Advanced search
- TITLES
- NAMES
- COLLABORATIONS
Search filters
Enter full date
to
or just enter yyyy, or yyyy-mm below
to
Only includes names with the selected topics
to
or just enter yyyy, or yyyy-mm below
to
1-50 of 2,928
- Born in London, England to a Welsh mother and an Australian father,
Justin Charles Pierce was raised in the Marble Hill section of
Manhattan, New York City. He attended P.S. 7 in the Bronx for
Elementary School and J.H.S. 141 in the Riverdale section of the Bronx
for Junior High School. Pierce's parents divorced when he was 15
years old.
After his parents' divorce, he began acting out and skipping school in
favor of skateboarding. Pierce soon dropped out of school and moved
out, staying in a basement of a building with fellow skaters. Pierce
was later found under arrest for the possession of marijuana and heroin
substances found under his pants in a police road search. The results
in the court hearing were found inconclusive which resulted in the
releasing of Pierce. Pierce went back to live with his parents at the
age of 19.
One day, while skateboarding in Washington Square Park, Pierce was
discovered by film director
Larry Clark. Clark then cast him in
his controversial 1995 independent film
Kids (1995). After the film's success,
Pierce won an Independent Spirit Award for his portrayal of Casper, the
foul-mouthed skater punk friend of Telly
(Leo Fitzpatrick), and relocated
to Los Angeles.
Pierce would go on to appear in the 1997 film
A Brother's Kiss (1997) as the
young Nick Chinlund. Pierce also appeared
in two made-for-TV movies,
First Time Felon (1997)
and
This Is How the World Ends (2000),
as well as the Fox sitcom,
Malcolm in the Middle (2000).
He also starred alongside Ice Cube and
Mike Epps in the motion picture
Next Friday (2000).
On July 10, 2000, Pierce was found hanging in his room at the Bellagio
hotel by hotel security.
A Catholic service for Pierce took place on July 15, 2000 at St.
Patrick's Old Cathedral in Manhattan's Little Italy, which was attended
by Kids (1995) co-star
Chloë Sevigny. But it was the memorial his
friends held at the Public Theater that revealed the most about the
actor. On a hot, sticky July afternoon, dozens of Pierce's tight family
of skaters converged a few blocks uptown from the skateboard store
Supreme, where Pierce was a fixture. As "Knocking on Heaven's Door"
played over the sound system, the crowd wept openly while friends rose
to memorialize Pierce. - Actor
- Casting Director
- Soundtrack
Werner Klemperer, everyone's favorite TV German Air Force colonel, was
best known for his role as the bumbling Col. Wilhelm Klink on the
comedy series
Hogan's Heroes (1965).
Although he'll forever be known as the blustering but inept German
commandant of Stalag 13, Klemperer was in fact a talented dramatic
actor, as evidenced by his acclaimed performance as an arrogant,
unrepentant Nazi judge being tried for crimes against humanity in
Judgment at Nuremberg (1961).
His identification with Nazi roles notwithstanding, Klemperer was in
real life the son of a Jew who fled with his family from Nazi Germany
in the 1930s. He served in the U.S. Army during World War II. When he
was offered the Col. Klink role, Klemperer only agreed to do it if the
show's producers promised that Klink would never succeed in any of his
schemes. "Col. Klink" earned Klemperer five Emmy nominations, and he
took home the trophy twice, in 1968 and 1969. After the series,
Klemperer carved out an impressive musical career as a conductor and
also served as a narrator with many major U.S. symphony orchestras. He
was an accomplished concert violinist.- Actor
- Director
- Producer
Walter Matthau was best known for starring in many films which included Charade (1963), The Odd Couple (1968), Grumpy Old Men (1993), and Dennis the Menace (1993). He often worked with Jack Lemmon and the two were Hollywood's craziest stars.
He was born Walter Jake Matthow in New York City, New York on October 1, 1920. His mother was an immigrant from Lithuania and his father was a Russian Jewish peddler and electrician from Kiev, Ukraine. As a young boy, Matthau attended a Jewish non-profit sleep-away camp. He also attended Surprise Lake Camp. His high school was Seward Park High School.
During World War II, Matthau served in the U.S. Army Air Forces with the Eighth Air Force in Britain as a Consolidated B-24 Liberator radioman-gunner, in the same 453rd Bombardment Group as James Stewart. He was based at RAF Old Buckenham, Norfolk during this time. He reached the rank of staff sergeant and became interested in acting.
Matthau appeared in the pilot of Mister Peepers (1952) alongside Wally Cox. He later appeared in the Elia Kazan classic, A Face in the Crowd (1957), opposite Patricia Neal and Andy Griffith, and then appeared in Lonely Are the Brave (1962), with Kirk Douglas, a film Douglas has often described as his personal favorite. Matthau then appeared in Charade (1963) with Audrey Hepburn and Cary Grant. In 1968, Matthau made his big screen appearance as Oscar Madison in The Odd Couple (1968) alongside Jack Lemmon. The two were also in the sequel (The Odd Couple II (1998)) as well as Grumpy Old Men (1993) and Grumpier Old Men (1995). Matthau was in Dennis the Menace (1993), alongside Mason Gamble. On July 1, 2000, Matthau died of a heart attack in Los Angeles, California. He was 79 years old.- Actress
- Producer
- Additional Crew
Hedy Lamarr, the woman many critics and fans alike regard as the most beautiful ever to appear in films, was born Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler in Vienna, Austria. She was the daughter of Gertrud (Lichtwitz), from Budapest, and Emil Kiesler, a banker from Lemberg (now known as Lviv). Her parents were both
from Jewish families. Hedwig had a calm childhood, but it was cinema that fascinated her. By the time she was a teenager, she decided to drop out of school and seek fame as an actress, and was a student of theater director Max Reinhardt in Berlin. Her first role was a bit part in the German film Geld auf der Straße (1930) (aka "Money on the Street") in 1930. She was attractive and talented enough to be in three more German productions in 1931, but it would be her fifth film that catapulted her to worldwide fame. In 1932 she appeared in a Czech film called Ekstase (US title: "Ecstasy") and had made the gutsy move to appear nude. It's the story of a young girl who is married to a gentleman much older than she, but she winds up falling in love with a young soldier. The film's nude scenes created a sensation all over the world. The scenes, very tame by today's standards, caused the film to be banned by the U.S. government at the time.
Hedy soon married Fritz Mandl, a munitions manufacturer and a prominent Austrofascist. He attempted to buy up all the prints of "Ecstasy" he could lay his hands on (Italy's dictator, Benito Mussolini, had a copy but refused to sell it to Mandl), but to no avail (there are prints floating around the world today). The notoriety of the film brought Hollywood to her door. She was brought to the attention of MGM mogul Louis B. Mayer, who signed her to a contract (a notorious prude when it came to his studio's films, Mayer signed her against his better judgment, but the money he knew her notoriety would bring in to the studio overrode any moral concerns he may have had). However, he insisted she change her name and make good, wholesome films.
Hedy starred in a series of exotic adventure epics. She made her American film debut as Gaby in Algiers (1938). This was followed a year later by Lady of the Tropics (1939). In 1942, she played the plum role of Tondelayo in the classic White Cargo (1942). After World War II, her career began to decline, and MGM decided it would be in the interest of all concerned if her contract were not renewed. Unfortunately for Hedy, she turned down the leads in both Gaslight (1940) and Casablanca (1942), both of which would have cemented her standing in the minds of the American public. In 1949, she starred as Delilah opposite Victor Mature's Samson in Cecil B. DeMille's epic Samson and Delilah (1949). This proved to be Paramount Pictures' then most profitable movie to date, bringing in $12 million in rental from theaters. The film's success led to more parts, but it was not enough to ease her financial crunch. She made only six more films between 1949 and 1957, the last being The Female Animal (1958).
Hedy retired to Florida. She died there, in the city of Casselberry, on January 19, 2000.- Actor
- Writer
- Soundtrack
Alec Guinness was an English actor. He is known for his six collaborations with David Lean: Herbert Pocket in Great Expectations (1946), Fagin in Oliver Twist (1948), Col. Nicholson in The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor), Prince Faisal in Lawrence of Arabia (1962), General Yevgraf Zhivago in Doctor Zhivago (1965), and Professor Godbole in A Passage to India (1984).
Guinness is really most remembered for his portrayal of Obi-Wan Kenobi in George Lucas' original Star Wars trilogy for which he receive a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.
In 1959, he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for services to the arts. In the 1970s, Guinness made regular television appearances in Britain, including the role of George Smiley in the serialisations of two novels by John le Carré: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (1979) and Smiley's People (1982). In 1980 he received the Academy Honorary Award for lifetime achievement.
Guinness was also one of three British actors, along with Laurence Olivier and John Gielgud, who made the transition from Shakespearean theatre in England to Hollywood blockbusters immediately after the Second World War.
Guinness died on 5 August 2000, from liver cancer, at Midhurst in West Sussex.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Marie Windsor (born Emily Marie Bertelsen) was born in Marysvale, Utah, and attended Brigham Young
University. She trained for the stage under Maria Ouspenskaya before she began
playing leading roles in B pictures in the late 1940s. So many B films in fact, that she garnered the title of 'Queen of the Bs'.
She was a talent - to paraphrase a cliché - of the right type and the right time. If film noir could have manufactured an archetype, it would most definitely have been Marie.
With Ms Windsor's bedroom eyes ('they didn't fit for a 'goody-goody wife, or a nice little girlfriend' ) she smouldered on screens, in scenes with John Garfield, and many others, in some of her best work. Marie's femme fatale (Ms Windsor was later quoted as saying a femme fatale is '...usually the woman who gets the man into bed... then into trouble') was on screen, most notably her role as the
manipulative, double-crossing wife of Elisha Cook Jr. in The Killing (1956) (which earned
her "Look" magazine's Best Supporting Actress award).
Marie later said she loved playing them because they're '... the type of character audience's never forget'.
Some of her favourites
amongst her own films, in addition to The Killing (1956), are The Narrow Margin (1952) and
Hellfire (1949).
Marie married was married twice before she met Jack Hupp, a realtor with whom she had a son.
After retiring from films, Marie took up sculpting and painting.
Marie passed away one day before her 81st birthday. She's interred with her husband in her hometown.
Marie said audience's 'loved to hate her', and this is only partially true; audience's love Ms Windsor for the dynamism she portrayed, and as film noir gains new fans every day - more than 3/4 of a century since their heyday, it's a love affair which shows no signs of abating.- Actor
- Writer
- Soundtrack
James Albert Varney, Jr. was born in Lexington, Kentucky, to Nancy
Louise (Howard) and James Albert Varney, Sr. He became interested in
theater as a teenager, winning state titles in drama competitions while
a student at Lafayette High School in Lexington, Kentucky. At age 15 he
played Ebeneezer Scrooge in a local children's theater production of "A
Christmas Carol", and by 17 was performing professionally in nightclubs
and coffee houses. He chose Nashville rather than New York or Los
Angeles as a place to pursue his acting career and, with advertising
executive John R. Cherry III, turned
"Ernest P. Worrell" into a cash cow, making commercials for clients
ranging from soft drinks to food stores and, eventually, Disney. Even
though Ernest's catchphrase "KnowhutImean?" became a national craze
almost immediately, Jim worked in TV and film for more than a decade
before his famous alter-ego hit the big screen in
Ernest Goes to Camp (1987).- Nancy Marchand's mother, a pianist, sent her shy daughter to acting
classes in hopes of breaking her out of her shell. As a student at
Carnegie Tech (Carnegie Mellon University), she studied the works of
William Shakespeare and the
other great playwrights and, upon graduation, set off for New York City.
She received acclaim in the part of the tavern hostess in Shakespeare's
"The Taming of the Shrew" at the City Center in 1951. Her list of
theater works include "The Cocktail Hour" and "The Balcony" (an Obie for both), "White Lies and Black Comedy" (Tony nominations for
both), "The Octette Bridge Club" and "Morning's at Seven". She worked
at many of the great theaters in the United States, including the
Brattle Theatre, Long Wharf, Lincoln Center Repertory Company and the
Goodman Theatre. During her illustrious theater career, she
won the role of Mrs. Pynchon in the TV series
Lou Grant (1977) with
Ed
Asner, for which she won four Emmys. Her last
accolade was her role as Livia Soprano in HBO's
The Sopranos (1999), for which
she won a Golden Globe. - Actress
- Music Department
- Soundtrack
Julie London recorded 32 albums during her career. Forced to give up band singing when her true age was discovered, she was primarily a torch singer. Her vocal range was described by "sultry" and "low-keyed". Her own favorite singers were Barbra Streisand and Roberta Flack.
She was known in some circles as "The Liberty Girl" for helping establish Liberty Records, where she began singing in 1955, as a successful label. Her many hit albums on that label include "Julie Is Her Name", "Calendar Girl" with some borderline erotic (for the time) cover photography by Gene Lester, "About the Blues", "Your Number, Please", "Send For Me", "Love Letters", "The End of the World", "In Person at the Americana", "The Wonderful World of Julie London" and the provocatively titled "Nice Girls Don't Stay for Breakfast".
Her most popular song, "Cry Me a River", was written by her former classmate/boyfriend Arthur Hamilton and produced by Bobby Troup. Her four most-sought-after and successful albums are "About the Blues (1957), "Feeling Good" (1965), "Easy Does It" (1968) and "Yummy, Yummy, Yummy" (1969). (Her version of "Yummy Yummy Yummy" was featured on the HBO television series Six Feet Under (2001).) Billboard Magazine named her the most popular female vocalist for 1955, 1956 and 1957".- Actor
- Soundtrack
Powerful and highly respected American actor Jason Nelson Robards, Jr.
was born in Chicago, Illinois, to Hope Maxine (Glanville) and stage and
film star Jason Robards Sr. He had
Swedish, English, Welsh, German, and Irish ancestry. Robards was raised
mostly in Los Angeles. A star athlete at Hollywood High School, he
served in the U.S. Navy in World War II, where he saw combat as a
radioman (though he is not listed in official rolls of Navy Cross
winners, despite the claims he and his public relations personnel made. Neither was he
at Pearl Harbor during the Dec. 7, 1941 attack, his ship being at sea
at the time.) Returning to civilian life, he attended the American
Academy of Dramatic Arts and struggled as a small-part actor in local
New York theatre, TV and radio before shooting to fame on the New York
stage in Eugene O'Neill's "The Iceman Cometh" as Hickey. He followed
that with another masterful O'Neill portrayal, as the alcoholic Jamie
Tyrone in "Long Day's Journey Into Night" on Broadway. He entered
feature films in The Journey (1959)
and rose rapidly to even greater fame as a film star. Robards won
consecutive Academy Awards for Best Supporting Actor for
All the President's Men (1976)
and Julia (1977), in each case playing
real-life people. He continued to work on the stage, winning continued
acclaim in such O'Neill works as "Moon For the Misbegotten" and
"Hughie." Robards died of lung cancer in 2000.- Patricia Owens was born in Golden, British Columbia, in 1925. When she
was eight she moved to England, where she embarked on a number of stage
plays. Later she was spotted by a Twentieth Century-Fox executive, who
offered her a contract, and in 1956 she went to Hollywood. There she met
Sy Bartlett, whom she married and later divorced in 1958. Warner
Brothers spotted her acting abilities in the classic "Island in the
Sun" and in 1957 asked Fox if she could be loaned out for a part in the
Marlon Brando classic "Sayonara". She received kudos in that film for her
performance as the distraught, scorned fiancée of Brando. It was not
until 1958, though, when she achieved her greatest role, as
the tormented Helene Delambre in the Fox classic "The Fly". The image
of her as seen through the fly's compound eyes is considered one of the classic
moments in the history of science fiction films. It was during the time that "The Fly" was being made that she was trying to reconcile with Bartlett, but it did not
happen. Patricia went on to play in other films, but did not achieve
the status she deserved and continued to star in B Pictures and
television roles. In 1960 she married real estate developer Jerome
"Jerry" Nathanson. The marriage was short-lived but produced Patricia's
only child, Adam, who helped with this biography. Patricia was also
married to John Austin for six years, from 1969 to 1975. Sadly, she died
in 2000 from cancer. - Actress
- Additional Crew
- Art Department
Gwen Verdon was born to the theater. Her mother, Gertrude, was a
vaudevillian and dancer. Her father, Joseph, was an MGM studio
electrician. She had to wear corrective boots as a child to straighten
out her legs, which were misshapen by childhood illness. Nonetheless,
she first appeared as a tapper on stage at age 6. She got her break in
Bob Fosse's "Damn Yankees" in 1955. She
married Fosse in 1960 and separated from him, although never divorcing
him, in the
mid-'70s. More
stage and screen work quickly followed with highlights in "New Girl In
Town", "Redhead", "Sweet Charity", and "Chicago". She and her daughter,
Nicole Fosse,
created the current stage musical "Fosse". Upon her death, Broadway
dimmed all of its marquee lights in tribute.- Actor
- Director
- Writer
Born in London, England, John Gielgud trained at Lady Benson's Acting
School and RADA, London. Best known for his Shakespearean roles in the
theater, he first played Hamlet at the age of 26. He worked under the
tutelage of Lilian Bayliss with friend and fellow performer
Laurence Olivier and other
contemporaries of the National Theatre at the "Old Vic", London. He
made his screen debut in 1924. Academy Award Best Supporting Actor,
1981, for Arthur (1981), Academy Award
Nomination, 1964, for Becket (1964).- Actress
- Soundtrack
Claire Trevor was born Claire Wemlinger in the Bensonhurst section of Brooklyn, New York, the only child of Fifth Avenue merchant-tailor Noel Wemlinger, an immigrant Frenchman from Paris who lost his business during the Depression, and his Belfast-born wife, Benjamina, known as "Betty". Young Claire's interest in acting began when she was 11 years old. She attended high school in Mamaroneck, Westchester County, New York. After starting classes at Columbia University, she spent six months at the American Academy of Dramatic
Arts, also in New York. Her adult acting experience began in the late 1920s in several stock productions; she appeared
with Robert Henderson's Repertory Players in Ann Arbor, Michigan in 1930. That same year, aged 20, she signed with Warner Bros. Not too far from her home haunts was Vitagraph Studios in Brooklyn, the last and best of the early sound process studios, which had been acquired by Warner Bros. in 1925 to become Vitaphone. Trevor appeared in several of the nearly 2000 shorts cranked out by the studio between 1926 and 1930. Then she was sent west to do ten weeks of stock productions with other contract players in St. Louis. In 1931 she did summer stock with the Hampton Players in Southampton, Long Island. Finally, she debuted on Broadway in 1932 in "Whistling in the Dark".
Trevor moved to the silver screen, debuting in the western Life in the Raw (1933). There would be three more films (one more western) that year and six or more through the 1930s. Although she had been typed playing gun molls and hard-case women of the world, she displayed her already considerable versatility in these early films, often playing competent, take-charge professional women as well as "shady" ladies. There was a disappointed-pout-vulnerability in her face and that famous slightly New York-burred voice that cracked with a little cry when heightened by emotion that quickly revealed an unusual and sensitive performer. Many of her early films were "B" potboilers, but she worked with Spencer Tracy on several occasions, notably Dante's Inferno (1935).
Hollywood finally took notice of her talents by nominating her for a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her standout performance as a slum girl forced by poverty into prostitution in Dead End (1937), opposite Humphrey Bogart. That same year she did the radio drama "Big Town" with Edward G. Robinson, then teamed with he and Bogart again for the slightly hokey but entertaining The Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse (1938). Director John Ford tapped her for his first big sound Western film, Stagecoach (1939), the film that made a star of John Wayne. All her abilities to bring complexity to a character showed in her kicked-around dance hall girl "Dallas", one of the great early female roles. She and Wayne were electric, and they were paired in three more films during their careers.
In the 1940s, Trevor began appearing in the genre that brought her to true stardom: "film noir". She started in a big way as killer Ruth Dillon in Street of Chance (1942) with Burgess Meredith. She was equally convincing as the more complex but nonetheless two-faced Mrs. Grayle in the Philip Marlowe vehicle Murder, My Sweet (1944). However, she was something very different and quite extraordinary as
washed-up, hopelessly alcoholic former nightclub singer and moll Gaye Dawn in Key Largo (1948), for which she won an Academy Award as Best Supporting Actress, again working with Bogart and Robinson. Her pitiful rendition of the torch song "Moanin' Low", which her character was forced to sing, humiliatingly, for the sadistic crime boss played by Robinson (to whom she is, figuratively speaking, permanently tethered) in exchange for a desperately needed drink. There were more quality movies and an additional Academy nomination (The High and the Mighty (1954)) into the 1950s,, but she also was doing work on stage and in television.
She was enthusiastic about live TV and appeared on several famous shows by the mid-1950s. She won an Emmy for Best Live Television Performance by an Actress as the flighty wife of Fredric March in NBC's Dodsworth (1956). She alternated her career among film, stage and TV roles. As she aged she easily transitioned into "distinguished matron" and mother roles, one of her most unusual ones being the murderous Ma Barker in Ma Barker and Her Boys (1959). Her final film role was as Sally Field's mother in Kiss Me Goodbye (1982).
Trevor and her third husband, producer Milton H. Bren, had long been residents of tony Newport Beach, California, to which they returned when she finally retired from screen work. However, she did maintain an active interest in stage work, and became associated with the University of California-Irvine's School of Arts. She and her husband contributed some $10 million to further its development for the visual and performing arts (that included three endowed professorships). After her passing in April 2000 at 90 years of age, the University renamed the school The Claire Trevor School of the Arts. Her presence on the UCI campus is in more than spirit alone. She donated her Oscar and her Emmy to UCI; both are on display in the arts plaza at the campus theatre that bears her name.- Actress
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Sweet, sweeter, sweetest. No combination of terms better describes the
screen persona of lovely Loretta Young. A&E's
Biography (1987) has stated that
Young "remains a symbol of beauty, serenity, and grace. But behind the
glamour and stardom is a woman of substance whose true beauty lies in
her dedication to her family, her faith, and her quest to live life
with a purpose."
Loretta Young was born Gretchen Young in Salt Lake City, Utah on
January 6, 1913, to Gladys (Royal) and John Earle Young. Her parents
separated when Loretta was three years old. Her mother moved Loretta
and her two older sisters to Southern California, where Mrs. Young ran
a boarding house. When Loretta was 10, her mother married one of her
boarders, George Belzer. They had a daughter, Georgianna, two years
later.
Loretta was appearing on screen as a child extra by the time she was
four, joining her elder sisters,
Polly Ann Young and Elizabeth Jane Young
(later better known as Sally Blane), as
child players. Mrs. Young's brother-in-law was an assistant director
and got young Loretta a small role in the film
The Only Way (1914). The role
consisted of nothing more than a small, weeping child lying on an
operating table. Later that year, she appeared in another small role,
in The Primrose Ring (1917).
The film starred Mae Murray, who was
so taken with little Loretta that she offered to adopt her. Loretta
lived with the Murrays for about a year and a half. In 1921, she had a
brief scene in The Sheik (1921).
Loretta and her sisters attended parochial schools, after which they
helped their mother run the boarding house. In 1927, Loretta returned
to films in a small part in
Naughty But Nice (1927). Even at
the age of fourteen, she was an ambitious actress. Changing her name to
Loretta Young, letting her blond hair revert to its natural brown and
with her green eyes, satin complexion and exquisite face, she quickly
graduated from ingenue to leading lady. Beginning with her role as
Denise Laverne in
The Magnificent Flirt (1928),
she shaped any character she took on with total dedication. In 1928,
she received second billing in
The Head Man (1928) and continued to
toil in many roles throughout the '20s and '30s, making anywhere from
six to nine films a year. Her two sisters were also actresses but were
not as successful as Loretta, whose natural beauty was her distinct
advantage.
The 17-year-old Young made headlines in 1930 when she and
Grant Withers, who was previously married
and nine years her senior, eloped to Yuma, Arizona. They had both appeared in Warner Bros.'
The Second Floor Mystery (1930).
The marriage was annulled in 1931, the same year in which the pair
would again co-star on screen in a film ironically titled
Too Young to Marry (1931). By
the mid-'30s, Loretta left First National Studios for rival Fox, where
she had previously worked on a loan-out basis, and became one of the
premier leading ladies of Hollywood.
In 1935, she made
Call of the Wild (1935)
with Clark Gable and it was thought they had an
affair where Loretta got pregnant thereafter. Because of the strict morality
clauses in their contracts - and the fact that
Clark Gable was married - they could
not tell anybody except Loretta's mother. Loretta and her mother left
for Europe after filming on The Crusades finished. They returned in August 1935 to the United States, at which time Gladys Belzer announced Loretta's 'illness' to the press. Filming on Loretta's next film, Ramona, was also cancelled. During this time, Loretta was living in a small house in Venice, California, her mother rented. On November 6, 1935, Loretta delivered a healthy baby girl whom she named Judith. It wasn't until the 1990s when she was watching Larry King Live where she first heard the word 'date rape' and upon finding out exactly what it was, professed to her friend and biographer Edward Funk and her daughter-in-law Linda Lewis, that she had gone through the same with Clark Gable. "That's what happened between me and Clark."
In 1938, Loretta starred as Sally Goodwin in
Kentucky (1938), an outstanding success.
Her co-star Walter Brennan won the
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as Peter Goodwin.
In 1940, Loretta married businessman
Tom Lewis, and from then on her
child was called Judy Lewis, although
Tom Lewis never adopted her. Judy
was brought up thinking that both parents had adopted her and did not
know, until years later, that she was actually the biological daughter
of Loretta and Clark Gable. Four
years after her marriage to
Tom Lewis, Loretta had a son,
Christopher Lewis, and later
another son, Peter Charles.
In the 1940s, Loretta was still one of the most beautiful ladies in
Hollywood. She reached the pinnacle of her career when she won the
Academy Award for Best Actress in
The Farmer's Daughter (1947),
the tale of a farm girl who rises through the ranks and becomes a
congresswoman. It was a smash and today is her best remembered film.
The same year, she starred in the delightful fantasy
The Bishop's Wife (1947) with
David Niven and
Cary Grant. It was another box office
success and continues to be a TV staple during the holiday season. In
1949, Loretta starred in the well-received film,
Mother Is a Freshman (1949)
with Van Johnson and
Rudy Vallee and
Come to the Stable (1949). The
latter garnered Loretta her second Oscar nomination, but she lost to
Olivia de Havilland in
The Heiress (1949). In 1953, Loretta
made
It Happens Every Thursday (1953),
which was to be her final big screen role.
She retired from films in 1953 and began a second, equally successful
career as hostess of
The Loretta Young Show (1953), a
half-hour television drama anthology series which ran on NBC from
September 1953 to September 1961. In addition to hosting the series,
she frequently starred in episodes. Although she is most remembered for
her stunning gowns and swirling entrances, over the broadcast's
eight-year run she also showed again that she could act. She won Emmy
awards for best actress in a dramatic series in 1954, 1956 and 1958.
After the show ended, she took some time off before returning in 1962
with
The New Loretta Young Show (1962),
which was not so successful, lasting only one season. For the next 24
years, Loretta did not appear in any entertainment medium. Her final
performance was in a made for TV film
Lady in the Corner (1989).
By 1960, Loretta was a grandmother. Her daughter
Judy Lewis had married about three
years before and had a daughter in 1959, whom they named Maria. Loretta
and Tom Lewis divorced in the early
1960s. Loretta enjoyed retirement, sleeping late, visiting her son Chris and daughter-in-law Linda, and traveling. She and her friend Josephine Alicia Saenz, ex-wife of John Wayne,
traveled to India and saw the Taj Mahal. In 1990, she became a
great-grandmother when granddaughter Maria, daughter of
Judy Lewis, gave birth to a boy.
Loretta lived a quiet retirement in Palm Springs, California until her
death on August 12, 2000 from ovarian cancer at the home of her sister
Georgiana and Georgiana's husband,
Ricardo Montalban.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Green-eyed beauty Jean Elizabeth Peters flashed across the screen as a
bright star during her relatively brief tenure in Hollywood. After just
seven years under contract to 20th Century-Fox (1947-54), she
joined in the reclusive lifestyle of her eccentric billionaire husband,
Howard Hughes, and all but
vanished from public view.
Jean was born in Canton, Ohio, in October of 1926. Her father died when she was ten years old. Her mother owned a
tourist camp on the outskirts of town and there was enough money around
to send Jean to college. She received the latter part of her tertiary
education at Ohio State University and graduated with a diploma
qualifying her as an English teacher. A campus popularity contest she won ended her plans as an English teacher because it came with a trip to
Hollywood and a screen test. In short order, "Miss Ohio State
University" was offered a seven-year contract at 20th Century-Fox
with a starting salary of $150 a week.
After being picked by Darryl F. Zanuck
to co-star opposite Tyrone Power in the
studio's splashy big-budget swashbuckler
Captain from Castile (1947),
Jean came to the attention of Howard Hughes. She discreetly dated
him for the remainder of the decade and continued to live an
unpretentious lifestyle, rarely seen in public and eschewing the
Hollywood nightlife and parties. A self-confessed tomboy, she rarely
wore make-up in private and preferred to dress in jeans rather than
glamorous gowns. She and her mother lived in a smallish bungalow in
Bel-Air, paid for by Hughes. After relative success in her second
feature, Deep Waters (1948), she
became increasingly dissatisfied with the prissy roles she was assigned
in her subsequent efforts. She was no shrinking violet when it came to
defending her interests: she refused outright to appear in Yellow Sky (1948) (a part she thought
as "too sexy") and Sand (1949), and her contract was
consequently terminated. She returned to farm life in
Ohio, but was back in New York in 1951 to be screen-tested by
Elia Kazan for the epic biopic of Mexican revolutionary hero Emiliano Zapata in Viva Zapata! (1952), shot on
location in Mexico with Marlon Brando in
the lead.
Fox wisely used Jean during the next few years for similarly
unglamorous outdoor roles, notably as the titular heroine of
Anne of the Indies (1951), a
tempestuous girl living in the Georgia swamps in
Lure of the Wilderness (1952), a gum-chewing dame innocently involved in espionage in Samuel Fuller's Pickup on South Street (1953)
and as Burt Lancaster's Indian squaw in
the hard-hitting western Apache (1954).
She got good notices in all of these films and was now recognized as
a major star. As a result, she was cast in the prestigious film noir
Niagara (1953), opposite
Joseph Cotten and
Marilyn Monroe (both of whom she
befriended) and the Spencer Tracy
western Broken Lance (1954). Under a
new contract with Fox, Jean was now no longer in a position to refuse
an assignment and, though basically unhappy with her part in
Three Coins in the Fountain (1954), the picture
proved to be one of her most popular pictures to date. Her next film,
A Man Called Peter (1955), was
to be her swan song. Following a 33-day marriage to a Texan oilman
which ended in a whirlwind divorce, Jean finally married Howard Hughes
in a secret ceremony and left public life for the next 13 years.
She never gave interviews and retreated to an isolated hilltop mansion
above the Santa Monica Mountains. In 1969 she resurfaced, studying for
a degree in sociology at UCLA under an assumed name.
When Jean's marriage to Hughes ended in June 1971, the actress settled
for the relatively modest sum of $70,000 a year and happily waived any
further claims on the estate. That same year she got married for the
third time, to 20th Century-Fox vice-president
Stan Hough. Her screen career was
briefly resuscitated when she was cast in the miniseries
Arthur Hailey's the Moneychangers (1976)
and she was last seen in an episode of
Murder, She Wrote (1984).
She devoted her final years to charitable causes and never spoke in
public about her years with Howard Hughes.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Larry Linville was born on 29 September 1939 in Ojai, California, USA. He was an actor, known for M*A*S*H (1972), Paper Dolls (1984) and Mannix (1967). He was married to Deborah Guydon, Susan Hagan, Melissa Gallant, Vaughn Taylor and Kate Geer. He died on 10 April 2000 in New York City, New York, USA.- Born in Plano, Texas, Christopher Pettiet began career as a child
actor making appearances in television series, made-for-television
movies and films. He starred in two hit flicks, Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead (1991) and Point Break (1991), and then joined the cast of the
Western TV series The Young Riders (1989) as a young Jesse James. After the
cancellation of The Young Riders, his acting career began to wane.
According to his manager, Bob Villard, Chris was just about
"impoverished", living on "small residual check(s)". He went to a couple of AA meetings and never admitted to a drug
problem. Sadly, he died of an accidental drug overdose, just two months
after his 24th birthday. - Actor
- Stunts
- Soundtrack
An American stuntman who, after more than 30 years in the business,
moved into acting and became an acclaimed and respected character
actor, Richard Farnsworth was a native of Los Angeles. He grew up
around horses and as a teenager was offered an opportunity to ride in
films. He appeared in horse-racing scenes and cavalry charges unbilled,
first as a general rider and later as a stuntman. His riding and
stunting skills gained him regular work doubling stars ranging from
Roy Rogers to
Gary Cooper, and he often doubled
the bad guy as well. Although. like most stuntmen, he was occasionally
given a line or two of dialogue, it was not until Farnsworth was over
50 that his natural talent for acting and his ease and warmth before
the camera became apparent. When he won an Academy Award nomination for
his role in
Comes a Horseman (1978), it came
as a surprise to many in the industry that this "newcomer" had been
around since the 1930s. Farnsworth followed his Oscar nomination with a
number of finely wrought performances, including
The Grey Fox (1982) and
The Natural (1984). In 1999 he came
out of semi-retirement for a tour-de-force portrayal in
The Straight Story (1999).- Actor
- Writer
Big, burly character actor, one of the toughest of screen heavies. New York-born Leo Gordon's combination of a powerful physique, deep, menacing voice and icy, withering glare was guaranteed to strike fear into the heart of even the bravest screen hero. Director Don Siegel, who used Gordon in his prison film Riot in Cell Block 11 (1954), once said that "Leo Gordon was the scariest man I have ever met"--this coming from a man who had directed
John Wayne, Clint Eastwood and Bette Midler! Siegel wasn't talking about just Gordon's screen presence. As a "heavy", Gordon was the real deal--before becoming an actor (he studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts), Gordon served five years in San Quentin State Prison for armed robbery (during which he was shot several times point-blank by police--and survived). "Riot in Cell Block 11" was filmed at Folsom State Prison--where Gordon also served time--and the Folsom warden remembered him as a troublemaker.At first he refused to allow the film to be shot there if Gordon was to be in it, but Siegel was able to convince him that Gordon was no threat to the prison.
Contrary to his image, though, Gordon was not just a one-note villain. He did play sympathetic parts on occasion, notably in the western Black Patch (1957)--which he also wrote--and in Roger Corman's civil rights drama The Intruder (1962), and turned in first-rate performances, especially in the latter film. Gordon was also a screenwriter, turning out several screenplays for Corman. He wasn't just limited to writing low-budget sci-fi films, either; he penned the screenplay for the WWII epic Tobruk (1967), writing in a meaty part for himself as Kruger, a tough sergeant in a platoon of German Jews masquerading as Nazi soldiers to help blow up a German oil storage facility.
Leo Gordon died in Los Angeles, CA, in 2000 at age 78 of heart failure.- Actor
- Writer
Though he did not possess a Herculean acting talent by any stretch,
handsome bodybuilder Steve Reeves certainly had an enviable Herculean
physique, and made plenty good use of it in Europe during the late
1950s and early 1960s portraying some of filmdom's most famous bronzed
gods. Reeves was originally a Montana boy born on a cattle ranch in
1926. His destiny was revealed early in the game when, at the age of
six months, he won his first fitness title as "Healthiest Baby of
Valley County." His father Lester died in a farming accident when Steve
was just a boy, and his family moved to Oakland (California). He first
developed an interest in bodybuilding while in high school.
Steve joined the Army in his late teens where his job was loading
boxcars and trucks. He also worked out loyally at the gym during his
free time and the combination helped develop his body quite rapidly.
Following Army service (he served for a time in the Pacific), he
decided to pursue bodybuilding professionally. In 1946, at the age of
20, he won "Mr. Pacific Coast" in Oregon, which led to his titles of
"Mr. Western America" (1947), Mr. America" (1947), "Mr. World" (1948)
and, ultimately, "Mr. Universe" (1950).
With all the body-worshiping publicity he garnered, he decided to
travel to New York to study and pursue acting. He subsequently returned
to California...and Hollywood. There were not huge opportunities for a
muscleman in Tinseltown other than providing pectoral background. Steve
was, however, considered for the lead role in Cecil B. DeMille's biblical
costumer Samson and Delilah (1949), but refused when told by the legendary director he
would have to lose some of his musculature (about 15 lbs.). The part
instead went to Victor Mature. Steve did manage to snag the role of a
detective in infamous director Edward D. Wood Jr.'s Jail Bait (1954). Small parts on TV
also came his way, but they too were mostly posing bits or walk-ons. To
the Hollywood power players, Steve was just a body. Whether he could
act or not was not a concern or selling point. Fans just wanted to see
him take his shirt off.
Down on his luck, Steve's fortunes change when Italian film director
Pietro Francisci saw him play Jane Powell's boyfriend in the feature film Athena (1954)
and persuaded him to go overseas to star in Hercules (1958) (US title:
"Hercules"). Though critics dismissed the film as "muddled mythology"
while denigrating its cheapjack production values (including a
poorly-dubbed sound track), the public went crazy over the
sword-and-sandal epic and, in particular, Steve's marvelous beefcake
heroics. He became an "overnight" star. Sequels followed, none any
better or worse, with him going through the paces as a number
absurdly-muscled biblical and mythological figures. An able horseman,
he also performed many of his own stunts. Moreover, he paved the way
for other pumped-up acting hopefuls (Ed Fury, Mark Forest, Reg Park) to seek
their fame and fortune in Italy as a feature-length Samson, Ursus or
Colossus. Nobody, however, came close to topping Steve in popularity.
A shoulder injury forced Steve's retirement, spending the remainder of
his life promoting steroid-free bodybuilding while living on a ranch
and breeding horses. The more recent bodybuilders of fame such as
Arnold Schwarzenegger and Lou Ferrigno, both Hercules impersonators of yore, have given
Steve significant credit for their respective acting successes. Married
twice, Steve died in Southern California of lymphoma on May 1, 2000, at
age 74.- Actor
- Director
- Additional Crew
Billy Barty was born William John Bertanzetti on October 25, 1924 in
Millsboro, Pennsylvania. He began performing at age three and began
making pictures in 1927. He played
Mickey Rooney's little brother in
the "Mickey McGuire" comedy shorts series. He was equally adept in both
comedy and drama, and generally gives an added zest to any production
he is associated with. He founded the Little People of America in 1957
and the Billy Barty Foundation in 1975. He possessed an immense talent
and energetic charm that added a much needed shot in the arm to many
series and films. Billy Barty died at age 76 of heart failure on
December 23, 2000 in Glendale, California.- Actor
- Soundtrack
John Colicos was born on 10 December 1928 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He was an actor, known for The Changeling (1980), Battlestar Galactica (1978) and Anne of the Thousand Days (1969). He was married to Mona McHenry. He died on 6 March 2000 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Born in Liberty, Missouri, as Gail Shikles Jr., tall, suave Craig
Stevens will forever be remembered for his role as the cool, laid-back
private eye Peter Gunn (1958), a ground-breaking show that ushered in the era of
tough but smooth private eyes who were handy with their fists and with
the ladies, and which also pioneered the use of jazz as not only
background music but its main theme song. Stevens was attending Kansas
University and planning a career in dentistry when he began performing
in student plays at the university. Bitten by the acting bug, he moved
to California, and in 1941 was signed by Warner Bros., where he met his
future wife, Alexis Smith. Although never a front-rank star, Stevens played
many second-leads through the 1940s and 1950s. Sci-fi fans will know
him best as the lead in the somewhat cult-classic The Deadly Mantis (1957). With his
film career in a rut, he moved over to television, and it was there he
made his mark in the landmark "Peter Gunn" series. He made many
guest-starring appearances in TV series over the years, had
recurring roles in such series as Dallas (1978) and starred in ITC's Man of the World (1962). He retired after
a role in his old friend Blake Edwards' 1981 film S.O.B. (1981).- Actor
- Soundtrack
Originally a student of playwriting at Columbia University, Richard Mulligan began his acting career in regional theater and soon after made his Broadway debut in the Pulitzer Prize-winning play "All the Way Home". In addition to his continuing Broadway career, Mulligan had successfully transferred his unique comedic talents to film and television. On the big screen, he had appeared in such films as Little Big Man (1970), The Big Bus (1976), Teachers (1984) and The Heavenly Kid (1985). He had also performed in a number of Blake Edwards' films, including S.O.B. (1981), Trail of the Pink Panther (1982), Micki + Maude (1984) and A Fine Mess (1986). Mulligan had made numerous guest-starring television appearances, but it was his role as Burt Campbell in Witt-Thomas-Harris' offbeat sitcom Soap (1977) that earned him his first Emmy Award. He also starred in the short-lived sitcom Reggie (1983). His movie-of-the-week and miniseries credits include Pueblo (1973), Poker Alice (1987), Harvey (1996) and the acclaimed Guess Who's Coming for Christmas? (1990) with Beau Bridges. He was the brother of director Robert Mulligan.- Actor
- Soundtrack
David Tomlinson is best known for his role as George Banks in Walt Disney's
Mary Poppins (1964). As a youth he spent a short spell in the guards. He joined the RAF in WW2 where he
survived the trauma of a plane crash on his first solo flight due to engine failure, then becoming a flying instructor for the remainder of the war. He began his film career in the
pre-war British film Quiet Wedding (1941) and followed that with Leslie Howard's 'Pimpernel' Smith (1941).
Altogether he has made over 50 films and on stage he has had
long-running successes in many plays including "The Little Hut" with
Robert Morley and Roger Moore as his understudy. During the 1930s he understudied
Alec Guinness. By the time he went to Hollywood to make Mary Poppins (1964) he was a veteran film and stage actor. David returned to Disney to great success in The Love Bug (1969) and Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971). David was close friends with Errol Flynn, Robert Morley and Peter Sellers. He
also spent time with Walt Disney whilst they discussed his role in Mary Poppins (1964).
He retired in the early 1980s after an exemplary career on film and
stage, and will always be remembered as one of the centuries greatest
character actors.- Nicholas Clay was an English actor, most famous for playing the legendary knight Lancelot du Lac (Lancelot of the Lake) in the medieval fantasy film "Excalibur" (1981).
Clay was born in London.His father was a professional soldier, who served in the Corps of Royal Engineers (nicknamed "Sappers"). The Clay family eventually settled in Kent, where Clay was raised. Clay became interested in acting as a teenager, and performed with the Little Medway Theatre Club. He was later formally educated at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA).
Clay made his film debut in the science fiction horror film "The Damned" (1963), concerning children with a mutation which makes them resistant to nuclear fallout. He was only 17-years-old at the time. He remained a theatrical actor for the rest of the 1960s.
Clay's next film role was that of handyman Billy Jarvis in the thriller "The Night Digger" (1971). In the film, Jarvis represented a threat to the film's female protagonists Maura and Edith Prince (played respectively by Patricia Neal and Pamela Brown). Clay's first leading role was that of naturalist Charles Darwin (1809-1882) in the biographical film "The Darwin Adventure" (1972),
Clay returned to the horror genre in the film "Terror of Frankenstein" (1977). He played Henry Clerval, the best friend of Victor Frankenstein. Clay found a notable role in the television miniseries "Will Shakespeare" (1978), where he played Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton (1573-1624). In real-life poet William Shakespeare had dedicated two narrative poems to Wriothesley: "Venus and Adonis" and "The Rape of Lucrece". Wriothesley is also mentioned in Shakespeare's Sonnets, under the name of the "Fair Youth", as a subject of the poet's admiration.
Clay played Lieutenant Raw in the war film "Zulu Dawn" (1979), which depicted the historical Battle of Isandlwana (1879). The film was released at the centennial of the battle. Clay had key roles in two Arthurian films released in 1981, playing Lancelot du Lac in "Excalibur" and Tristan in "Lovespell". Both Lancelot and Tristan were knights of Arthurian legends, known for their romantic affairs with married women. Lancelot was romantically involved with Queen Guinevere (Arthur's wife), and Tristan was romantically involved with his aunt-by-marriage Iseult of Ireland (wife of his uncle Mark of Cornwall).
Clay had another romantic role as gamekeeper Oliver Mellors in "Lady Chatterley's Lover" (1981), an adaptation of the 1928 novel David Herbert Lawrence (1885-1930). Both the novel and its film adaptation portrayed a love affair between Mellors and the wife of of his employer, Constance Reid, Lady Chatterley.
Clay next found a leading role in television as the historical monarch Alexander the Great, King of Macedon (356-323 BC, reigned 336-323 BC) in the miniseries "The Search for Alexander the Great". Next he appeared in a couple of crime novel adaptations. He played murder suspect Patrick Redfern in the mystery film "Evil Under the Sun" (1982), based on the 1941 novel by Agatha Christie. He also played murder suspect Jack Stapleton in the television film The Hound of the Baskervilles" (1983), based on the 1902 novel by Arthur Conan Doyle.
Clay next had a supporting role in another literary adaption. He played the Greek nobleman Glaucus in the miniseries "The Last Days of Pompeii" (1984), an adaptation of the 1834 novel by Edward Bulwer-Lytton. He had a guest star role as Dr. Percy Trevelyan in a 1985 episode of "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes". The episode was an adaptation of the short story "The Adventure of the Resident Patient" (1893), where Trevelyan was Sherlock Holmes' client.
Clay played the Prince in the fantasy film "Sleeping Beauty" (1987), based on the traditional fairy tale recorded by both Charles Perrault and the Brothers Grimm. He next played nobleman Charles De Montfort in the Crusade-themed adventure film "Lionheart" (1987). This was his last role in a feature film.
In the same year, Clay played the historical figure Alexis Mdivani (1905-1935) in the television film "Poor Little Rich Girl: The Barbara Hutton Story" (1987). The real-life Mdivani was a Georgian nobleman who married American heiress Barbara Hutton (1912-1979). He was killed in an automobile accident when only 30-years-old.
Clay's last notable role in the 1980s was that of self-made businessman Mike Savage in the dramatic television series "Gentlemen and Players" (1988-1989). The series focused on an intense personal rivalry between Savage and "blue-blooded" businessman Miles "Bo" Beaufort (played by Brian Protheroe). It lasted 2 seasons, and a total of 13 episodes.
In the 1990s, Clay taught drama at the Actors' Centre and the Academy of Live and Performing Arts, and became an associate Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. His career declined, and he mostly appeared in television roles. He had guest-star roles in then-popular television series, such as "Zorro", "The New Adventures of Robin Hood", and "Highlander: The Series".
His last substantial television roles were that of mythological king Menelaus of Sparta in the miniseries "The Odyssey" (1997), and Lord Leo in the Arthurian miniseries "Merlin" (1998). His last recurring role was that of Dr. Angus Harvey in the controversial medical drama "Psychos" (1999) which only lasted 6 episodes. The series was at the time accused of reinforcing stereotypes and prejudice towards people involved in mental health.
Clay died in May 2000, suffering from liver cancer. He was 53-years-old. He was interred in the graveyard of St Peter's Church, Sibton, Suffolk. He was survived by his wife, actress Lorna Heilbron. The couple had two daughters. - Gloria Talbott was born in the Los Angeles suburb of Glendale, a city
co-founded by her great grandfather, Benjamin Franklin Nye Patterson. Growing up in the shadows of the
Hollywood studios, her interests inevitably turned to acting, with the
result that she participated in school plays and landed small parts in
films such as "Maytime" (1937), "Sweet and Lowdown" (1943) and "A Tree
Grows in Brooklyn" (1945). After leaving school, she started her own
dramatic group and played "arena"-style shows at various clubs. After a
three-year hiatus (marriage, motherhood and divorce), Talbott resumed
her career, working extensively in both TV and films. Her sister is
actress Lori Talbott. - Actor
- Stunts
- Director
George Montgomery was boxing champion at the University of Montana where he majored in architecture and interior design. Dropping out a year later he decided to take up boxing more seriously. He moved to California where he was coached by ex-heavyweight world champion James J. Jeffries. While in Hollywood, he came to the attention of the studios (not least, because he was an expert rider) and was hired as a stuntman in 1935. After doing this for four years, George was offered a contract at 20th Century Fox in 1939, but found himself largely confined to leads in B-westerns. He did not secure a part in anything even remotely like a prestige picture until his co-starring role in Roxie Hart (1942), opposite Ginger Rogers. Next, in Orchestra Wives (1942), he played the perfunctory love interest for Ann Rutherford, though both, inevitably, ended up playing second trombone to Glenn Miller and His Orchestra.
In 1947, George got his first serious break, being cast as Raymond Chandler's private eye Philip Marlowe in The Brasher Doubloon (1947).
Reviewers, however, compared his performance unfavorably with that of Humphrey Bogart and found the film "pallid" overall. So it was back in the saddle for George. Unable to shake his image as a cowboy actor he starred in scores of films with titles like
Belle Starr's Daughter (1948), Dakota Lil (1950), Jack McCall, Desperado (1953), and Masterson of Kansas (1954) at Columbia, and for producer Edward Small at
United Artists. When not cleaning up the Wild West with his six-shooter, he branched out into adventure films set in exotic locales
(notably as Harry Quartermain in Watusi (1959)). During the 60s, he also wrote, directed and starred in several long-forgotten, low-budget wartime potboilers made in the Philippines.
At the height of his popularity, George attracted as much publicity for his acting as for his liaisons with glamorous stars, like Ginger
Rogers, Hedy Lamarr (to whom he was briefly engaged) and singer Dinah Shore (whom he married in 1943). After his retirement from the film business, he devoted himself to his love of painting, furniture-making and sculpting bronze busts, including one of his close friend Ronald Reagan.- Actor
- Music Department
- Soundtrack
Born in Kansas, Max Showalter picked up
the "acting bug" as a toddler when mother used to take him to the local
theater where she played the piano for silent movies. He acted in 92
shows at the Pasadena Playhouse between 1935 and
'38, made his Broadway debut under the aegis of
Oscar Hammerstein II
in "Knights of Song" and acted for two years in the cast of
Irving Berlin's traveling musical
"This Is the Army." In addition to his films, TV appearances (over
1000), and stage shows, Showalter was a composer, a songwriter, and
pianist. In his later years he lived in an 18th-century farmhouse in
the Connecticut town he fell in love with while shooting the movie
It Happened to Jane (1959).- Actor
- Producer
- Production Manager
Although he appeared in approximately 100 movies or TV shows, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. never really
intended to take up acting as a career. However, the environment he was
born into and the circumstances naturally led him to be a thespian.
Noblesse oblige.
He was born Douglas Elton Fairbanks, Jr. in New York City, New York, to Anna Beth (Sully), daughter of a very wealthy cotton mogul, and actor Douglas Fairbanks (born Douglas Elton Thomas Ullman), then not yet established as the swashbuckling idol he would become. Fairbanks, Jr. had German Jewish (from his paternal grandfather), English, and Scottish ancestry.
He proved a gifted boy early in life. To the end of his life he remained a
multi-talented, hyperactive man, not content to appear in the 100 films
mentioned above. Handsome, distinguished and extremely bright, he
excelled at sports (much like his father), notably during his stay at
the Military Academy in 1919 (his role in
Claude Autant-Lara's "L'athlète
incomplete" illustrated these abilities). He also excelled
academically, and attended the Lycéee Janson de Sailly in Paris, where
he had followed his divorced mother. Very early in his life he
developed a taste for the arts as well and became a painter and
sculptor. Not content to limiting himself to just one field, he became
involved in business, in fields as varied as mining, hotel management,
owning a chain of bowling alleys and a firm that manufactured popcorn.
During World War II he headed London's Douglas Voluntary Hospital (an
establishment taking care of war refugees), was President
Franklin D. Roosevelt's
special envoy for the Special Mission to South America in 1940 before
becoming a lieutenant in the Navy (he was promoted to the rank of
captain in 1954) and taking part in the Allies' landing in Sicily and
Elba in 1943. A fervent Anglophile, was knighted in 1949 and often
entertained Queen Elizabeth II and
Prince Philip in his London mansion, "The
Boltons".
His film career began at the age of 13 when he was signed by Paramount
Pictures. He debuted in
Stephen Steps Out (1923) but
the film flopped and his career stagnated despite a critically
acclaimed role in
Stella Dallas (1925). Things really
picked up when he married Lucille Le Sueur, a young starlet who was
soon to become better known as
Joan Crawford. The young couple
became the toast of the town (one "Screen Snapshots" episode echoes
this sudden glory) and good parts and success followed, such as the
hapless partner of
Edward G. Robinson in
Little Caesar (1931) a favorably
reviewed turn as the villain in
The Prisoner of Zenda (1937)
or more debonair characters in slapstick comedies or adventure yarns.
The 1930s were a fruitful period for Fairbanks, his most memorable role
probably being that of the British soldier in
Gunga Din (1939); although it was
somewhat of a "swashbuckling" role, Fairbanks made a point of never
imitating his father. After the World War II, his star waned and,
despite a moving part in
Ghost Story (1981), he did not appear
in a major movie. Now a legend himself, Douglas Fairbanks Jr. left this
world with the satisfaction of having lived up to the Fairbanks name at
the end of a life nobody could call "wasted".- David Dukes was born on 6 June 1945 in San Francisco, California, USA. He was an actor, known for Gods and Monsters (1998), Rawhead Rex (1986) and A Little Romance (1979). He was married to Carol Muske-Dukes and Carolyn Lee McKenzie. He died on 9 October 2000 in Lakewood, Washington, USA.
- Actress
- Writer
- Producer
Meredith Lynn MacRae was born on May 30, 1944, in Houston, Texas. She
was born on a military base where her father was stationed.
Meredith was bitten by the show business bug at an early age. Her
father, Gordon MacRae was a singer and movie idol of the 1950s (Rodgers &
Hammerstein's Oklahoma! (1955) and Carousel (1956)), and her mother, Sheila MacRae, is an
actress/comedienne and author, who is probably best known as Alice
Kramden (1966-1970), during the 2nd incarnation of Jackie Gleason's The Jackie Gleason Show (1966)
(aka "The Honeymooners").
At the age of eight, Meredith started her own acting career and
appeared in the film By the Light of the Silvery Moon (1953), which starred her father.
She attended UCLA and obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree in English. In
1964, she married Richard Berger, former president of MGM. They
divorced four years later.
Meredith went on to starring roles in two of television's heyday family
sitcoms: Petticoat Junction (1963) and My Three Sons (1960). She also guest starred in many other
television shows including: Fantasy Island (1977), Magnum, P.I. (1980), The Rockford Files (1974), and Webster (1983) (the
highest rated episode ever). She also appeared in several movies and
had a brief singing career.
In 1969, Meredith married actor Greg Mullavey (Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman (1976) and Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (1973). They had
one daughter, Allison, born in 1974. Greg and Meredith divorced in 1992
but remained friends.
In 1995, Meredith married Philip Neal, Chairman and CEO of
Avery-Dennison.
In 1999, she was diagnosed with cancer. In 2000, due to complications
from multiple surgeries and allergic reactions to medications (which
caused her brain to swell), Meredith Lynn MacRae departed this
life.- A classy, smart-looking African-American
actress who broke racial barriers in 1970s Hollywood but suffered
greatly in her private life years after her TV glory days,
award-winning actress Gail Fisher was born on August 18, 1935, in
Orange, New Jersey, the youngest of five children. Her father, a
carpenter, died when she was only two years old and the family was
destitute, living in the slums ("Potters Crossing") with their widowed
mother Ona Fisher. Gail was a cheerleader as a teen and found some joy
performing a leading role in one of her Metuchen High School plays in
Metuchen, New Jersey. Beauty pageants became a source of pride during
this period, earning distinction on the beauty-pageant circuit and
becoming the first African-American semifinalist in the New Jersey
State Fair beauty contest. A multiple pageant winner, among her titles
were "Miss Transit," "Miss Black New Jersey" and "Miss Press
Photographer."
Thanks to a contest sponsored by Coca-Cola, Gail won the chance to
study acting at New York's American Academy of Arts for two years. She
trained under Lee Strasberg for a time and
subsequently became a member (the first African-American accepted) of
the Repertory Theater at Lincoln Center, where she worked with
Elia Kazan and
Herbert Blau. The young serene beauty also
worked as a model at the time and even worked in a factory to pay
bills. In 1964 she married John Levy (1912-2012), a bassist and pioneer
jazz talent manager whose clients included some of the jazz world's
biggest names (Nancy Wilson,
Joe Williams,
Cannonball Adderley,
Betty Carter,
Freddie Hubbard,
Herbie Hancock,
Abbey Lincoln,
Shirley Horn,
Les McCann,
Wes Montgomery). He also managed
Gail's acting career. John and Gail, who was his second wife, had two
children, Samara and Jole.
In 1965, teacher Herbert Blau cast Gail in
a classical stage production of "Danton's Death" in 1965. Gail also
understudied Ruby Dee in "Purlie
Victorious" on Broadway and toured with a production of "A Raisin in
the Sun". The 25-year-old broke into TV years earlier in 1959,
appearing in the syndicated program "Play of the Week" entitled "Simply
Heavenly," a musical starring
Mel Stewart and
Claudia McNeil, and also played a singer
in the series "The Defenders" and a judge on daytime's "General
Hospital". During the early part of the 1960s, she made history when
she appeared in a nationally televised commercial for All laundry
detergent and became the first black performer to be given dialogue.
The crime series Mannix (1967)
starring Mike Connors was revamped
in its second season due to mediocre ratings and Gail was added to the
mix as Peggy Fair, Mannix's widowed secretary whose murdered husband, a
cop, was a friend to the detective and who was now raising their small
son alone. Sometimes Peggy would go undercover as a housekeeper or
prostitute to help him solve crimes. The public immediately took to the
dusky-voiced actress and the ratings soared. Any slight hint of romance
between the Peggy Fair and Joe Mannix characters was never acted upon
as CBS (who initially was hesitant in hiring a black woman in this
role), or any other network for that matter, would not allow an
interracial romance. Gail went on to win an Emmy (the first black
actress to do so -- besting
Susan Saint James of "McMillan and
Wife" and Barbara Anderson of
"Ironside") and two Golden Globe trophies (the first black actress to
win this award) in the process. In between she made amiable guest
appearances on such popular TV series as "My Three Sons," "Love,
American Style" and "Room 222."
Once "Mannix" was canceled in 1975, however, acting offers slowed down
considerably and chaos rose beneath her usually calm and controlled
exterior. Not in keeping with her public image, she flew into a series
of marriages and divorces and developed a major drug problem. She made
tabloid headlines in 1978 when she was busted for possession of
marijuana and cocaine and for using an illegal phone device. She
entered rehab and eventually recovered but her career was irreparably
damaged. Sporadic acting roles came in such series as "Medical Center,"
"Fantasy Island," "Knight Rider" and "Hotel," and the TV movie
Donor (1990) and the grade-Z
crime film Mankillers (1987)
co-starring Edd Byrnes, but they were very
few and far between. Fisher was married at least twice and had two
daughters, Samara and Jole, from her marriage to John Levy, which ended
in divorce in 1972 during the run of "Mannix". She briefly married
second husband Robert A. Walker the following year.
Gail's battle with drug addiction contributed to her health decline. A
diabetic as well, she was later diagnosed with emphysema. Gail died of
renal failure in Los Angeles in 2000 at age 65 and was cremated.
News of her death did not surface until four
months later. Survived by brother Herbert and sister Ona, another
brother, Clifton, died of heart failure twelve hours after Gail's
passing. Gail was such a class act on TV. - Jean Speegle Howard was born on 31 January 1927 in Duncan, Oklahoma, USA. She was an actress, known for Apollo 13 (1995), Scrooged (1988) and Cocoon (1985). She was married to Rance Howard. She died on 2 September 2000 in Burbank, California, USA.
- Beah Richards left her native Vicksburg, Mississippi, for New York City in 1950. She would not acquire a significant role on stage until 1955,when she appeared in the off-Broadway show "Take a Giant Step" convincingly portraying an 84-year-old grandmother without using theatrical makeup. In 1962 she appeared in writer James Baldwin's "The Amen Corner" directed by noted actor/director/activist Frank Silvera, who told Richards "Don't act, just be." She credited Silvera with helping her further develop the subtlety and quiet dignity that distinguished all of her performances.
A prolific actress, poet and playwright, her first authored play was "All's Well That Ends" that delved into the issues of racial segregation. Always ahead of her time, she defined herself as "Black" when the term "Negro" was the preferred ethnic/racial label of Black Americans. Richards would bring her salutary satisfaction with being "Black" and her immense acting talents to the role of the peacemaking mother in Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967), a role for which she was nominated for an Oscar. Additionally, she appeared in "Purlie Victorious" by Ossie Davis and "The Little Foxes" by Lillian Hellman.
In 1988, she won an Emmy Award for her performance in Frank's Place (1987). Although stricken with emphysema, she delivered a tour-de-force performance on the ABC legal drama The Practice (1997) in 2000; she received her second Emmy Award for this performance three days before her death in her native Vicksburg. - Toni Wayne was born on 25 February 1936 in Los Angeles, California, USA. She was an actress, known for Meet the Stars #3: Variety Reel #1 (1941) and The Making of 'The Quiet Man' (1992). She was married to Donald Leon LaCava. She died on 6 December 2000 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Actress
- Additional Crew
- Soundtrack
Ann Doran appeared in over 500 motion pictures and 1000 television
shows, by one count. Starting at the age of four, she appeared in
hundreds of silent films under assumed names so her father's family
wouldn't find out. Rarely a featured player (although Charles Starrett's Rio Grande (1938)
is a notable exception), she provided many a wonderful performance in
support of the leads.- Actor
- Additional Crew
- Soundtrack
The son of a surveyor, Charles Gray was born and raised in Queen's Park, Bournemouth. As a young actor, he
received his vocal training from the Royal Shakespeare Company in
Stratford-upon-Avon and at the Old Vic, having long abandoned his first
job as clerk for a real estate agent. His voice was to become one of
his most valuable tools. In fact, from January 1966, he subtly, almost
imperceptibly, dubbed for
Jack Hawkins after this actor
became unable to speak his lines due to throat cancer. In later years,
Gray's trademark voice was regularly heard on television commercials.
Gray's theatrical debut came in 1952 in the part of Charles the
Wrestler (he measured 6 foot, 1 inches in height) in "As You Like It",
appearing under his original name,
'Donald Gray'. From 1956, as 'Charles' Gray (since there already was a one-armed actor named Donald Gray),
he took to leading dramatic roles, and won critical plaudits as
Achilles in "Troilus and Cressida", Macduff in "Macbeth" and as the
gluttonous Sir Epicure Mammon in
Tyrone Guthrie's up-dated version of "The
Alchemist", in 1962. He repeated his Old Vic performance as Henry
Bolingbroke for his Broadway debut at the Winter Garden Theatre in
1956. A notable later performance, while touring the U.S. and Canada,
was as the Prince of Wales in
Peter Stone's tale of the famous
19th century actor Edmund Kean ("Kean", 1961). In 1964, Gray won the
Clarence Derwent Award as Best Supporting Actor for his part in the
controversial play "Poor Bitos", by
Jean Anouilh, co-starring
Donald Pleasence. He was offered his
first role on the big screen, reprising a success on the West End stage
in 1958, as Captain Cyril Mavors,in the satirical musical
Expresso Bongo (1959).
For the next forty years, heavy-set, silver-haired, jut-jawed Charles
Gray used his imposing frame and mellifluous voice to great effect in
creating for the screen a memorable gallery of egocentric, imperious
toffs, and suave, sardonic super-villains. While his performances at
times verged on the camp, Gray cheerfully allowed himself to be cast
within his range of basically unsympathetic characters, which he could
play well and with ease. He tended to favour television as his
preferred medium, though some of his most popular roles were for the
big screen. Among his niche of staple characters were the coldly
pompous military heavies (General Gabler in
The Night of the Generals (1967),
or the perpetually sneering, overbearing upper-class twits
(true-to-form, as defecting spy Hillary Vance in the
Thriller (1973) episode "Night is
the Time for Killing"). At his evil best, he was commanding as the
demonic acolyte Mocata, in
The Devil Rides Out (1968)
and as the feline-stroking, velvety-voiced nemesis of James Bond, Ernst
Stavro Blofeld, in
Diamonds Are Forever (1971).
He was also suitably sinister as Bates the Butler, one of the red
herrings of Agatha Christie's
The Mirror Crack'd (1980).
Gray's recurring roles included Lord Seacroft (senior, as well as
junior) in the short-lived satirical miniseries
The Upper Crusts (1973) as a
down-on-his-heels aristocrat, keeping up appearances after being forced
to live in a high-rise housing estate; and as the sedentary brother of
the famous sleuth at 221b Baker Street, Mycroft, in
The Seven-Per-Cent Solution (1976).
Later, he was utilised as temporary replacement, first for
Edward Hardwicke,and, subsequently, for
the hospitalised star Jeremy Brett, in
Granada Television's various instalments of the Sherlock Holmes saga
(1985-1994). Gray died of cancer in March 2000, aged
71.- Actor
- Stunts
Bart the Bear was perhaps one of Hollywood's most remarkable animal stars. The Alaskan brown bear was born in 1977 and was brought in by Utah animal trainer Doug Seus. Bart started to train in acting in 1980 and grew to 9 feet tall, the average for brown bears.
Bart starred in The Great Outdoors (1988), On Deadly Ground (1994) and The Edge (1997). Bart's co-stars included John Candy, Dan Aykroyd, Steven Seagal, Anthony Hopkins and Alec Baldwin, all of whom were very impressed with how well a bear could be trained to act, and enjoyed the experience of working with animals. Sadly, Bart died in 2000 of cancer at the age of 23 during filming of Animal Planet's Growing Up Grizzly (2001). His namesake is Little Bart. Little Bart's sister is named Honey Bump. Their mother was killed and Doug and Lynne Seus took them in. Doug and wife Lynne Seus started the Vital Ground Foundation in honor of Bart, who was the organization's 1st ambassador. The organization was begun to set up lands to preserve the great grizzlies and other wildlife.- Anne Barton was born on 20 March 1924 in Evansville, Indiana, USA. She was an actress, known for What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962), The Twilight Zone (1959) and Whirlybirds (1957). She was married to Dan Barton. She died on 27 November 2000 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Actress
- Soundtrack
As an American character actress, Fran Ryan was a familiar face on
stage, screen and television from her theatrical stage debut in the
1950s and continuing for nearly three decades. Ryan's similarity to
actress Marjorie Main was soon noticed in
the late 1960s, and she frequently played tough, mean-lipped, earthy
and gruff-but-lovable female characters.
One of Ryan's first major television roles was playing Aggie Thompson,
the housekeeper on
The Doris Day Show (1968)
and quickly found her place as a last-minute replacement on several
television shows. She replaced the late
Barbara Pepper in playing Doris Ziffel on
the final season of
Green Acres (1965). She also
successfully succeeded Amanda Blake
to play Miss Hannah on the final season of
Gunsmoke (1955). Ryan's best-known
TV credits include
General Hospital (1963) and
No Soap, Radio (1982).
Ryan also had supporting roles in major motion pictures including
Big Wednesday (1978),
The Long Riders (1980),
Stripes (1981),
Savannah Smiles (1982),
Private School (1983),
Eyes of Fire (1983) and
Pale Rider (1985). Although she was
never far from television, she returned to play Hannah the Barbarian in
the short lived animated series
Little Dracula (1991).
Fran Ryan passed away at her home in Burbank, California on January 15,
2000 of natural causes.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Christmas trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, gained
experience in English repertory theatre in 1936, and had a principal
role in the London production of
Noël Coward's "Bitter Sweet" in the 1930s.
During the Second World War, he was a member of Royal Air Force
production units and performed in the RAF's Gang Show. After moving to
Canada in 1948, he started a long association with television comedians
Johnny Wayne and
Frank Shuster, playing the character Madam
Hooperdink. His own show "Christmas is Coming" toured Canada in the
1950s. He was artistic director at the Ottawa Repertory Company in 1954
and ran the Peterborough Summer Theatre that year. He began a long
association with Canada's Stratford Festival in 1957, performing in 12
seasons and 21 Shakespearean productions until 1970. It was Christmas
and a group of veteran actors like
William Hutt,
Tony Van Bridge,
Jean Gascon,
Douglas Rain,
Amelia Hall, and
Mervyn Blake (among others) who helped
define Stratford in its early years. His final appearance at Stratford
was 1987, when he played Dogberry in "Much Ado About Nothing."
Christmas also had associations over the years with the Canadian
Players, San Diego's Globe Theatre, and the drama department at the
University of California at San Diego. He and his first wife had two
children (Robin and Stephen) two children with his second wife, six grandchildren.- Actor
- Writer
- Director
Vittorio Gassman studied theatre in his youth and was quite a good
basketball player. He debuted on stage in 1943 and soon felt home in
all classical theatre works. Since 1946 he also worked at the movies
and his first big role there was the criminal in Bitter Rice (1949). This fixed
him to his main parts: The ambiguous gentleman inflicting pain and
pleasure at the same time. He also participated in the Italian comedies
and in American movies but the latter with only minor success. As a
homage to his passion for the theatre he directed a cinema version of
the play Kean: Genius or Scoundrel (1957).- Built like the proverbial Patton tank, Professor Toru Tanaka was
arguably the successor to Harold Sakata as the archetypal Asian henchman who
possessed incredible strength, and clobbered those foolish enough to
tangle with him. Born Charles Kalani, he was a successful wrestler and
served for over ten years in the US Armed Forces attaining the rank of
sergeant. Tanaka first appeared playing a Japanese sumo wrestler on the
TV series Little House on the Prairie, however his first film role
pitched him as an insidious villain in the chop socky An Eye for an Eye (1981) in which
he faces down Chuck Norris before being kicked through a large table. In
total, Tanaka appeared in only 23 films including appearing alongside
Arnold Schwarzenegger twice in The Running Man (1987) and Last Action Hero (1993).
Appearing in The Perfect Weapon (1991) with 6th degree Kempo black belt, Jeff Speakman, Tanaka
comes to a fiery end courtesy of an LPG tank!! In reality, Tanaka was
far removed from his own screen persona, and was known to be a kind &
generous man to all who knew him. He passed away in August, 2000 from
heart failure. - Logan Ramsey was born on 21 March 1921 in Long Beach, California, USA. He was an actor, known for Walking Tall (1973), Walking Tall Part II (1975) and Scrooged (1988). He was married to Anne Ramsey. He died on 26 June 2000 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Actor
- Music Department
- Writer
Composer, songwriter, conductor, singer, and actor Jester Hairston
was educated at Tufts University, Juilliard, and the University of the
Pacific (hon. Mus.D.). He acted on radio and television besides on
film, and played Leroy on the "Amos 'n Andy" radio series for 15
years. He directed the Federal Theatre Project and was assistant-
conductor of the 'Hall Johnson Choir' in New York for 15 years and
trained choirs for radio and Broadway musicals. He went to Hollywood
in 1936, he sang and appeared with the Hall Johnson Choir
in the film The Green Pastures (1936).
Organizing his own choir in 1943, he arranged and conducted film
background music and conducted choral groups in colleges and high
schools, touring Europe for the State Department in 1961. He joined
ASCAP in 1956 and wrote such popular-song compositions as "Mary's
Boy Child," "Poor Man Lazarus," and many Gospel songs including "In Dat
Great Gittin'-Up Mornin'," "Amen," and "Gossip, Gossip."- Actor
- Director
The only child of a stockbroker and well-to-do mother, Richard Jacobson (who changed his surname to "Jason") described himself as "second-generation nouveau riche" and a born romantic. His behavior got him expelled from eight prep schools before he managed to graduate from the Rhodes School. His father bought him a seat on the New York Stock Exchange, but Jason sold the seat and enlisted in the Army Air Corps (1943-45). After the war, he attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts (AADA) on the GI Bill. While attending a New York play, he was spotted by actor-director Hume Cronyn, who immediately cast him in "Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep" in 1950 as "Anselmo". Although the play closed after a month, the role earned Jason a Theater World Award and a Hollywood contract with Columbia Pictures. For the first year he was under contract, a frustrated Jason did not work. Meanwhile, MGM was searching for an actor to replace the departed Fernando Lamas in Sombrero (1953). Jason, now released from Columbia, landed the role. This success led to The Saracen Blade (1954) and RKO's This Is My Love (1954).
Twentieth Century-Fox then signed him for the male lead in The Lieutenant Wore Skirts (1956), after which he was signed to a multi-picture contract. His first project, an adaptation of John Steinbeck's "The Wayward Bus" (The Wayward Bus (1957)), earned him critical acclaim; a string of strong performances, both in films and TV, followed. In 1960, he starred as suave insurance investigator Robin Scott in The Case of the Dangerous Robin (1960). The series ran 38 episodes and made Jason the first actor seen using martial arts (karate) on television. In September 1962 he exploded onto prime-time screens as the cool, calm, and collected Lt. Gil Hanley in ABC's hit series Combat! (1962), Five seasons and 152 episodes later, Jason was a household name.
After "Combat!", Jason returned to the stage. He also made films in Japan and Israel. In 1970 he took the lead in the 1970 pilot Prudence and the Chief (1970). His TV career remained strong, and in the 1970s and 1980s he appeared in Matt Houston (1982), Police Woman (1974), Murder, She Wrote (1984), Wonder Woman (1975), Fantasy Island (1977), Airwolf (1984) and Dallas (1978). In 1973, he was a regular on the then-new soap opera The Young and the Restless (1973). After retirement, he kept busy doing voice-overs for commercials and ran the Wine Locker, a 4,000-square-foot facility used to store fine wines under optimal conditions. Sadly, he died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound at age 77 in October 2000.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Marguerite Churchill was born on 26 December 1910 in Kansas City, Missouri, USA. She was an actress, known for The Big Trail (1930), Riders of the Purple Sage (1931) and The Walking Dead (1936). She was married to George O'Brien. She died on 9 January 2000 in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, USA.- Actor
- Soundtrack
John Milford was born on 7 September 1927 in Johnstown, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for Homefront (1991), Command & Conquer: Red Alert (1996) and The Magical World of Disney (1954). He was married to Susan Graw. He died on 14 August 2000 in Santa Monica, California, USA.