
- Music Department
- Writer
Roger Miller was born on 2 January 1936 in Fort Worth, Texas, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for Robin Hood (1973), Superman III (1983) and Into the Wild (2007). He was married to Mary Miller, Leah Kendrick and Barbara Louise Crow. He died on 25 October 1992 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Jack Kelly started acting at age two, modeling in soap ads and garnering a lifetime supply of soap for his pay. He continued to model until the age of nine when he appeared in his first play with Hope Emerson called "Swing Your Lady". Broadway shows and radio followed until his family moved to California in 1938. He attended St. John's Military Academy and spent two years as a law student at UCLA. For three years, he dropped acting to concentrate on school and making money. He worked as a shoe salesman, gas station attendant, lifeguard, grocery delivery boy, and men's clothing salesman. In 1945, Kelly was inducted into the army taking basic training at Camp Roberts in California. He was sent to Alaska as a weather observer and was on the first B-29 to fly over the Arctic Circle. After his discharge in 1946, Kelly returned to UCLA and worked nights on such radio programs as "Lux Radio theater", "Suspense", "Tell It Again", and "Romance of the Ranchos".
Upon leaving school he joined the Circle Theater in Los Angeles appearing in "Time of Your Life", "The Adding Machine", and "Love On The Dole". In 1949, he acted in "Anna Lucasta" at the coronet Theater. This performance brought Kelly to the attention of several Hollywood directors. He then made his film debut in "Fighting Man Of The Plains", starring Randolph Scott. In 1955, Kelly was signed by Warner Bros. to star as Dr. Parris Mitchell in the "King's Row" series of "Warner Bros. Presents". The show debuted in September 1955. Kelly was best known as Bart Maverick on Maverick (1957). His hobbies included ship models, reading historical literature, sculpting, and listening to show tunes records. He also enjoyed sailing, badminton, skin diving, golf, horseback riding and flying. - Actor
- Writer
- Director
Chuck Connors was born Kevin Joseph Connors in Brooklyn, New York, to Marcella (nee Lundrigan; died 1971) and Alban Francis "Allan" Connors (died 1966), Roman Catholic immigrants of Irish descent from the Dominion of Newfoundland (now part of Canada). Chuck and his two-years-younger sister, Gloria, grew up in a working-class section of the west side of Brooklyn, where their father worked the local docks as a longshoreman. He served as an altar boy at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Basilica School and attended school there. He later became a member of the Bay Ridge Boys' Club and playing sandlot ball as a member of the Bay Ridge Celtics.
A life-long Dodgers' fan, he always dreamed of a baseball career with his favorite team. His natural athletic prowess earned him a scholarship to Adelphi Academy, a private high school, and then to Seton Hall, a Catholic college in South Orange, New Jersey. Leaving Seton Hall after two years, on October 20, 1942, aged 21, he joined the army, listing his occupation as a ski instructor. After enlistment in the infantry at Fort Knox, he later served mostly as a tank-warfare instructor at Camp Campbell, Kentucky, and then finally at West Point. Following his discharge early in 1946, he resumed his athletic pursuits. He played center for the Boston Celtics in the 1946-47 season but left early for spring training with the Brooklyn Dodgers.
Baseball had always been Connors' first love, and for the next several years he knocked about the minor leagues in such places as Rochester (NY), Norfolk (VA), Newark (NJ), Newport News (VA), Mobile (AL) and Montreal, Canada (while in Montreal he met Elizabeth Riddell, whom he married in October 1948. They had four sons during their 13-year marriage). He finally reached his goal, playing for the Brooklyn Dodgers, in May 1949, but after just five weeks and one at-bat, he returned to Montreal. After a brief stint with the Chicago Cubs in 1951, during which he hit two home runs, Connors wound up with the Cubs' Triple-A farm team, the L.A. Angels, in 1952.
A baseball fan who was also a casting director for MGM spotted Connors and recommended him for a part in the Spencer Tracy-Katharine Hepburn comedy Pat and Mike (1952). Originally cast to play a prizefighter, but that role went instead to Aldo Ray. Connors was cast as a captain in the state police. He now abandoned his athletic hopes and devoted full time to his acting career, which often emphasized his muscular 6'6" physique.
During the next several years Connors made 20 movies, culminating in a key role in William Wyler's 1958 western The Big Country (1958). Also appearing in many television series, he finally hit the big time in 1958 with The Rifleman (1958), which began its highly successful five-year run on ABC. Other television series followed, as did a number of movies which, though mostly minor, allowed Connors to display his range as both a stalwart "good guy" and a menacing "heavy".
Connors died at age 71 of lung cancer and pneumonia on November 10, 1992 in Los Angeles, California. He is buried in San Fernando Mission Cemetery with his tombstone carrying a photo of Connors as Lucas McCain in "The Rifleman" as well as logos from the three professional sports teams he played for: the Dodgers, Cubs and Celtics.- Actor
- Additional Crew
- Soundtrack
Popular American character actor of amusing appearance and voice whose long career led from dozens of highly enjoyable onscreen performances to world-wide familiarity as the voice of numerous Walt Disney animated films. Born in the American Deep South to grocer Sterling P. Holloway Sr. and Rebecca Boothby Holloway, he had a younger brother, Boothby. Holloway spent his early years as an actor playing comic juveniles on the stage. His bushy reddish-blond hair and trademark near-falsetto voice made him a natural for sound pictures, and he acted in scores of talkies, although he had made his picture debut in silents. His physical image and voice relegated him almost exclusively to comic roles, but in 1945, director Lewis Milestone cast him more or less against type in the classic war film A Walk in the Sun (1945), where Holloway's portrayal of a reluctant soldier was quite notable. He played frequently on television, becoming familiar to baby-boomers in a recurring role as Uncle Oscar on Adventures of Superman (1952), and later in television series of his own. His later work as the voice of numerous characters in Disney cartoons brought him new audiences and many fans, especially for his voicing of beloved Winnie the Pooh. He died in 1992.- John Sharp was born on 5 August 1920 in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Brother Sun, Sister Moon (1972), The Wicker Man (1973) and Barry Lyndon (1975). He died on 26 November 1992 in London, England, UK.
- Best remembered in Britain for the television series Arthur of the Britons (1972), Ken Russell's The Devils (1971) and as the villain in For Your Eyes Only (1981). His break into films came with Don Levy's Herostratus (1967). His career was intermittently successful, interspersing notable performances with spells of unemployment. Michael was unmarried, living in Hampstead, London, and under treatment for depression at the time of his suicide in 1992.
- Actor
- Soundtrack
The massive brooding face and nose of British actor Percy Herbert is familiar to movie goers and TV audiences alike. A seemingly unlikely stage discovery by no one less than the great Dame Sybil Thorndike of British theater, Herbert moved into movie roles by the early 1950s. Initially fitting in as a featured cockney character, he nevertheless moved on to a wide variety of roles, especially as British and American soldier characters, some notable early ones being in The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) and The Guns of Navarone (1961). An interesting coincidence was that his character name was Grogan in both movies - though he was promoted from a private in the first movie to a sergeant in the second.
He always seemed at home, lending a believable accent and memorable presence to such as: the menacing baron who joins in the killing of Archbishop Thomas Becket, Richard Burton, in Becket (1964), the hapless Confederate soldier-with a broad southern accent of Mysterious Island (1961), the sensible Scots-American deputy Mac Gregor in TV's short-lived Cimarron Strip (1968) with Stuart Whitman. In the course of over 90 film appearances, Herbert fitted in and lent to genres from fantasy and horror to history and drama with a sort of sturdy and matter-of-fact competence which makes him a most memorable big and small screen presence.- Actor
- Soundtrack
He was honored twice off-Broadway with Distinguished Performance OBIE Award, first in 1960 for "Machinal" and again in 1969 for "Passing Through From Exotic Places." In 1972 he won a Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a play for "Prisoner on 2nd Avenue." In 1979 he was nominated for Best Actor in a musical for "Ballroom." Gardenia was twice nominated with an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, first in 1974 "Bang the Drum Slowly" and again in 1988 for "Moonstruck." He won an Emmy Award in 1990 for Best Supporting Actor in a movie made for television, "Age Old Friends." In 1988 he was honored to be named the Grand Marshal of the Columbus Day Parade in New York City.- Actor
- Soundtrack
American leading man of the 1940s and 1950s, Dana Andrews was born Carver Dana Andrews on New Years Day 1909 on a farmstead outside Collins, Covington County, Mississippi. One of thirteen children, including fellow actor Steve Forrest, he was a son of Annis (Speed) and Charles Forrest Andrews, a Baptist minister.
Andrews studied business administration at Sam Houston State Teachers College in Texas, but took a bookkeeping job with Gulf Oil in 1929, aged 20, prior to graduating. In 1931, he hitchhiked to California, hoping to get work as an actor. He drove a school bus, dug ditches, picked oranges, worked as a stock boy, and pumped gas while trying without luck to break into the movies. His employer at a Van Nuys gas station believed in him and agreed to invest in him, asking to be repaid if and when Andrews made it as an actor. Andrews studied opera and also entered the Pasadena Community Playhouse, the famed theatre company and drama school. He appeared in scores of plays there in the 1930s, becoming a favorite of the company. He played opposite future star Robert Preston in a play about composers Gilbert and Sullivan, and soon thereafter was offered a contract by Samuel Goldwyn.
It was two years before Goldwyn and 20th Century-Fox (to whom Goldwyn had sold half of Andrews' contract) put him in a film, but the roles, though secondary, were mostly in top-quality pictures such as The Westerner (1940) and The Ox-Bow Incident (1942). A starring role in the hit Laura (1944), followed by one in The Best Years of Our Lives (1946), made him a star, but no later film quite lived up to the quality of these. During his career, he had worked with with such directors as Otto Preminger, Fritz Lang, William Wyler, William A. Wellman, Jean Renoir, and Elia Kazan.
Andrews slipped into a steady stream of unremarkable films in which he gave sturdy performances, until age and other interests resulted in fewer appearances. In addition, his increasing alcoholism caused him to lose the confidence of some producers. Andrews took steps to curb his addiction and in his later years was an outspoken member of the National Council on Alcoholism, who decried public refusal to face the problem. He was probably the first actor to do a public service announcement about alcoholism (in 1972 for the U.S. Department of Transportation), and did public speaking tours. Andrews was one of the first to speak out against the degradation of the acting profession, particularly actresses doing nude scenes just to get a role.
Andrews was elected president of the Screen Actors Guild in 1963, serving until 1965. He retired from films in the 1960s and made, he said, more money from real estate than he ever did in movies. Yet he and his second wife, actress Mary Todd, lived quietly in a modest home in Studio City, California. Andrews suffered from Alzheimer's disease in his later years and spent his final days in a nursing facility. He died of congestive heart failure and pneumonia in 1992, aged 83.