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- Actor
- Producer
- Stunts
Wonderfully talented, heavyset character actor (from New York, but regularly playing Southerners) M. Emmet Walsh has made a solid career of playing corrupt cops, deadly crooks, and zany comedic roles since the early 1970s.
Michael Emmet Walsh was born in Ogdensburg, to Agnes Katharine (Sullivan) and Harry Maurice Walsh, a customs agent. He is of Irish descent. Walsh first appeared in a few fairly forgettable roles both on TV and onscreen before cropping up in several well remembered films, including a courtroom police officer in What's Up, Doc? (1972), as the weird Dickie Dunn in Slap Shot (1977), and as a loony sniper hunting Steve Martin in The Jerk (1979). On-screen demand heated up for him in the early 1980s with attention-grabbing work in key hits, including Brubaker (1980), Reds (1981), and as Harrison Ford's police chief in
the futuristic thriller Blade Runner (1982). Walsh then turned in a stellar performance as the sleazy, double-crossing private detective in the Joel Coen and Ethan Coen film noir Blood Simple (1984), and showed up again for the Coens as a loud-mouthed sheet-metal worker bugging Nicolas Cage in the hilarious Raising Arizona (1987). As Walsh moved into his fifties and beyond, Hollywood continued to offer him plenty of work, and he has appeared in over 50 movies since passing the half-century mark. His consistent ability to turn out highly entertaining portrayals led film critic Roger Ebert to coin the "Stanton-Walsh Rule," which states that any film starring Walsh or Harry Dean Stanton has to have some merit. And the "M" stands for Michael!- Actress
- Writer
- Additional Crew
She started as a model, and in 1955 became an actress. She acted under her birth name, Marjorie Hellen, until 1959. Afterwards she was known as Leslie Parrish. She appeared in more than 100 TV shows. She is known as one of the first women producers. She's always had a passion for music. She was involved in social causes such as the Vietnam war. She met the airplane pilot/writer Richard D. Bach during the making of
Jonathan Livingston Seagull (1973), and they married in 1981. They divorced in 1999.- Writer
- Director
- Actor
Woody Allen was born on November 30, 1935, as Allen Konigsberg, in The Bronx, NY, the son of Martin Konigsberg and Nettie Konigsberg. He has one younger sister, Letty Aronson. As a young boy, he became intrigued with magic tricks and playing the clarinet, two hobbies that he continues today.
Allen broke into show business at 15 years when he started writing jokes for a local paper, receiving $200 a week. He later moved on to write jokes for talk shows but felt that his jokes were being wasted. His agents, Charles Joffe and Jack Rollins, convinced him to start doing stand-up and telling his own jokes. Reluctantly he agreed and, although he initially performed with such fear of the audience that he would cover his ears when they applauded his jokes, he eventually became very successful at stand-up. After performing on stage for a few years, he was approached to write a script for Warren Beatty to star in: What's New Pussycat (1965) and would also have a moderate role as a character in the film. During production, Woody gave himself more and better lines and left Beatty with less compelling dialogue. Beatty inevitably quit the project and was replaced by Peter Sellers, who demanded all the best lines and more screen-time.
It was from this experience that Woody realized that he could not work on a film without complete control over its production. Woody's
theoretical directorial debut was in What's Up, Tiger Lily? (1966); a Japanese spy flick that he dubbed over with his own comedic dialogue about spies searching for the secret recipe for egg salad. His real directorial debut came the next year in the mockumentary Take the Money and Run (1969). He has written, directed and, more often than not, starred in about a film a year ever since, while simultaneously writing more than a dozen plays and several books of comedy.
While best known for his romantic comedies Annie Hall (1977) and Manhattan (1979), Woody has made many
transitions in his films throughout the years, transitioning from his "early, funny ones" of Bananas (1971), Love and Death (1975) and Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex * But Were Afraid to Ask (1972); to his more storied and romantic comedies of Annie Hall (1977), Manhattan (1979) and Hannah and Her Sisters (1986); to the Bergmanesque films of Stardust Memories (1980) and Interiors (1978); and then on to the more recent, but varied works of Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989), Husbands and Wives (1992), Mighty Aphrodite (1995), Celebrity (1998) and Deconstructing Harry (1997); and finally to his films of the last decade, which vary from the light comedy of Scoop (2006), to the self-destructive darkness of Match Point (2005) and, most recently, to the cinematically beautiful tale of Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008). Although his stories and style have changed over the years, he is regarded as one of the best filmmakers of our time because of his views on art and his mastery of filmmaking.- Actor
- Producer
- Writer
The towering presence of Canadian actor Donald Sutherland is often
noticed, as are his legendary contributions to cinema. He has appeared in almost 200 different shows and films. He is also the father of renowned actor Kiefer Sutherland, among others.
Donald McNichol Sutherland was born in Saint John, New Brunswick, to Dorothy Isobel
(McNichol) and Frederick McLea Sutherland, who worked in sales and
electricity. He has Scottish, as well as German and English, ancestry. Sutherland
worked several different jobs - he was a radio DJ in his youth - and
was almost set on becoming an engineer after graduating from the
University of Toronto with a degree in engineering. However, he also
graduated with a degree in drama, and he chose to abandon becoming an
engineer in favour of an actor.
Sutherland's first roles were bit parts and consisted of such films as
the horror film
Dr. Terror's House of Horrors (1965)
which starred Christopher Lee.
He was also appearing in episodes of TV shows such as "The Saint" and
"Court Martial". Sutherland's break would come soon, though, and it
would come in the form of a war film in which he was barely cast.
The reason he was barely cast was because he had been a last-minute
replacement for an actor that had dropped out of the film. The role he
played was that of the dopey but loyal Vernon Pinkley in the war film
The Dirty Dozen (1967). The film
also starred Lee Marvin,
Charles Bronson, and
Telly Savalas. The picture was an instant
success as an action/war film, and Sutherland played upon this success
by taking another role in a war film: this was, however, a comedy
called M*A*S*H (1970) which landed Sutherland
the starring role alongside Elliott Gould
and Tom Skerritt. This is now
considered a classic among film goers, and the 35-year old actor was
only getting warmed up.
Sutherland took a number of other roles in between these two films,
such as the theatrical adaptation
Oedipus the King (1968), the
musical Joanna (1968) and the
Clint Eastwood-helmed war comedy
Kelly's Heroes (1970). It was
Kelly's Heroes (1970) that became
more well-known, and it reunited Sutherland with
Telly Savalas. 1970 and 1971 offered
Sutherland a number of other films, the best of them would have to be
Klute (1971). The film, which made
Jane Fonda a star, is about a prostitute
whose friend is mysteriously murdered. Sutherland received no critical
acclaim like his co-star Fonda (she won an Oscar) but his career did
not fade.
Moving on from Klute (1971), Sutherland
landed roles such as the lead in the thriller
Lady Ice (1973), and another lead in the
western Alien Thunder (1974). These
films did not match up to "Klute"'s success, though Sutherland took a
supporting role that would become one of his most infamous and most
critically acclaimed. He played the role of the murderous fascist
leader in the Bernardo Bertolucci
Italian epic 1900 (1976).
Sutherland also gained another memorable role as a marijuana-smoking
university professor in
National Lampoon's Animal House (1978) among other work
that he did in this time.
Another classic role came in the form of the
Robert Redford film,
Ordinary People (1980).
Sutherland portrays an older father figure who must deal with his
children in an emotional drama of a film. It won Best Picture, and
while both the supporting stars were nominated for Oscars, Sutherland
once again did not receive any Academy Award nomination. He moved on to
play a Nazi spy in a film based on
Ken Follett's book "Eye of the Needle" and
he would star alongside Al Pacino in the
commercial and critical disaster that was
Revolution (1985). While it drove
Al Pacino out of films for four years,
Sutherland continued to find work. This work led to the dramatic,
well-told story of apartheid
A Dry White Season (1989)
alongside the legendary actor
Marlon Brando.
Sutherland's next big success came in the
Oliver Stone film
JFK (1991) where Sutherland plays the
chilling role of Mister X, an anonymous source who gives crucial
information about the politics surrounding President Kennedy. Once
again, he was passed over at the Oscars, though
Tommy Lee Jones was nominated for his
performance as Clay Shaw. Sutherland went on to appear in
Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992),
Shadow of the Wolf (1992), and
Disclosure (1994).
The new millennium provided an interesting turn in Sutherland's career:
reuniting with such former collaborators as
Clint Eastwood and
Tommy Lee Jones, Sutherland starred in
Space Cowboys (2000). He also
appeared as the father figure to
Nicole Kidman's character in
Cold Mountain (2003) and
Charlize Theron's character in
The Italian Job (2003). He has
also made a fascinating, Oscar-worthy performance as the revolutionist
Mr. Thorne in
Land of the Blind (2006) and
also as a judge in
Reign Over Me (2007). Recently, he
has joined forces with his son
Rossif Sutherland and Canadian comic
Russell Peters with the new comedy
The Con Artist (2010), as well as
acting alongside Jamie Bell and
Channing Tatum in the sword-and-sandal
film The Eagle (2011). Sutherland has
also taken a role in the remake of
Charles Bronson's film
The Mechanic (1972).
Donald Sutherland has made a lasting legacy on Hollywood, whether
portraying a chilling and horrifying villain, or playing the older
respectable character in his films. A true character actor, Sutherland
is one of Canada's most well-known names and will hopefully continue on
being so long after his time.- Actor
- Producer
- Writer
Alain Fabien Maurice Marcel Delon was born in Sceaux, Hauts-de-Seine,
France, to Édith (Arnold) and Fabien Delon. His father was of French
and Corsican Italian descent, and his mother was of French and German
ancestry. His parents divorced early on, and Delon had a stormy
childhood, being frequently expelled from school.
In 1953/1954 he served with the French Marines in
Indochina. In the
mid-'50s he worked at various odd jobs including waiter, salesman and
porter in Les Halles market. He decided to try an acting career and in 1957 made his film debut in Yves Allégret's
Quand la femme s'en mêle (1957).
He declined an offer of a contract from producer
David O. Selznick, and in 1960 he
received international recognition for his role in
Luchino Visconti's
Rocco and His Brothers (1960).
In 1961 he appeared on the stage in
"'Tis a Pity She's a Whore", directed by Visconti, in Paris. In 1964 he formed his own production company, Delbeau Productions, and he produced a short
film directed by Guy Gilles.
In 1968 he found himself involved in murder, drug and sex scandal that
indirectly implicated major politicians and show-business
personalities, but he was eventually cleared of all charges. In the
late 1960s he formed another company. Adel Film, and the next year he
began producing features. In 1981 he directed his first film,
To Kill a Cop (1981).
Delon was a sensation early in his career; he came to embody the young,
energetic, often morally corrupted man. With his breathtaking good
looks he was also destined to play tender lovers and romantic heroes,
and he was a French embodiment of the type created in America by
James Dean. His first outstanding
success came with the role of the parasite Tom Ripley in 'Rene
Clement''s sun-drenched thriller
Purple Noon (1960). Delon presented
a psychological portrait of a murderous young cynic who attempts to
take on the identity of his victim. A totally different role was
offered to him by Visconti in
Rocco and His Brothers (1960).
In this film Delon plays the devoted Rocco, who accepts the greatest
sacrifices to save his shiftless brother Simon.
After several other films in Italy, Delon returned to the criminal
genre with Jean Gabin in
Any Number Can Win (1963).
This work, a classic example of the genre, was distinguished not only
by a soundly worked-out screenplay, but also by the careful production
and the excellent performances of both Delon and Gabin. It was only in
the late 1960s that the sleek and lethal Delon came to epitomize the
calm, psychopathic hoodlum, staring into the camera like a cat
assessing a mouse. His tough, ruthless side was first used to real
effect by Jean-Pierre Melville in
The Samurai (1967). In 1970 he had a
huge success in the bloodstained
Borsalino (1970)--which he also
produced--playing a small-time gangster in the 1930s who, with
Jean-Paul Belmondo, becomes king of
the Marseilles underworld. Delon later won critical acclaim for his
roles, against type, in Joseph Losey's
Mr. Klein (1976) in which he played
(brilliantly) the icily sinister title role, and the art-movie
Swann in Love (1984). He
has an older son Anthony Delon (who has
also acted in a number of movies) from his first marriage to
Nathalie Delon, and has a young son and
daughter, Alain-Fabien and Anouchka with Rosalie.- Actress
- Writer
- Producer
Julia Elizabeth Wells was born on October 1, 1935, in England. Her
mother, Barbara Ward (Morris), and stepfather, both vaudeville
performers, discovered her freakish but undeniably lovely four-octave
singing voice and immediately got her a singing career. She performed
in music halls throughout her childhood and teens, and at age 20, she
launched her stage career in a London Palladium production of
"Cinderella".
Andrews came to Broadway in 1954 with "The Boy Friend", and became a
bona fide star two years later in 1956, in the role of Eliza Doolittle
in the unprecedented hit "My Fair Lady". Her star status continued in
1957, when she starred in the TV-production of
Cinderella (1957) and
through 1960, when she played "Guenevere" in "Camelot".
In 1963, Walt Disney asked Andrews if she
would like to star in his upcoming production, a lavish musical fantasy
that combined live-action and animation. She agreed on the condition if
she didn't get the role of Doolittle in the pending film production of
My Fair Lady (1964). After
Audrey Hepburn was cast in My
Fair Lady, Andrews made an auspicious film debut in Walt Disney's
Mary Poppins (1964), which earned
her an Academy Award for Best Actress.
Andrews continued to work on Broadway, until the release of
The Sound of Music (1965), the
highest-grossing movie of its day and one of the highest-grossing of
all time. She soon found that audiences identified her only with
singing, sugary-sweet nannies and governesses, and were reluctant to
accept her in dramatic roles in
The Americanization of Emily (1964)
and Alfred Hitchcock's thriller
Torn Curtain (1966). In addition,
the box-office showings of the musicals Julie subsequently made
increasingly reflected the negative effects of the musical-film boom
that she helped to create.
Thoroughly Modern Millie (1967)
was for a time the most successful film Universal had released, but it
still couldn't compete with Mary Poppins or The Sound of Music for
worldwide acclaim and recognition.
Star! (1968) and
Darling Lili (1970) also bombed at
the box office.
Fortunately, Andrews did not let this keep her down. She worked in
nightclubs and hosted a TV variety series in the 1970s. In 1979,
Andrews returned to the big screen, appearing in films directed by her
husband Blake Edwards, with roles
that were entirely different from anything she had been seen in before.
Andrews starred in 10 (1979),
S.O.B. (1981) and
Victor/Victoria (1982), which
earned her an Oscar nomination for Best Actress in a Leading Role.
She continued acting throughout the 1980s and 1990s in movies and TV,
hosting several specials and starring in a short-lived sitcom. In 2001,
she starred in
The Princess Diaries (2001),
alongside then-newcomer Anne Hathaway. The
family film was one of the most successful G-Rated films of that year,
and Andrews reprised her role as Queen Clarisse Renaldi in
The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement (2004).
In recent years, Andrews appeared in
Tooth Fairy (2010), as well as a
number of voice roles in Shrek 2 (2004),
Shrek the Third (2007),
Enchanted (2007),
Shrek Forever After (2010),
and Despicable Me (2010).- Actor
- Writer
- Director
Talented and highly capable character actor Geoffrey Lewis, with rustic (sometimes sour-faced) looks, grew up in Rhode Island but was moved out to California at the age of ten. Lewis was very keen on the dramatic arts at high school, but often preferred to put on his own one-man shows rather than participate in larger school productions. His drama teacher took note of his growing talent and referred him to the Plymouth Theater in Massachusetts, where he appeared in summer stock. Afterwards he appeared in several off-Broadway productions in New York City. After spending considerable time traveling, in both the United States and abroad, Lewis turned his attention back to his love of the dramatic arts, and scored his first minor movie role in The Culpepper Cattle Co. (1972) as a somewhat jovial but deadly cowhand. He then cropped up as gangster Harry Pierpont in Dillinger (1973) before beginning a long association with Clint Eastwood, starting off with High Plains Drifter (1973), then as kind-hearted thief Eddie Goody in Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (1974), as Clint's buddy Orville Boggs in Every Which Way But Loose (1978) and Any Which Way You Can (1980), then as a henpecked husband in Bronco Billy (1980), as Ricky Z in Pink Cadillac (1989), and in Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (1997) also as patient Michael Kahn in Disturbed (1990).
Equally busy on the small screen, he has guest-starred in dozens of episodes of high profile TV series. Additionally, he received a Golden Globe nomination for his performance in the series Flo (1980). Apart from his extensive film and TV exposure, Lewis is also a member of the rather unique musical/storytelling "Celestial Navigations," along with award-winning composer songwriter Geoff Levin. Their performances have received terrific reviews from some of Hollywood's top actors and noted musicians, including Chick Corea. As Geoffrey Lewis approaches his seventh decade, nothing seems likely to slow down this multi-talented actor, storyteller and engaging entertainer!- Music Artist
- Actor
- Music Department
Elvis Aaron Presley was born on January 8, 1935 in East Tupelo,
Mississippi, to Gladys Presley (née Gladys Love Smith) and Vernon Presley (Vernon Elvis Presley). He had a twin brother who was stillborn. In 1948, Elvis and his parents moved to Memphis, Tennessee
where he attended Humes High School. In 1953, he attended the senior
prom with the current girl he was courting, Regis Wilson. After
graduating from high school in Memphis, Elvis took odd jobs
working as a movie theater usher and a truck driver for Crown Electric
Company. He began singing locally as "The Hillbilly Cat", then signed
with a local recording company, and then with RCA in 1955.
Elvis did much to
establish early rock and roll music. He began his career as a performer of rockabilly, an up-tempo fusion of country music and rhythm and blues, with a strong backbeat. His novel versions of existing songs, mixing 'black' and 'white' sounds, made him popular - and controversial - as did his uninhibited stage and television performances. He recorded songs in the rock and roll genre, with tracks like "Jailhouse Rock" and "Hound Dog" later embodying the style. Presley had a versatile voice and had unusually wide success encompassing other genres, including gospel, blues, ballads and pop music. Teenage girls became hysterical over his
blatantly sexual gyrations, particularly the one that got him nicknamed
"Elvis the Pelvis" (television cameras were not permitted to film below
his waist).
In 1956, following his six television appearances on
The Dorsey Brothers' "Stage Show", Elvis was cast in his first acting
role, in a supporting part in
Love Me Tender (1956), the first
of 33 movies he starred in.
In 1958, Elvis was drafted into the military, and relocated to Bad
Nauheim, Germany. There he met 14-year old army
damsel Priscilla Ann Wagner (Priscilla Presley), whom he would eventually marry after an eight-year courtship, and by whom he had his only child, Lisa Marie Presley. Elvis' military
service and the "British Invasion" of the 1960s reduced his concerts,
though not his movie/recording income.
Through the 1960s, Elvis settled
in Hollywood, where he starred in the majority of his thirty-three movies, mainly musicals, acting alongside some
of the most well known actors in Hollywood. Critics panned most of his films, but they
did very well at the box office, earning upwards of $150 million total. His last fiction film, Change of Habit (1969), deals with several social issues; romance within the clergy, an autistic child, almost unheard of in 1969, rape, and mob violence. It has recently received critical acclaim.
Elvis
made a comeback in the 1970s with live concert appearances starting in
early 1970 in Las Vegas with over 57 sold-out shows. He toured
throughout the United States, appearing on-stage in over 500 live
appearances, many of them sold out shows. His marriage ended in
divorce, and the stress of constantly traveling as well as his
increasing weight gain and dependence upon stimulants and depressants
took their toll.
Elvis Presley died at age 42 on August 16, 1977 at his
mansion in Graceland, near Memphis, shocking his fans worldwide. At the time of his death, he had sold more than 600 million
singles and albums. Since his death, Graceland has become a shrine for millions of followers worldwide. Elvis impersonators and purported sightings have become stock subjects
for humorists. To date, Elvis Presley is the only performer to have been inducted into three separate music 'Halls of Fame'. Throughout his career, he set records for concert attendance, television ratings and recordings sales, and remains one of the best-selling and most influential artists in the history of popular music.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Henry Gibson was born on 21 September 1935 in Germantown, Pennsylvania.
Before appearing in films and television series, he was a child star on
the stage during the 1940s and during the late 1950s he was an
intelligence officer in the U.S. Air Force. His screen debut came in
1963 when he was cast in the
Jerry Lewis film
The Nutty Professor (1963).
He made two other small film appearances in the early 1960s in
Kiss Me, Stupid (1964) and
The Outlaws Is Coming (1964),
in which he played a rather hip Indian named Charlie Horse. His
breakthrough came in 1968 when he was cast as a member of the regular
cast of
Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In (1967).
He stayed with the show until 1971, when he left and continued his
career as a character actor. His best known film role was probably his
performance in Nashville (1975). He
played Haven Hamilton, a smarmy Country and Western singer. For this
role he was nominated for a Golden Globe Award and was awarded the
National Film Critics Award for best supporting actor. Gibson's career
carried on through the 1980s and 1990s when he appeared in many films,
such as
The Incredible Shrinking Woman (1981)
and The 'Burbs (1989). He also
provided voice-overs for many children's animated series like
The Smurfs (1981),
The Wuzzles (1985) and
Galaxy High School (1986).
His most recent appearance have been in the
Paul Thomas Anderson drama
Magnolia (1999) and the independent film
The Year That Trembled (2002).- Actor
- Cinematographer
- Editor
John Cazale was born in Boston, Massachusetts, to an Irish-American
mother, Cecilia (Holland), and an Italian-American father, John Cazale.
Cazale only made five feature films in his career, which fans
and critics alike call classics. But before his film debut, in the short
The American Way (1962), he won Obie Awards for his off-Broadway performances in "The Indian Wants
the Bronx" and "The Line".
Cazale scored the role of Fredo Corleone in
Francis Ford Coppola's
The Godfather (1972), after his
long time friend, Al Pacino, invited him to
audition. He reprised his role as the troubled Fredo in
The Godfather Part II (1974),
where his character endures one of the most infamous movie moments in
the history of cinema.
Cazale also starred with Gene Hackman and
Harrison Ford in the thriller,
The Conversation (1974), as
Hackman's assistant, Stan. The Godfather's director,
Francis Ford Coppola, also directed
the movie.
Cazale's fourth feature film,
Dog Day Afternoon (1975),
earned him a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actor for his
role as Sal, a bank robber. His long time friend and Godfather co-star,
Al Pacino, played his partner, Sonny.
His final film,
The Deer Hunter (1978), was
filmed whilst he was ill with cancer. He was in a relationship with his
co-star, Meryl Streep, whilst filming
The Deer Hunter (1978), whom he
met when they both appeared in the New York Public Theater's 1976
production of Shakespeare's Measure for Measure.
Controversy occurred during the filming. While the studio was unaware
of his condition, the director,
Michael Cimino, knew about it. As
Cazale was evidently weak, he was forced to film his scenes first. When
the studio discovered he was suffering from cancer, they wanted him
removed from the film. His co-star and girlfriend,
Meryl Streep, threatened to quit if he was
fired. He died shortly after filming was completed.- Actress
- Producer
- Director
The amazingly gifted and versatile, Ms. Diane Ladd, received immense praise for her dramatic efforts throughout the course of her electric and unique seventy-year career. Her timeless offbeat charm and beauty reminiscent of a lamented Hollywood Golden Era actress gleam in the most understated roles and continue to make her a sought-after unconventional performer.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Jerry Orbach was born in the Bronx, New York, the only child of Leon Orbach, a former vaudevillian actor, was a German Jewish immigrant, who was born in Hamburg, Germany, and Emily (nee Olexy), a radio singer, was born in Pennsylvania to immigrant Polish-Lithuanian Roman Catholic parents, Alexander Olexy and Susanna (nee Klauba). The family moved frequently. He spent part of his childhood in Nanticoke, Pennsylvania and eventually settled in Waukegan, Illinois, where he went to high school.
The constant moving made him the new kid on the block and forced him to become "a chameleon" to blend in his new settings. He studied drama at the University of Illinois and at Northwestern University. He then went to study acting in New York and got constant work in musicals. He slowly pushed to get acting roles in television and films after being overlooked due to his musical roots.
Orbach died at age 69 on December 28, 2004, after a decade-long battle with prostate cancer. His widow, Elaine Cancilla Orbach died on April 1, 2009, from pneumonia. Orbach and Cancilla both predeceased Orbach's mother, Emily Orbach, who died on July 28, 2012, at the age of 101.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Ruta Lee was born on 30 May 1935 in Montréal, Québec, Canada. She is an actress, known for Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954), Witness for the Prosecution (1957) and Funny Face (1957). She was previously married to Webster Bernard Lowe Jr..- Actress
- Script and Continuity Department
- Soundtrack
American character actress Madlyn Rhue was one of television's most prolific actresses and has starred in everything from sitcoms to soap operas to drama series and films for nearly 40 years. Her beautiful looks, natural red hair and brown eyes got her the attention of television producers and she found herself guest starring on such series as Rawhide (1959), Cheyenne (1955), Star Trek (1966), Hawaii Five-O (1968), Charlie's Angels (1976) and Fantasy Island (1977). She did several theatrical motion pictures, most notably Operation Petticoat (1959), He Rides Tall (1964), Kenner (1968) and It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World (1963). In 1977, she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, which she battled for nearly 25 years. However, the disease never got her down; she continued to work in numerous television films and was co-starring on such series and soap operas as Executive Suite (1976), Fame (1982) and Days of Our Lives (1965) and had a recurring role on Murder, She Wrote (1984). By 1997, Rhue was unable to work, and she spent her last years at the Motion Picture and Television Country Home retirement center in Woodland Hills, California. She passed away from pneumonia and multiple sclerosis there at age 68 on December 16, 2003.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Of regal bearing and imposing stance, flame-haired British classical actress Judy
Parfitt is the possessor of the chilliest blue orbs in all of London
and has used them to her advantage over the years with her clever portrayals
of haughty, bossy, imperious, deliciously malevolent patricians. Born Judy Catherine Claire Parfitt on November 7, 1935,
in South Yorkshire, England, she was educated at Notre Dame High School for Girls before enrolling for acting training at the Royal Academy of
Dramatic Arts (RADA)
She made her stage debut with "Fools Rush In" in 1954, and continued to impress with such pieces as "Things Remembered" (1955) and "A Likely Talk" (London debut, 1956). She moved to TV and in the early 1960s was spotted in a number of TV guest appearances on such BBC programs as "The Plane Makers," "The Odd Man," "Queen and the Rebels," "Dr. Finlay's Casebook," "Public Eye," "Front Page Story," "Undermind," "Londoners," "Z Cars," "The Saint," "Emergency-Ward 10," "The Avengers" and played the embittered Rosa Dartle in the David Copperfield (1966) TV series. Judy also was a regular on the crime series A Man Called Harry Brent (1965) and portrayed Madame Thenardier in the mini-series Les Misérables (1967).
She drew acclaim on the stage with such roles as "The Daughter-in-Law" at the Royal Court, "The Widowing of Mrs. Holroyd (title role) (1967), "The Hotel in Amsterdam" (1968), and her portrayal of Gertrude in "Hamlet" in 1969. A year later she recreated the Shakespearean role in the lauded film version of Hamlet (1969) directed by Nick Richardson starring Nicol Williamson in the title role, Anthony Hopkins as Claudius and pop singer Marianne Faithfull as Ophelia. Judy continued to impress on the stage with "The Double Dealer" (1969), the title role in "The Duchess of Malfi" (1971), "Vivat! Vivat Regina! (as Mary, Queen of Scots) (1971), "The Apple Cart" (1973), "Echoes from a Concrete Canyon" (1975), "The Family Dance" (1976) and "The Cherry Orchard" (1978).
In later years the veteran actress appeared on stage in a production of "An Inspector Calls" (1993) and made her Broadway debut co-starring with Matthew Broderick in the revival of "Night Must Fall" (1999). Sporadic film credits would include featured roles in The Mind of Mr. Soames (1970) starring Terence Stamp as a man who awakens from a 30-year coma; the biopic Galileo (1975) starring Topol; a doctor in a biopic about steeple chase jockey and cancer patient Bob Champion entitled Champions (1984); the social comedy The Chain (1984) the gay romantic drama Maurice (1987); the romantic comedy Getting It Right (1989); the psychological thriller Diamond Skulls (1989); as Queen Katherine in the John Goodman comedy vehicle King Ralph (1991); and the war drama Silent Cries (1993).
Outside of Gertrude in "Hamlet," Judy earned her finest role on film with the gloomy-styled thriller Dolores Claiborne (1995), nearly stealing the thunder from stars Kathy Bates and Jennifer Jason Leigh as Bates' wealthy, dictatorial employer. Her clever and utterly gripping performance was surprisingly overlooked come Oscar time. Elsewhere, she was lauded for her sterling work in several TV mini-series, including her Madame Defarge in A Tale of Two Cities (1980); her Lady Catherine in Pride and Prejudice (1980); her Mildred Layton The Jewel in the Crown (1984), for which she earned a BAFTA nomination; her Hilda Spearpoint in The Gravy Train (1990); her Martha in Eye of the Storm (1993) her Mercy Woolf in Funland (2005); her Mrs. Clennam in Little Dorrit (2008); her Hester Waterhouse in The Game (2014). In America she was a recurring presence for a time on the medical series ER (1994). Other popular films she has graced are Wilde (1997), Ever After: A Cinderella Story (1998) (as Queen Marie), and Girl with a Pearl Earring (2003), for which she earned a BAFTA nomination,
Judy was long married to actor Tony Steedman, who made a guest appearance as Santa Claus on her short-lived '80s sitcom The Charmings (1987) in which she played the Queen. He died in February of 2001. Since then she has ventured on, an always fascinating character presence especially in elegant and period settings. She has recently been seen in a regular role as Sister Monica Joan in the historical TV series drama Call the Midwife (2012).- Actress
- Soundtrack
Lee Remick was born in Quincy, Massachusetts, to Gertrude Margaret (Waldo), an actress, and Francis Edwin Remick, a department store owner. She had Irish and English ancestry. Remick was educated at Barnard College, studied dance and worked on stage
and TV, before making her film debut as a sexy Southern majorette in
Elia Kazan's A Face in the Crowd (1957). Her next role was also southern: Eula Varner in
The Long, Hot Summer (1958). She emerged as a real star in the role of an apparent rape
victim in Anatomy of a Murder (1959). And she won an Academy Award nomination for her role
as the alcoholic wife of Jack Lemmon in Days of Wine and Roses (1962). After more work in TV and
movies, she moved to England in 1970, making more movies there. In 1988
she formed a production company with partners James Garner and
Peter K. Duchow.- Today, sexy Lee Meriwether is best remembered for her roles in a few science fiction/fantasy cult productions made between 1966 and 1969. Batman: The Movie (1966), Star Trek (1966), The Time Tunnel (1966) and Land of the Giants (1968).
Firstly Batman: The Movie (1966), in which she played both evil Catwoman and not-so-evil Kitka, who has a romance with Bruce Wayne (Adam West).
Then came 30 episodes of Irwin Allen's The Time Tunnel (1966) series, in which she played a scientist named Dr. Ann MacGregor, where she mostly performed with Whit Bissell (General Kirk), both attempting to help two time travelers who were lost in time. In one episode, The Kidnappers (1967), Ann was taken away from her normal setting and transported into the distant future.
However, Meriwether once reported that she spent a lot of the series acting to a screen in the Time Tunnel complex, a screen that was meant to feature the two time travelers, but in reality featured nothing at all. So she was reacting to nothing a lot of the time.
Then came the Star Trek (1966) episode, That Which Survives (1969), where she played Losira, an alien being who stalks the Enterprise crew and attempts to kill them.
And finally, she was back with Irwin Allen again with the Land of the Giants (1968) episode, Rescue (1969). In this, she played the concerned "giant" mother of kids who were trapped underground and needed to be rescued by the Earth "little people".
Then she appeared as Betty Jones, daughter-in-law and secretary to Barnaby Jones from 1973 t0 1980 (178 episodes) in the series of the same name, "Barnaby Jones."
Meriwether is still working in television to this day. - Director
- Writer
- Producer
Friedkin's mother was an operating room nurse. His father was a
merchant seaman, semi-pro softball player and ultimately sold clothes
in a men's discount chain. Ultimately, his father never earned more
than $50/week in his whole life and died indigent. Eventually young
Will became infatuated with Orson Welles
after seeing Citizen Kane (1941). He
went to work for WGN TV immediately after graduating from high school
where he started making documentaries, one of which won the Golden Gate
Award at the 1962 San Francisco film festival. In 1965, he moved to
Hollywood and immediately started directing TV shows, including an
episode of the
The Alfred Hitchcock Hour (1962);
Hitchcock infamously chastised him for not wearing a tie.- Actor
- Soundtrack
A bold, blunt instrument of hatred and violence at the onset of his film career, Peter Boyle recoiled from that repugnant, politically incorrect "working class" image to eventually play gruff, gentler bears and even comedy monsters in a career that lasted four decades.
He was born on October 18, 1935, in Norristown, Pennsylvania, to Alice (Lewis) and Francis Xavier Boyle. He eventually moved to Philadelphia, where his father was a sought-after local TV personality and children's show host. His paternal grandparents were Irish immigrants, and his mother was of mostly French and British Isles descent. Following a solid Catholic upbringing (he attended a Catholic high school), Peter was a sensitive youth and joined the Christian Brothers religious order at one point while attending La Salle University in Philadelphia. He left the monastery after only a few years when he "lost" his calling.
Bent on an acting career, Boyle initially studied with guru Uta Hagen in New York. The tall (6' 2"), hulking, prematurely bald actor wannabe struggled through a variety of odd jobs (postal worker, waiter, bouncer) while simultaneously building up his credits on stage and waiting for that first big break. Things started progressing for him after appearing in the national company of "The Odd Couple" in 1965 and landing TV commercials on the sly. In the late 60s he joined Chicago's Second City improv group and made his Broadway debut as a replacement for Peter Bonerz in Paul Sills' "Story Theatre" (1971) (Sills was the founder of Second City). Peter's breakout film role did not come without controversy as the hateful, hardhat-donning bigot-turned-murderer Joe (1970) in a tense, violence-prone film directed by John G. Avildsen. The role led to major notoriety, however, and some daunting supporting parts in T.R. Baskin (1971),
Slither (1973) and as Robert Redford's calculating campaign manager in The Candidate (1972). During this time his political radicalism found a visible platform after joining Jane Fonda and Donald Sutherland on anti-war crusades, which would include the anti-establishment picture Steelyard Blues (1973). This period also saw the forging of a strong friendship with former Beatle John Lennon.
Destined to be cast as monstrous undesirables throughout much of his career, he played a monster of another sort in his early film days, and thus avoided a complete stereotype as a film abhorrent. His hilarious, sexually potent Frankenstein's Monster in the cult Mel Brooks spoof Young Frankenstein (1974) saw him in a sympathetic and certainly more humorous vein. His creature's first public viewing, in which Boyle shares an adroit tap-dancing scene with "creator" Gene Wilder in full Fred Astaire regalia, was a show-stopping audience pleaser. Late 70s filmgoers continued to witness Boyle in seamy, urban settings with brutish roles in Taxi Driver (1976) and Hardcore (1979). At the same time he addressed several TV mini-movie roles with the same brilliant darkness such as his Senator Joe McCarthy in Tail Gunner Joe (1977), for which he received an Emmy nomination, and his murderous, knife-wielding Fatso in the miniseries remake of From Here to Eternity (1979).
While the following decade found Peter in predominantly less noteworthy filming and a short-lived TV series lead as remote cop Joe Bash (1986), the 90s brought him Emmy glory (for a guest episode on The X-Files (1993)). Despite a blood clot-induced stroke in 1990 that impaired his speech for six months, he ventured on and capped his enviable career on TV wielding funny but crass one-liners in the "Archie Bunker" mold on the long-running sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond (1996). A major Emmy blunder had Boyle earning seven nominations for his Frank Barrone character without a win, the only prime player on the show unhonored. He survived a heart attack while on the set of "Everybody Loves Raymond" in 1999, but managed to return full time for the remainder of the series' run through 2005.
Following a superb turn as Billy Bob Thornton's unrepentantly racist father in the sobering Oscar-winner Monster's Ball (2001), the remainder of his films were primarily situated in frivolous comedy fare such as The Adventures of Pluto Nash (2002), The Santa Clause 2 (2002), Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed (2004), and The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause (2006), typically playing cranky curmudgeons. Boyle died of multiple myeloma (bone-marrow cancer) and heart disease at New York Presbyterian Hospital in 2006, and was survived by his wife Lorraine and two children. He was 71.- Actor
- Additional Crew
- Producer
Judd Hirsch is an American actor from New York City. His main claim to fame is playing taxicab driver Alex Reiger in the hit sitcom "Taxi" (1978-1983). For this role, Hirsch twice won the "Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series". He has since had a long career.
In 1935, Hirsch was born in The Bronx, New York City. His parents were electrician Joseph Sidney Hirsch and his wife Sally Kitzis. Joseph was born in New York to immigrant parents. Hirsch's paternal grandfather Benjamin Hirsch was German-Jewish, while his wife Rosa was born to a Dutch-Jewish family in England. Hirsch's maternal ancestors were Russian-Jews.
Hirsch spend his early years moving between the Bronx and Brooklyn. He received his secondary education at the DeWitt Clinton High School, an all-boys school located in The Bronx. He graduated in 1952, at the age of 17. He received his tertiary education at the City College of New York, a public college located in the Hamilton Heights neighborhood of Manhattan. He graduated with a degree in physics.
Following his college graduation, Hirsch served his term in the United States Army. Retuning to civilian life, he was hired as an engineer by the Westinghouse Electric Corporation (1886-1997). He eventually decided to switch to an acting career. He studied acting at the HB Studio, located in Greenwich Village.
Hirsch started his acting career with theatrical roles. In the 1970s, he frequently appeared in television films. He also had guest star roles in television series, such as "Medical Story", "Visions", and "Rhoda" He achieved stardom with the leading role of Alex Reiger in "Taxi" (1978-1983). Alex was a rather jaded character, bitter following his divorce and the loss of custody over his only child. He resonated with audiences of this period. He won the Emmy Award for Lead Actor In a Comedy Series in both 1981 and 1983.
Hirsch had the supporting role of psychiatrist Dr. Tyrone C. Berger in the family drama film "Ordinary People" (1980). In the film, he treats patient Conrad Jarrett (played by Timothy Hutton) who is suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, survivor's guilt, and suicidal ideation following the accidental death of his brother. The film was critically acclaimed, and Hirsch was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. The award was instead won by his co-star Timothy Hutton.
Hirsch had the co-starring role of police lieutenant Al Menetti in the missing person investigation-themed film "Wihout a Trace" (1983). The film was inspired by the real-life disappearance of Etan Patz (1972-1979), which was later determined to be a murder case. The film earned about 9,6 million dollars at the domestic box office. It was the 81st highest-grossing film of 1983.
Hirsch had a major role as vice principal Roger Rubell in the black comedy film "Teachers" (1984). The film deals with internal conflicts in a high school which is faced with a lawsuit by a recent graduate. The film was moderately successful at the box office, though it is mostly remembered for featuring the hit song "Understanding" by Bob Seger (1945-).
Hirsch had the leading role of pater familias Arthur Pope in the drama film "Running on Empty" (1988). In the film, Pope and his wife are wanted by the FBI for their involvement in the bombing of a napalm laboratory during the 1970s. They are hiding under cover identities, while trying to raise their sons. The film was a box office flop, but received critical acclaim. It is mainly remembered for a well-received early role for River Phoenix (1970-1993) as Arthur's eldest son.
Hirsch was cast in the leading role of teacher John Lacey in the American sitcom "Dear John" (1988-1992). It was an adaptation of the British sitcom "Dear John" (1986-1987). Both series deal with adult men trying to rebuilt their lives after their wives leave them for other men, and kick them out of their family home. The American series lasted for 4 seasons and a total of 90 episodes. For this role, Hirsch won the 1988 "Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Television Series Musical or Comedy".
Hirsch had the supporting role of Julius Levinson in the science fiction film "Independence Day " (1996). Julius was depicted as the aging father of the engineer David Levinson (played by Jeff Goldblum), one of the film's co-protagonists. The film earned about 817 million dollars the worldwide box office, the highest-grossing film in Hirsch's career. He returned to this role in the sequel "Independence Day: Resurgence" (2016),which was moderately successful.
Hirsch co-starred in the sitcom "George & Leo" (1997-1998) with Bob Newhart (1929-). He played magician Leo Wagonman, who was trying to hide after successfully robbing a casino. The series only lasted a single season and a total of 22 episodes. It was canceled due to low ratings.
Hirsch had the supporting role of a Princeton University professor in the biographical film "A Beautiful Mind" (2001). The film was based on the life of mathematician John Forbes Nash Jr. (1928-2015), an expert on game theory. The film earned about 317 million dollars at the worldwide box office, and won the "Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture - Drama" It was one of the most acclaimed films in Hirsch's career.
In 2005 Hirsch received a major television role as retired city planner Alan Eppes in the police procedural series "Numbers" (2005-2010). The series concerned two brothers who collaborate in investigating FBI cases. Alan was depicted as their meddling father, who keeps reminding them to also take care of their personal lives and problems. The series lasted 6 seasons, and 118 episodes. Hirsch's role was well-received by audiences.
In 2016, Hirsch guest starred in two episodes of the sitcom "The Big Bang Theory". He played anthropologist Dr. Alfred Hofstadter, the father of main character Leonard Hofstadter (played by Johnny Galecki). The character had been frequently mentioned in the series since its first season, but had never appeared before. While the series previously mentioned that Alfred neglected his son during Leonard' childhood, in the guest appearances he turned out to have a friendly relationship with his grown-up son. Alfred seemed impressed that Leonard had a loving relationship with his wife, something which Alfred had never experienced.
In 2017, Hirsch was cast in the main role of donut shop owner Arthur Przybyszewski in the sitcom "Superior Donuts" (2017-2018). The series depicted Arthur as a veteran business owner with old-fashioned ideas, who reluctantly recognizes that he has to modernize his shop in order to stay in business. The series lasted 2 seasons and a total of 34 episodes. It was reportedly canceled due to a decline in its ratings. The final episode resolves the series' main plot, with Arthur deciding to sell his shop and to finally retire.
As of 2021, Hirsch is 86-years-old. He has never retired from acting, though he mostly plays guest-star roles in television. He remains a popular actor.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Julian Wyatt Glover was born on March 27, 1935 in Hampstead, London, England, to Honor Ellen Morgan (Wyatt), a BBC journalist, and Claude Gordon Glover, a BBC radio producer. He is of English, Scottish and Welsh ancestry. Primarily a classical stage actor, Glover trained at the National Youth Theatre, performed with the Royal Shakespeare Company and became a familiar face to British television viewers by appearing in many popular series during the 1960s and 1970s. His talent for accents and cold expression made him an ideal choice for playing refined villains. Glover's guest appearances on television include series such as The Avengers (1961), Doctor Who (1963), Space: 1999 (1975), Blake's 7 (1978), Remington Steele (1982) and Merlin (2008). He also played the recurring role of Grand Master Pycelle on 31 episodes of the HBO fantasy series Game of Thrones (2011).
During the 1980s, Glover achieved some fame in Hollywood with roles in popular films such as General Maximilian Veers in Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980), the Greek villain Aristotle Kristatos in the James Bond film For Your Eyes Only (1981), Brian Harcourt-Smith in the Cold War thriller The Fourth Protocol (1987) and Walter Donovan in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989). In the film version of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002), he provided the voice of the giant spider Aragog. He was awarded Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 2013 Queen's Birthday Honours List for his services to drama.- Actor
- Director
- Writer
Robert Conrad was a graduate of Northwestern University, spending his
first few years out of school supporting himself and his family by
driving a milk truck and singing in a Chicago cabaret. Conrad
befriended up-and-coming actor Nick Adams during this period, and it
was Adams who helped Conrad get his first Hollywood work in 1957. A few
movie bit parts later, Conrad was signed for a comparative pittance by
Warner Bros. studios, and in 1959 was cast as detective Tom Lopaka on
the weekly adventure series Hawaiian Eye. Upon the 1963 cancellation of
this series, Conrad made a handful of Spanish and American films and
toured with a nightclub act in Australia and Mexico City. Cast as
frontier secret agent James West in The Wild Wild West (1965) in 1965, Conrad
brought home $5000 a week during the series' first season and enjoyed
increasing remunerations as West remained on the air until 1969. There
are those who insist that Wild Wild West would have been colorless
without the co-starring presence of Ross Martin, an opinion with which
Conrad has always agreed. The actor's bid to star in a 1970 series
based on the venerable Nick Carter pulp stories got no further than a
pilot episode, while the Jack Webb-produced 1971 Robert Conrad series
The D.A. was canceled after 13 episodes. When Roy Scheider pulled out
of the 1972 adventure weekly Assignment: Vienna, Conrad stepped in--and
was out, along with the rest of Assignment: Vienna, by June of 1973.
Conrad had better luck with 1976's Baa Baa Black Sheep, aka Black Sheep
Squadron, a popular series based on the World War II exploits of Major
"Pappy" Boyington. Cast as a nurse on this series was Conrad's daughter
Nancy, setting a precedent for nepotism that the actor practiced as
late as his tenth TV series, 1989's Jesse Hawkes, wherein Conrad
co-starred with his sons Christian and Shane.
Though few of his series have survived past season one, Conrad has
enjoyed success as a commercial spokesman and in the role of G. Gordon
Liddy (whom the actor admired) in the 1982 TV movie Will: The Autobiography of G. Gordon Liddy (1982). As can be gathered from the Liddy assignment, Conrad's politics
veered towards conservatism; in 1981, he and Charlton Heston were
instrumental in toppling Ed Asner and his liberal contingent from power
in the Screen Actors Guild.
As virile and athletic as ever in the 1990s, Robert Conrad
continued to appear in action roles both on TV and in films; he
also maintained strong ties with his hometown of Chicago, and could be
counted on to show up at a moment's notice as a guest on the various
all-night programs of Chicago radio personality Eddie Schwartz.- A native of Flint, Michigan, Nancy Kovack was a student at the
University of Michigan at 15, a radio deejay at 16, a college graduate
at 19 and the holder of eight beauty titles by 20. Her professional
acting career began on television in New York, first as one of
Jackie Gleason's "Glea Girls" and
then, more prominently, on
The Dave Garroway Show (1953),
Today (1952) and
Beat the Clock (1950). A stage
role opened Hollywood doors for Kovack, who signed with Columbia. She
later racked up an impressive list of episodic television credits, and
was Emmy-nominated for a 1969 guest shot on
Mannix (1967). The wife of
world-renowned maestro Zubin Mehta of New
York Philharmonic fame, Kovack publicly alleges that she was recently
bamboozled (to the tune of $150,000) by
Susan McDougal, a central figure in the
Whitewater scandal. - Actress
- Producer
- Director
Lovely, red-headed Pippa Scott is the daughter of noted stage actress Laura Straub and playwright/screenwriter Allan Scott, who wrote most of the Astaire/Rogers musical films. She is also the niece of the writer/producer Adrian Scott, one of the legendary "Hollywood Ten" of the Hollywood Blacklist.
Educated at Radcliffe and trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts (RADA) in London, Scott debuted in Jed Harris' last Broadway production, "Child of Fortune" (1956), based upon Henry James' Wings of the Dove. That same year she had a featured role as Lucy in John Ford's classic western film The Searchers (1956). The following year she returned to Broadway with a brief run of "Miss Lonelyhearts" and added a couple of films to her résumé when she co-starred as a novice schoolteacher who is harassed in the low-budget, highly obscure drama As Young as We Are (1958) and portrayed young love interest Pegeen Ryan in the iconic comedy hit Auntie Mame (1958) starring Rosalind Russell in the title role.
TV took a strong focus from the late '50s on with recurring parts on the series Mr. Lucky (1959) and The Virginian (1962), plus a host of guest parts in "Maverick," "The Twilight Zone," "Thriller," "Have Gun - Will Travel," "United States Steel Hour," "Dr. Kildare," "The Fugitive," "Gomer Pyle," "Wagon Train," "The Rogues," "Ben Casey," "Perry Mason," "Wagon Train," "The Dick Van Dyke," "F Troop," "Tarzan, "I Spy," "Family Affair," "Medical Center," "Gunsmoke," "The Mary Tyler Moore," "Mission: Impossible," "Love, American Style," "Barnaby Jones," "Columbo," "The Waltons," "Ironside," "The Streets of San Francisco," "Mannix," "The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries" and "Remington Steele." She also had a regular role in the short-lived series Jigsaw John (1976) as a love interest for star Jack Warden.
Sporadic stage and film roles came about in between all the TV work. On stage she appeared in the New York company of "Look Back in Anger" and a national tour of "Mary, Mary." She also collaborated with John Houseman at UCLA in preparation for the start of the Center Theater Group and performed in scores of episodic television productions in the 1960's, 1970's and 1980's. The few films she appeared in included My Six Loves (1963), The Confession (1964), For Pete's Sake! (1966), Petulia (1968), Cold Turkey (1971) (co-starring with Dick Van Dyke), The Sound of Murder (1982).
Along with her then-husband, producer Lee Rich, Pippa was a founding partner of Lorimar Productions, an Emmy-award winning television company and the single largest provider of programming to the networks for two and a half decades. They produced such classics as the Emmy-winning "The Waltons," "Dallas," "Falcon Crest," "Knots Landing," "Eight is Enough" and "The Blue Knight." Lorimar produced many films as well including Oscar and Emmy-winning films Moonstruck (1987), A Fish Called Wanda (1988), Sybil (1976) and Being There (1979).
In the 1980s a long-standing concern caused Ms. Scott to focus on humanitarian issues. She founded The International Monitor Institute (IMI), a non-profit dealing with the prosecution of war crimes. IMI was requested by the War Crimes Tribunal to locate, collect and provide visual evidence for prosecutors to use in the trials for the conviction of war criminals. IMI concentrated on the Balkans, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Congo, Cambodia, Iraq and Child Soldiers. IMI assisted many organizations both nationally and internationally, in the investigation of human rights violations and in documenting the circumstances that produced such conditions. The work of the Institute was intended to help nations remove the impediment which block respect for individual rights, civil society and development. The International Monitor continues to be in use today, residing in the Human Rights department at Duke University.
Ms. Scott also began Linden Productions to develop and produce documentaries related to international conflict and human rights violations. Linden has made numerous films for organizations such as the United Nations, Human Rights Watch and the International Rescue Committee to name only a few. A feature documentary, King Leopold's Ghost, based on the bestselling book by Adam Hochschild is about colonial greed and its ravages past and present in the Congo. Scott's film won Best Documentary at seven film festivals and today is playing on Amazon Prime and other online platforms. Another documentary, PBS Frontline's, "The Most Wanted Man, the Hunt for Radovan Karadzic" [a Serbian War Criminal] won at the Berlin Film Festival.
Away from the film camera for over two decades, Pippa returned for a couple parts into the millennium -- Footprints (2009) and Automotive (2013).- Actress
- Soundtrack
Lisa Gaye was born on 6 March 1935 in Denver, Colorado, USA. She was an actress, known for Ten Thousand Bedrooms (1957), Hawaiian Eye (1959) and How to Marry a Millionaire (1957). She was married to Bently Clyde Ware. She died on 14 July 2016 in Houston, Texas, USA.- Actor
- Writer
- Director
Deadpan comedian Charles Sydney Grodin (originally Grodinsky) was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania of Russian/Polish ancestry and raised in a Jewish orthodox home. He attended the University of Miami but dropped out, opting instead for the life of a struggling actor. The movie A Place in the Sun (1951) was said to have steered him towards his chosen profession. In his own words: "It was two things. One is I think I developed an overwhelming crush on Elizabeth Taylor. And two, Montgomery Clift made acting look like 'Gee, well that looks pretty easy - just a guy talking.'".
After a spell with Uta Hagen (1956-59), he attended Lee Strasberg's Actors Studio before making his stage debut on Broadway in 1962. Though he appeared on screen from as early as 1954, Grodin did not make a great deal of headway in this medium until he attracted critical notice playing the small but crucial role of obstetrician Dr. C.C. Hill in Rosemary's Baby (1968). More substantial roles soon followed. His first major starring turn was in The Heartbreak Kid (1972), a black comedy written by Neil Simon and directed by Elaine May. Grodin managed to inject charm and humanity in what was essentially an egotistical central character. Film reviewer Roger Ebert praised his performance, describing the actor as a "kind of Dustin Hoffman-as-overachiever", an opinion which was echoed by Vincent Canby of the New York Times. Ironically, Grodin had earlier turned down the pivotal role in The Graduate (1967) which propelled Hoffman to stardom (he also -- probably unwisely -- spurned the role of oceanographer Matt Hooper in Jaws (1975) which instead went to Richard Dreyfuss).
Grodin's ultimate breakthrough came on the Broadway stage in "Same Time Next Year" (1975) (opposite Ellen Burstyn), a hugely successful romantic comedy about two people, each married to someone else, who conduct an extramarital affair for a single day over the course of 24 years in the same room of a northern Californian inn. Though the two leads left the show after seven months, Grodin was now much sought-after in Hollywood as a droll comic actor and cast in a string of hit comedies: Heaven Can Wait (1978), Seems Like Old Times (1980), The Lonely Guy (1984) and Midnight Run (1988). He also appeared to sterling effect in the underrated farce The Couch Trip (1988), in which he co-starred with Walter Matthau and Dan Aykroyd as the brittle psychiatrist and radio host Dr. George Maitlin. Arguably his most popular box office success was opposite the titular Saint Bernard canine in the family-oriented comedy Beethoven (1992). Despite less than enthusiastic critical reviews, the film was a hit with audiences, grossed $147.2 million worldwide and spawned a sequel.
In the mid-1990s, Grodin reinvented himself as a television host (The Charles Grodin Show (1995)) and political commentator. He made frequent guest appearances on talk shows with Carson or Letterman, typically adopting the persona of a belligerent tongue-in-cheek character to facilitate "comically uncomfortable situations on the set". Grodin was also a prolific author, both of fiction and non-fiction. An autobiography was entitled "It Would Be So Nice If You Weren't Here: My Journey Through Show Business" (1989). Charles Grodin died at age 86 of bone marrow cancer on May 18, 2021 at his home in Wilton, Connecticut.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Kenneth Mars was an American actor and comedian. He appeared in two Mel Brooks films: as the deranged Nazi playwright Franz Liebkind in The Producers (1967) and Police Inspector Hans Wilhelm Friedrich Kemp in Young Frankenstein (1974). He also appeared in Peter Bogdanovich's What's Up Doc? (1972), and Woody Allen's Radio Days (1987), and Shadows and Fog (1991).- Wanda Ventham was born on 5 August 1935 in Brighton, East Sussex, England, UK. She is an actress, known for UFO (1970), Invasion: UFO (1974) and Sherlock (2010). She has been married to Timothy Carlton since April 1976. They have one child. She was previously married to James Tabernacle.
- Actor
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Topol was born on 9 September 1935 in Tel Aviv, Palestine [now Israel]. He was an actor and producer, known for Fiddler on the Roof (1971), Flash Gordon (1980) and For Your Eyes Only (1981). He was married to Galia Topol. He died on 8 March 2023 in Tel Aviv, Israel.- Actor
- Writer
- Music Department
Dudley Moore, the gifted comedian who had at least three distinct career phases that brought him great acclaim and success, actually started out as a musical prodigy as a child. Moore -- born in Dagenham, Essex, England to working class parents in 1935 -- won a music scholarship to Magdalen College, Oxford, to study the organ. At university, he also studied composition and became a classically trained pianist, though his forte on the piano for public performance was jazz. After graduating from Magdalen College in 1958, Moore was offered a position as organist at King's College, Cambridge, but turned it down in order to go to London and pursue a music and acting career. Fellow Oxonian Alan Bennett (Exter Colelge, B.A., Medieval History, 1957) had already recommended him to John Bassett, who was putting together a satirical comedy revue called "Beyond the Fringe". "Beyond the Fringe" was to be Moore's first brush with fame, along with co-stars Bennett, future theatrical director Jonathan Miller (now Sir
Jonathan, who studied Medicine at Cambridge and was a physician), and Peter Cook, who was destined to become Moore's comic partner during the 1960s and '70s.
It was Miller who had recommended Cook for "Beyond the Fringe", in much the same way that Bennett had bird-dogged Moore. Cook, who had studied modern languages at Cambridge, had been part of the famous Cambridge theatrical, the Footlights revue in 1959, had subsequently gone to London to star in a West End revue for Kenneth Williams, "Pieces of Eight". This old-fashioned review was such a success there was a sequel, "One Over the Eight". He was advised by his agent not to star in the Fringe with the three others as he was a professional, whereas they were amateurs. Ironically, the great success of "Beyond the Fringe", which was a new kind of satirical comedy, would doom the very old-fashioned reviews that Cook had just tasted success in. "Beyond the Fringe" not only won great acclaim in the UK, but it was a hit in the U.S.. The four won a special Tony Award in 1963 for their Broadway production of "Beyond the Fringe" and there was a television program made of the revue in 1964.
Moore and Cook were offered the TV show Not Only... But Also (1965) by the BBC in 1965. Peter Cook was on as a guest. Their pairing was so successful, it enjoyed a second season in 1966 and a third in 1970. They were particularly funny as the working-class characters "Pete" and "Dud". The duo then broke into the movies, including The Wrong Box (1966) and Bedazzled (1967). In 1974, the duo won their second Tony Award for their show "Good Night", which was the stage version of their TV series "Not Only... But Also".
In the mid- to late 1970s, they issued three comic albums in the guise of the characters "Derek" and "Clive" (Moore and Cook, respectively), two lavatory attendants that many viewed as reincarnations of their earlier TV characters "Pete" and "Dud". The albums, ad-libbed in a recording studio while the two drank vast quantities of alcohol, were noted at the time for their obscenity. Their typical routine was a stream-of-consciousness fugue by Cook, interspersed with interjections by Moore. With their obscenity-laden, free-formed riffs, Derke and Clive presaged the more free-wheeling shock comedy of the 1980s and '90s.
They subsequently split up as Moore could no longer tolerate Cook's alcoholism. Under the influence, Cook would become abusive towards Moore, whose acting career was undergoing a renaissance in the late '70s while his career has stalled. Ironically, it was playing an alcoholic that brought Moore to the summit of his success as an actor.
After marrying American actress Tuesday Weld in 1975, Moore moved to the U.S. and began a second career as a solo screen comedian, stealing the show from Chevy Chase and Goldie Hawn as the horny conductor in the movie comedy, Foul Play (1978). When George Segal dropped out of the movie 10 (1979), director Blake Edwards cast Moore in the lead role as the composer undergoing a mid-life crisis. It was a huge hit, but was surpassed by his Oscar-nominated turn as the dipsomaniac billionaire in Arthur (1981). In the early 1980s, Moore was a top box office attraction. In 1983, the National Alliance of Theater Owners named him the Top Box Office Star-Male of the Year.
His career began petering out after he turned down the lead in Splash (1983), a role that helped establish Tom Hanks as a top movie comedian and position him for his transition into movie drama and super-stardom. As Hanks star waxed, Moore's star waned, and by 1985 he was reduced to playing an elf in Santa Claus: The Movie (1985), one of the all time turkeys. Even a second turn as "Arthur" in Arthur 2: On the Rocks (1988) couldn't revive his box office, the dependent clause of the title all too well describing his career. His TV series Dudley (1993) was a bust, and the 1990s proved a wasteland for the once-honored and prosperous comedian.
Moore was deeply affected by the January 1995 death of Peter Cook by a gastrointestinal hemorrhage at the age of 57. Moore organized a two-day memorial to Cook in Los Angeles that was held in November 1995. Less than four years later, in September 1999, Moore announced that he was afflicted with progressive supra-nuclear palsy, a disease for which there is no treatment.
Dudley Moore was invested as a Commander of the Order of The British Empire (one step below knighthood) in June 2001. Moore personally attended the ceremony at Buckingham Palace to accept his CBE from Prince Charles, the Prince of Wales (later King Charles III), despite being unable to speak and being wheelchair-bound. He died in Watchung, New Jersey on March 27, 2002, a month shy of his 67th birthday, from the pneumonia related to progressive supra-nuclear palsy.
Dudley Moore was married four times, to actresses Suzy Kendall, Tuesday Weld, Brogan Lane and Nicole Rothschild, and had two sons, one with Tuesday Weld and one with Nicole Rothschild.- Character actor John Davis Chandler was born on January 28, 1935, in
Hinton, West Virginia. He was raised in Charleston, West Virginia. Tall
and thin, with fair hair, piercing blue eyes, a pale complexion and a
nasal, whiny voice, Chandler specialized in portraying mean, neurotic
and dangerous villains. He made an impressive film debut in his sole
starring part as the titular sniveling, psychotic, homicidal weasel
gangster in Mad Dog Coll (1961). He
acted in a trio of Westerns for director
Sam Peckinpah, and is especially memorable
(and frightening) as the creepy Jimmy Hammond in the magnificent
Ride the High Country (1962).
He was excellent as vicious punk Arthur Reardon in
The Young Savages (1961). He
made an effectively loathsome appearance as a vile bushwhacker in the
supremely spooky horror-western
The Shadow of Chikara (1977)
and had a nice bit as a bounty hunter in
Clint Eastwood's terrific
The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976). He even played a good guy--of sorts--in Peckinpah's Major Dundee (1965).
Chandler popped up in three entertaining drive-in exploitation features
for director William Grefé: at his wacky
best as the crazed, doped-up Acid in
The Hooked Generation (1968),
a foul shark poacher in the fun Jaws (1975)
copy
Mako: The Jaws of Death (1976)
and an evil pot farmer in
Whiskey Mountain (1977). Among
the many TV shows John did guest spots on are
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993),
Walker, Texas Ranger (1993),
Chicago Hope (1994)
ER (1994),
Simon & Simon (1981),
Hunter (1984),
Murder, She Wrote (1984),
Hill Street Blues (1981),
T.J. Hooker (1982),
Fantasy Island (1977),
The Incredible Hulk (1977),
Police Woman (1974),
Gunsmoke (1955),
Adam-12 (1968),
The Fugitive (1963),
Combat! (1962),
The Rifleman (1958),
Route 66 (1960) and
The Virginian (1962). In real
life he was an avid practitioner of yoga. Chandler died at age 75 on
February 16, 2010 in Toluca Lake, California. - Actress
- Soundtrack
Anne was born in the Jesmond area of Newcastle Upon Tyne but at a very young age her family moved to Redcar near Middlesborough, She was educated at a Welsh boarding school and started acting because her Geordie accent was so out of place in Wales. Enjoying acting encouraged her to train at RADA She is best remembered as Valerie Barlow in Coronation Street after which she virtually gave up acting to look after her family Returning to the stage she appeared in Billy Liar in the 80's the while appearing at London's Royal Court Theatre she was seen by Hanif Kureishi who gave her the title role in the film Mother which was followed by a part in Calendar Girls with Francis de la Tour but their scenes were cut ,- Actor
- Producer
- Director
Monte Markham- Actor, Director, Filmmaker
While enjoying a substantial career as a versatile, award winning actor/director/writer in feature motion pictures, television, and on Broadway, in 1992, Monte, with his son Jason Markham and wife Klaire Markham, founded their independent production company, "Perpetual Motion Films". The rest is history.
With innovative style and high production quality, they immediately hit the ground running, producing 26 hours of programming for US News and the A&E Network.
Quickly evolving as a multi-disciplined "can-do" company, they expanded production and were soon filming multi-hour documentaries and series programming on locations all over the world.
Monte has produced, directed, narrated, and appeared as on-camera host for over 150 hours of documentary films for network television, launching The History Channel with their 35-hour series, The Great Ships, and 10 premiere "Epic" Biographies that inaugurated A&E's landmark Biography series. Today, with over 2,000 biographies on Amazon, his Michelangelo remains among the all time best sellers.
From the Amazon to the Arctic, filming on every kind of commercial and military machine that floats, flies, races, or dives, Monte's producer/director assignments have taken him from carrier landings and launches, ground zero at the World Trade Center, 30 below on the Greenland Icepack, to the most intimate levels of culture, peoples, and governments in China, Japan, the UK, Europe, Russia, Brazil, India, Africa, and the US.
He was the first Westerner to use an all-Chinese crew for his 2,000 mile journey up the Yangtze for China's Great Dam, filming the Dam construction, the Great Wall, Tiananmen Square, and the Forbidden City. For The Imperial Japanese Navy, with an all- Japanese crew,he achieved unprecedented access to historical, sacred, and controversial locations, and was invited to film on board the 75 ship Grand Review with Premier Koizumi. For The Russian Navy, Monte was the first American to film the Russian Typhoon Class Submarine - the world's largest - at its secret base in the Arctic Circle.
With Prince Andrew as Host, Prince Phillip at Greenwich, on locations at Windsor, Portsmouth, and throughout the UK, he produced and directed the 4 hour Royal Navy.
Throughout his years of non-stop world-wide production, Monte found little opportunity
to accept acting offers. In 2009, deciding it was time to wind down a full time, aggressive production schedule, he resumed his acting career - and has found a whole new world of opportunity.- Highly accomplished American stage and screen actress, director, dancer and musician. Hailing from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, she is the daughter of builder/farmer Arnold John Jens and his Polish-born wife Salomea Szujeuska (after whom she was named). Her sister Arnette Jens is married to the well-known character actor Anthony Zerbe.
Jens attended the University of Wisconsin and later majored in drama at Northwestern University. Her first foray into acting was with the Swan Theatre in her home town (now the Milwaukee Repertory Theater). Already an accomplished pianist by the time she moved to New York, Jens was at first undecided as to which branch of the arts to pursue. She thus went on to study dance under Martha Graham, as well as acting with Stella Adler and at Herbert Berghof's studio in Greenwich Village. Having decided on the acting profession, Jens moved on to Lee Strasberg's Actor's Studio (of which she became a Lifetime Member in 1962), while at the same time making ends meet working as a secretary. Her Broadway stage debut duly followed in 1956 with a part in Sixth Finger in a Five Finger Glove.
This was the beginning of a prolific and critically acclaimed theatrical career, both on and off-Broadway in famous plays like Jean Genet 's The Balcony and (as Josie) in Eugene O'Neill 's A Moon for the Misbegotten. Her other performing highlights on the Great White Way have included roles in A Far Country (as Sigmund Freud 's wife, Martha Bernays Freud), Tartuffe (as Elmire) and the title role of Mary Stuart in 1971. For the Repertory Theatre of Lincoln Center, Jens appeared in Arthur Miller's After the Fall. In addition to larger West Coast venues like the Mark Taper Forum, Jens has more recently acted on the smaller stages in Los Angeles. Besides her busy performing career, she has also taught for many years at UCLA's theater department. Surprisingly, she found time for a substantial career in films and television as well.
On screen from 1956, Jens has often played off-beat characters, none more so than her inscrutable Female Changeling, head of the despotic Dominion and a primary antagonist in TV's Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993) (her daily make-up for the role took two hours to apply). Earlier in her career, she had starred in the torrid southern drama Angel Baby (1961) (credited as 'Miss Salomé Jens) which marked the film debut of Burt Reynolds, and played the romantic interest of the surgically altered, 'reborn' Rock Hudson in the powerful psychological thriller Seconds (1966). She said in an interview "I was never an ingénue. I've always been fortunate to be somebody who could never be pigeonholed. I was able to do a lot of different things." Those 'different things' have included appearances in Tales from the Crypt (1989), The Outer Limits (1963), The Untouchables (1959), Superboy (1988) (as Clark Kent's mother, Martha) and the voice of the female Guardian in DC's Green Lantern (2011), among a host of others shows and TV movies. She has had recurring roles in the spoof series Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman (1976), as well as in Falcon Crest (1981), L.A. Law (1986) and Melrose Place (1992).
Salome Jens was twice married, first to tough guy actor Ralph Meeker and later to radio and TV personality Lee Leonard. In her private life she keeps fit by walking and doing weights. She has latterly attended Comic Con events in the U.S. and abroad. - Actor
- Soundtrack
Douglas Osborne McClure was born on May 11, 1935 in Glendale,
California. Educated at UCLA, this blond leading man long made a career
of apparent agelessness. He played one young sidekick after another
through numerous movies and one television series after another,
playing 20ish roles into his late 40s. Although he made more than 500
appearances in his career (counting television episodes separately), he
is undoubtedly best remembered as Trampas in the series
The Virginian (1962) and
Backtrack! (1969). McClure was
fighting cancer the last couple of years before his death; despite
this, he continued working, appearing in
Maverick (1994) as one of the gamblers,
as well as in
Riders in the Storm (1995)
and episodes of
Burke's Law (1994) and
Kung Fu: The Legend Continues (1993)
which did not appear until after his death. Doug McClure died at age 59
of lung cancer on February 5, 1995.- Actress
- Producer
Hailing from an English theatrical family, Christina Pickles is a beloved stage-trained actress who has enjoyed a rich and varied career that has allowed her to show her incredible range and great depth of character in her performances. She sets the bar for all at an entirely new height with this year's "Outstanding Actress, Short Form, Comedy or Drama, Short Form" for her critically lauded performance in "Break a Hip" earning a remarkable seventh Emmy nomination for a superior performance. Earlier, Christina earned an Emmy nod for her hilarious role on "Friends" as 'Ross' and 'Monica Geller's' mom adding to five nominations for her historic role on precedent-setting "St. Elsewhere."
Probably best known for her portrayal of "Nurse Helen Rosenthal" on the NBC hit hospital drama "St. Elsewhere" and "Judy Geller," the dysfunctional mother of Monica (Courtney Cox) and Ross (David Schwimmer), on the NBC smash comedy hit "Friends," Christina was Emmy-nominated five times for "St. Elsewhere" and once for her indelible role on "Friends."
Christina just added her seventh Emmy nomination this summer for her hilarious and touching performance as "Biz" in the short-form comedy series "Break A Hip." Guest stars and riveting performances surround her indelible character including those from Oscar winners Allison Janey, Octavia Spencer and Jim Rash as well as a laugh-out-loud turn from Peri Giipin. It was Christina five years ago that learned about the infectious storyline of "Break A Hip" and its protagonist, 'Biz,' insisting producer/director Cameron Watson turn this into the Short Form hit series you see today. It's the best in its space at a time when all of us are living longer and know a 'Biz' in our lives.
Christina trained at The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London before moving to New York where she was a member of The APA Repertory Company and enjoyed a luminous career starring on and Off-Broadway. After moving to Los Angeles for "St. Elsewhere," she worked consistently in film and television establishing herself as a versatile actress able to perform both comedy and drama deftly. Film credits include "The Wedding Singer," Baz Luhrmann's "Romeo + Juliet," "Grace of My Heart," and "Legends of the Fall." As a voice-over artist, Christina can be heard in classic episodes of "The Family Guy" and as the spokesperson for Pavilions supermarket.- Actor
- Producer
- Composer
Singer, composer, actor and author, educated at Brooklyn's Thomas
Jefferson High School and a student of saxophone and piano. Between
1958 and 1960 he served in the US Army and was a vocalist with the US
Army Band and Orchestra based in Fort Myers, Virginia. After he was
discharged, he commenced his singing career on television, night clubs
and recordings, both as a single performer and with his wife
Eydie Gormé. He appeared in the mid-1960s
Broadway musical "What Makes Sammy Run?". Joining ASCAP in 1957, his
popular-song compositions include "After Midnight Waltz"; "All Of My
Life"; "At a Time Like This"; "Can't Get Over the Bossa Nova"; "The
Chase"; "Damila"; "Hi-Ho, Steve-O"; "Hurry Home for Christmas"; "I
Gotta Run": "I'll Follow You"; "I'll Never Be Alone"; "It's Easier Said
than Done"; "Just For Now"; "Laugh My Face"; "Let Me Be the First"; " A
Little Bit Bluer"; "Oh, How You Lied"; "Only You"; "Pity, Pity"; "The
Second Time Around"; "The Shortest Love Song"; "Sittin' on the Fence of
Life"; "Tall People"; "Tell Me"; "Time to Say Goodnight"; "Two on the
Aisle"; "What's the Use of Talking"; "When You're in Love"; "While
There's Still Time"; "The World of You"; "You Better Run"; and "Your
Kisses Kill Me".- Actor
- Soundtrack
Bob Denver was attending college at Loyola-Marymount University, in Los
Angeles, when he got into acting. At first, Denver wasn't sure he
wanted to be an actor, but gradually gave in, deciding that's what he
was going to do for a career. Before he became established, he worked
as a mailman and teacher. He then got a screen test for the part of
Maynard G. Krebs and to his surprise won the part. After four years on
The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis (1959), Denver got his most famous part of Gilligan, in Gilligan's Island (1964). After
Gilligan's three-year run ended he did a few other television shows
(including the Gilligan wannabe Dusty's Trail (1973)) and Broadway plays. On
September 2, 2005, he died of complications related to cancer treatment
at Wake Forest University Baptist Hospital in North Carolina. He had
most recently lived in Princeton, West Virgina. He is survived by his
wife Dreama Perry Denver, and four children.- Actor
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Peter Brown got into acting when he was in the army by organizing a
theater group on base to occupy his spare time while stationed in
Alaska. After his discharge he enrolled in the acting program at UCLA,
and starting in the mid-1950s found employment in many of the western
films and series being turned out at the time (he is especially
remembered for his work as eager young deputy Johnny McKay in the
classic western series Lawman (1958) and as one of a trio of Texas Rangers in
the western action/comedy series Laredo (1965)). Following the end of a
contract with Universal Pictures (1965-1972), he switched to soap
operas and made-for-TV films, and has been steadily employed ever
since.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Sue Randall was an actress who was born in 1935. Her primary roles were
television instead of motion pictures with
Desk Set (1957) being her only silver
screen appearance. Sue's TV appearances were mostly guest roles in
programs such as
The Twilight Zone (1959),
The Fugitive (1963),
Bonanza (1959) and
Gunsmoke (1955). Perhaps Sue is best
remembered as the grade school teacher "Miss Landers" in
Leave It to Beaver (1957).
She appeared on the series, occasionally, from 1958-1962. This
beautiful actress contracted lung cancer and died in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania on October 26, 1984. Sue was 49 years old.- Actor
- Additional Crew
A prolific character actor on British television for three decades, Ronald Lacey was born on June 18, 1935 in the suburbs of London. He
began his career in 1961 after compulsory National Service. He
attended The London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. His first
notable performance was delivered on stage in 1962 at The Royal Court Theatre in "Chips
With Everything". Lacey had an unusual pug look with beady eyes and
cherub's cheeks which landed him repeatedly in bizarre roles on both
stage and screen. However it was his unforgettable demonic smile and
peculiar Peter Lorre mannerisms that would bring Lacey a short period of
fame in Hollywood.
After performing on British television throughout
the 1960's and 1970's, Lacey finally landed the role for which these
characteristics could be used to full advantage. In 1981 he was cast as
the villainous Nazi henchman in 'Steven Spielberg' 's widescreen
blockbuster Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) He followed this with a series of various
villainous roles for the next five to six years: Firefox (1982) with 'Clint
Eastwood', Sahara (1983) with Brooke Shields, and Red Sonja (1985) with Arnold Schwarzenegger. Lacey turned
in two hilarious cinematic performances in full drag (Disney's Trenchcoat (1983)
with Margot Kidder from 1982 and Invitation to the Wedding (1983) from 1985 - in which he played a
husband/wife couple!).
Lacey died in London of liver failure on May 15, 1991. A
tremendous talent with great depth and many facets, Ronald Lacey will
probably be remembered best for his small but significant role as the dapper yet
psychotic Nazi in Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981).- Actor
- Additional Crew
- Soundtrack
James Christopher Bolam was born in the Sunderland Maternity Home on 16th June 1935 to Marion and Robert Bolam. Later after completing his education at Bede Grammar School he went to drama school then into repertory in Dundee with Sir Ralph Richardson before moving to London. Married to actress Susan Jameson with daughter Lucy, born in 1976 they eventually moved from Fulham to near Horsham in Sussex. He now owns two race horses, 'King Credo', which by 1993 had won three top races including the Tote Gold Trophy at Newbury which repaid his purchase and training costs and 'Unique New Yorker'- Actress
- Soundtrack
Although she was presented in 1969 the first Film Star of Tomorrow by
The Motion Picture Exhibitors of Canada, the status of Sharon Acker as
a star never materialized. Not that she was inactive, quite the
opposite, but she worked almost only for TV and appeared only in a few
undistinguished movies. She will, nevertheless, remain remembered
for her role as Lee Marvin's ex-wife in
John Boorman's classic
Point Blank (1967). The victim of
Marvin's rough manners, Acker as Lynne left a deep impact on male brains.
Born in 1935, the Canadian-born actress started her film career in
England when the play she was in, "Lucky Jim",
Kingsley Amis' classic, was made into a
movie. But she was not seen in many movies, except during the sixties,
either in Canada or in the U.S. Meanwhile, she was very
active on TV, first in Canada from the age of 19, then in the U.S. in
made-for-TV movies or series like
Star Trek (1966),
Mission: Impossible (1966),
Gunsmoke (1955),
Marcus Welby, M.D. (1969),
Barnaby Jones (1973), etc. She
was a regular in the series
The Bold Ones: The Senator (1970)
for one year and played "Della Street" in the short-lived
The New Perry Mason (1973).
A talented actress seen too little in movie theaters.- Actor
- Additional Crew
David "Dave" Prowse was born into a working class family on 1 July, 1935 in Bristol, England, UK. He was raised by his mother and never knew his father. As a child, David was disadvantaged and a poor student, he found a passion for bodybuilding and weight training in his early teens, as a young adult, David often entered weightlifting competitions and contested in the famous Mr. Universe contest. Eventually, David won the British heavyweight weightlifting title and gained status as a highly regarded and respected member of the fitness community. Over this period of competitive weightlifting, David became lifelong friends with actors Arnold Schwarzenegger and Lou Ferrigno, who at the time were not professional actors but rival competitors. After appearing on various broadcast sporting events, David was offered a role in the feature film Casino Royale (1967) as "Frankenstein's Monster". Although the casting was based on David's stature, David developed a strong interest in acting and decided to pursue it further.
From 1967 to 1977, David enjoyed a quiet, but very successful career within film and television starring in such films as A Clockwork Orange (1971), Up Pompeii (1971) and numerous Hammer House of Horror films, gaining a vast and bulky CV. In 1975, David's popularity as a respected fitness guru landed him with the role and duty of the Green Cross Code Man, a superhero designed by the British road safety committee to teach road safety to children. The persona saw David traveling the world to give talks, demonstrations and shoot short television spots based on the hero's message. Proving successful the Green Cross Code Man continued to be a side project throughout David's busy career until the 1990s. He considers this role to be of great importance, and has stated many times that it is possibly the most rewarding job he has held.
It was not until 1977 when David attended an audition for a film entitled Star Wars. The film was not considered to be a big thing at the time and the audition was held by director George Lucas. At the meeting, George offered David either the part of Chewbacca or Darth Vader. Instantly turning away the role of Chewbacca, David insisted he play the lead villain Darth Vader. George asked David why he wanted to play Vader and he replied "Everyone remembers the villain, George." David also had a wealth of experience playing villains in previous films, and was the obvious choice. David played the role of Darth Vader for the entirety of the original Star Wars trilogy: Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977), Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983). Although David does not voice the character, he is the physical body. Star Wars was perhaps David's most important role and a role that has enlisted him as one of the most memorable character villains of all time.
There have been many rumors, disputes and discussions about David's relationship with Star Wars and its staff. Regarding the apparent misled information David received about Vader's voice, promotional neglect and general mistreatment from Lucasfilm. This feud resulted in David being banned from all official Star Wars events. A statement from George Lucas read "He has burnt too many bridges." David stated that a majority of the rumors in circulation regarding the topic are fabricated and false including those of respectable actors involved, and has openly admitted his support of James Earl Jones as the voice of Vader and claims Lucas film were too concerned with keeping Vader a character than letting David receive deserved credit. The topic is covered in detail, in David's autobiography "Straight from the Force's Mouth". After Star Wars, David continued to work in television and film, making numerous appearances with the legendary Benny Hill. He continued to tour as the Green Cross Code Man and became the personal fitness trainer of many celebrities including Daniel Day-Lewis and Vanessa Redgrave.
David was loyal to Star Wars fans and participated in a number of fan-films as various characters spoofing Star Wars. Towards the end of David's busy acting period, his health declined due to a serious inflammation of arthritis, leaving him unable to stand for long periods of time and inflicting agonizing pain on his knees and hips. Undergoing treatment with hip replacement operations, it was discovered that David had prostate cancer in 2009. After a series of radiotherapy treatments at the Royal Marsden Hospital in London, David made a full recovery in a remarkably short period of time. David was awarded Member of the Order of the British Empire in the 2000 Queen's Millennium Honours List for his contributions to charity and spokesmanship for road safety, the disabled and other various charities. From 2004, David began writing his autobiography entitled "Straight from the Force's Mouth," which covers his career in showbiz and documents an unedited diary account of the Star Wars production. The book was published officially in hardback by Apex Publishing in 2011, and David toured Europe to attend book signings and personal appearances.
Over the course of his career, between acting and touring the world both as the Green Cross Code Man and David Prowse, David trained actors for films including Christopher Reeve for Superman (1978), wrote fitness books "Fitness is Fun", supported charity and even became the head of fitness for superstore Harrods. In the 2000s, David spent his time attending unofficial Star Wars events, conventions and film events where he signed photos, spoke to the fans and was in high demand as a public speaker all over the world.- Actor
- Director
- Producer
Born in New York City, Ted's early career included guest appearances in
soap operas, Lover Come Back (1961) and It's a Man's World (1962). Ted went on to appear as "Frankie" on
Gomer Pyle: USMC (1964), but his big break was as "That Guy" on the successful Marlo Thomas
Television series That Girl (1966). As "Don Hollinger", he played the boyfriend
of aspiring actress "Ann Marie". After that, he appeared in a number of
short lived Television comedy series including Me and the Chimp (1972), Good Time Harry (1980) and
Hail to the Chief (1985). After being stereotyped as the good boyfriend, Ted found jobs
hard to find so he moved towards the direction and production end of
Television. Ted directed episodes of The Tracey Ullman Show (1987) and Sibs (1991). At the time
of his death, he was preparing to direct a movie version of the
Television series Bewitched (1964).- Actress
- Soundtrack
One of television's premier African-American series stars, elegant actress, singer and recording artist Diahann Carroll was born Carol Diann (or Diahann) Johnson on July 17, 1935, in the Bronx, New York. The first child of John Johnson, a subway conductor, and Mabel Faulk Johnson, a nurse; music was an important part of her life as a child, singing at age six with her Harlem church choir. While taking voice and piano lessons, she contemplated an operatic career after becoming the 10-year-old recipient of a Metropolitan Opera scholarship for studies at New York's High School of Music and Art. As a teenager she sought modeling work but it was her voice, in addition to her beauty, that provided the magic and the allure.
When she was 16, she teamed up with a girlfriend from school and auditioned for Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts show using the more exotic sounding name of Diahann Carroll. She alone was invited to appear and won the contest. She subsequently performed on the daily radio show for three weeks. In her late teens, she began focusing on a nightclub career and it was here that she began formulating a chic, glamorous image. Another TV talent show appearance earned her a week's engagement at the Latin Quarter.
Broadway roles for black singers were rare but at age nineteen, Diahann was cast in the Harold Arlen/Truman Capote musical "House of Flowers". Starring the indomitable Pearl Bailey, Diahann held her own quite nicely in the ingénue role. While the show itself was poorly received, the score was heralded and Diahann managed to introduce two song standards, "A Sleepin' Bee" and "I Never Has Seen Snow", both later recorded by Barbra Streisand.
In 1954 she and Ms. Bailey supported a riveting Dorothy Dandridge as femme fatale Carmen Jones (1954) in an all-black, updated movie version of the Georges Bizet opera "Carmen." Diahann later supported Ms. Dandridge again in Otto Preminger's cinematic retelling of Porgy and Bess (1959). During this time she also grew into a singing personality on TV while visiting such late-nite hosts as Jack Paar and Steve Allen and performing.
Unable to break through into the top ranks in film (she appeared in a secondary role once again in Paris Blues (1961), a Paul Newman/Joanne Woodward vehicle), Diahann returned to Broadway. She was rewarded with a Tony Award for her exceptional performance as a fashion model in the 1962 musical "No Strings," a bold, interracial love story that co-starred Richard Kiley. Richard Rodgers, whose first musical this was after the death of partner Oscar Hammerstein, wrote the part specifically for Diahann, which included her lovely rendition of the song standard "The Sweetest Sounds." By this time she had already begun to record albums ("Diahann Carroll Sings Harold Arlen" (1957), "Diahann Carroll and Andre Previn" (1960), "The Fabulous Diahann Carroll" (1962). Nightclub entertaining filled up a bulk of her time during the early-to-mid 1960s, along with TV guest appearances on Carol Burnett, Judy Garland, Andy Williams, Dean Martin and Danny Kaye's musical variety shows.
Little did Diahann know that in the late 1960s she would break a major ethnic barrier on the small screen. Though it was nearly impossible to suppress the natural glamour and sophistication of Diahann, she touchingly portrayed an ordinary nurse and widow struggling to raise a small son in the series Julia (1968). Despite other Black American actresses starring in a TV series (i.e., Hattie McDaniel in "Beulah"), Diahann became the first full-fledged African-American female "star" -- top billed, in which the show centered around her lead character. The show gradually rose in ratings and Diahann won a Golden Globe award for "Best Newcomer" and an Emmy nomination. The show lasted only two seasons, at her request.
A renewed interest in film led Diahann to the dressed-down title role of Claudine (1974), as a Harlem woman raising six children on her own. She was nominated for an Oscar in 1975, but her acting career would become more and more erratic after this period. She did return, however, to the stage with productions of "Same Time, Next Year" and "Agnes of God". While much ado was made about her return to series work as a fashionplate nemesis to Joan Collins' ultra-vixen character on the glitzy primetime soap Dynasty (1981), it became much about nothing as the juicy pairing failed to ignite. Diahann's character was also a part of the short-lived "Dynasty" spin-off The Colbys (1985).
Throughout the late 1980s and early 90s she toured with her fourth husband, singer Vic Damone, with occasional acting appearances to fill in the gaps. Some of her finest work came with TV-movies, notably her century-old Sadie Delany in Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters' First 100 Years (1999) and as troubled singer Natalie Cole's mother in Livin' for Love: The Natalie Cole Story (2000). She also portrayed silent screen diva Norma Desmond in the musical version of "Sunset Blvd." and toured America performing classic Broadway standards in the concert show "Almost Like Being in Love: The Lerner and Loewe Songbook." She then had recurring roles on Grey's Anatomy (2005) and White Collar (2009).
Diahann Carroll died on October 4, 2019, in Los Angeles, California.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Her artistic dreams came early in life and were further supported by
her older sister Gerd Andersson who became a ballet dancer at the Royal Opera
and made her acting debut in 1951. Bibi, on the other side, had to make
do with bit parts and commercials. She debuted in Dum-Bom (1953), playing
against Nils Poppe. Eventually, she was able to start at the Royal
Dramatic Theatre's acting school in 1954. A brief relationship with
Ingmar Bergman made her quit school and follow him to the Malmö city theatre,
where he was a director, performing in plays by August Strindberg and Hjalmar Bergman.
Bergman also gave her a small part in his comedy Smiles of a Summer Night (1955), and larger
roles in his Wild Strawberries (1957) and The Seventh Seal (1957). From the the 1960s she got offers
from abroad, with best result in I Never Promised You a Rose Garden (1977). During the civil war in
Yugoslavia she has worked with several initiatives to give the people
of Sarajevo theatre and other forms of culture.- Actor
- Soundtrack
The television heartthrob from the 1960s and 1970s was the proverbial tall, dark and classically handsome actor. Completing the solid package was a great, muscular build, smooth charm, and an almost perfect set of teeth. Born in 1935 in Kansas City, Kansas, and raised in St. Louis, Missouri, he certainly paid his dues before landing his breakthrough as the suave announcer on The Carol Burnett Show (1967) in the late 1960s. The one-time door-to-door encyclopedia peddler, prior to his prime TV job, appeared in poorly-made sci-fi and beach party flicks with such dubious titles as Women of the Prehistoric Planet (1966), Swamp Country (1966), Journey to the Center of Time (1967) and Catalina Caper (1967). In time, he was more than just a gorgeous hunk with a resonant voice, and they began to incorporate Waggoner into the show as a comedy sketch partner along with Vicki Lawrence and Harvey Korman. His better scenes typically had him essaying the superficial cad or gleamy-toothed, self-important star. After seven seasons on the knockabout variety show, however, Waggoner felt like a "third banana" and yearned to take a chance on solo stardom. During his off-times, he had prepared himself by appearing in summer stock and/or dinner theater in such breezy assignments as "Boeing, Boeing", "Send Me No Flowers", and "Once More, with Feeling". He also hosted the syndicated quiz show It's Your Bet (1969), and earned added "exposure" as Playgirl Magazine's first semi-nude centerfold in 1973.
Not long after his departure from the Burnett show, he landed the role of Major Steve Trevor on the popular comic strip-based series Wonder Woman (1975), playing the dashing, no-nonsense boss to Diana Prince. Again, the challenge was not there and he remained on the periphery for three seasons. In later years, Waggoner became more personality than performer and only sporadically appeared in glossy mini-movies and TV episodes, occasionally as himself. He appeared in a few feature films (including Love Me Deadly (1972), Surf II (1983) and Wizards of the Demon Sword (1991)). Perhaps surmising he was undone by being too perfect a specimen, he wisely looked into business ventures. In 1979, he successfully started up "Star Waggons", which served film/TV companies with rental trailers. His charming, vainglorious romancer act was for the cameras only. He married only once, to Sharon Kennedy, an actress, financial consultant and realtor. They were married for 59 years and had two sons.- Amiable and exceptional character actor Billy Green Bush appeared in a handful of offbeat and enduring cult classic features made in the early '70s. Tall, handsome and rangy, Bush often portrayed engaging good ol' boy types, rugged cowboys and stern police officers. He was born as William Warren Bush in 1935. Billy was terrific as lazy hillbilly oil rig worker Elton in Bob Rafelson's wonderful Five Easy Pieces (1970). He was likewise excellent as cop Robert Blake's affably dimwitted partner Zipper in the splendid Electra Glide in Blue (1973). Bush gave another outstanding performance as tough-as-nails trail boss Frank Culpepper in the superbly gritty Western The Culpepper Cattle Co. (1972). Other memorable roles include a hard-nosed sheriff in Welcome Home Soldier Boys (1971), no-nonsense Warden Earl Gulliver in the powerful made-for-TV movie The Jericho Mile (1979), gruff state trooper Donner in The Hitcher (1986), and resolute farmer Jay Brown in the immensely enjoyable creature feature Critters (1986). Among the TV shows Bush has done guest spots on are Hill Street Blues (1981), The A-Team (1983), CHiPs (1977), The Incredible Hulk (1977), The Dukes of Hazzard (1979), Starsky and Hutch (1975), Baretta (1975), M*A*S*H (1972), Gunsmoke (1955), Banyon (1971), Bonanza (1959), The Outer Limits (1963), and Renegade (1992). Bush also played the sheriff in the ninth installment of the slasher series, 'Friday the 13th', entitled Jason Goes to Hell (1993). He has since retired from acting. Billy is the father of actor Clay Greenbush and twin actresses Sidney Greenbush and Rachel Lindsay Greenbush.
- A native Californian of Swedish descent, Sigrid Valdis (the professional stage name of Patricia Annette Olson) was raised in the Westwood and Brentwood neighborhoods of Los Angeles, and attended exclusive private schools, including Marymount High School. Upon graduation, she moved to Europe, then to New York City to continue the modeling career she had begun as a teenager. While working as a designer's showroom and runway model, she met and married a businessman in the fashion
industry.
After the birth of her first child, Melissa, she began studying at Stella Adler's Theatre School while working on her first feature film. Her natural talent and on-screen demeanor were impressive, and she found herself back in California in 1964 in pursuit of a promising acting career. Over the next 18 months, she would accumulate an impressive list of credits and on-camera time: Her first film, Two Tickets to Paris (1962) starring Joey Dee of "Peppermint Twist"
fame, was followed by big screen roles in Marriage on the Rocks (1965) (alongside Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin), Our Man Flint (1966) (starring James Coburn and Lee J. Cobb), and The Venetian Affair (1966) (with Robert Vaughn).
The exposure of appearing in films brought her a plethora of work in television and opportunities to work with TV legends such as
Phil Silvers, Steve Allen, Red Skelton and Sid Caesar. She shared the small screen with
the likes of Allan Sherman, Dennis Hopper, Henry Silva, Robert Conrad and Ross Martin. Her numerous credits include Kraft Mystery Theater (1961), Arrest and Trial (1963), and The Wild Wild West (1965).
She also performed on stage, most notably during the summer of 1968 when, with Bob Crane and Abby Dalton, she starred in a touring production of the comedy "Cactus Flower". In addition to the exposure and the opportunity to work with Hollywood's biggest names, she was becoming recognized for her ability to perform effectively in various types of roles in multiple genres and settings. She succeeded in movies and television, comedy and drama, commercials, sitcoms and skits, and was equally successful in lead and supporting roles. She was widowed in 1967, just a short time after she had begun to gain exposure on a weekly network television show.
Valdis caught the eye of Hogan's Heroes (1965) producer Edward Feldman in 1965, leading to her guest appearance as Gretchen in Episode 10. When the second season began, Feldman brought her under contract as a regular cast member, playing the role of Hilda, Col. Klink's secretary. On October 16, 1970, Sigrid and Crane were married on the set of the show. At that time, theirs was the first reported "actual" marriage to be performed on a sound stage. A year later they had a son, Robert Scott Crane. Sigrid retired from acting following Scott's birth so that she could devote herself to her husband and family.
Although the Cranes were separated during part of 1977, they reconciled in 1978. However, Sigrid met with tragedy again a few months later when Crane was murdered. Amid this turmoil and fear, she moved from the Los Angeles area to protect her family from the constant media scrutiny invited by the case.