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1-11 of 11
- Actor
- Music Department
- Soundtrack
At various times in his life a rancher, deputy sheriff and rodeo performer, this huge, towering (6' 5") beast of a man was born George Glenn Strange in Weed, New Mexico, on August 16, 1899, but grew up a real-life cowboy in Cross Cut, Texas. He taught himself (by ear) the fiddle and guitar at a young age and started performing at local functions as a teen. In the late 1920s, Glenn and his cousin, Taylor McPeters, better known later as the western character actor Cactus Mack, joined a radio singing group known as the "The Arizona Wranglers" that toured throughout the country.
They both started providing singing fillers in film westerns in the early 1930s. Glenn would play extra or bit roles for a number of years B Western and serials. One of his first roles was uncredited as a soldier, in tin armor, as part of "Ming's Army", in the science fiction classic serial "Flash Gordon"(1936/I). He would perform as a cowhand, rustler, accomplice, sidekick, or plain old warbling, harmonica-blowing cowboy. Eventually in the late 30s, his billing improved and he evolved into a full-time bad guy in hundreds of "B" westerns. He was seen (or glimpsed) in many of the popular serials of the day, including The Hurricane Express (1932), Law of the Wild (1934),
The Lone Ranger Rides Again (1939), and Riders of Death Valley (1941). It was his massive build that helped him break into the Universal horror picture genre of the 1940s. Horror star Boris Karloff had grown weary and fearful of his Frankenstein Creature typecast and abandoned the role. Glenn was the perfect replacement for the job and made his monstrous debut with House of Frankenstein (1944), quickly followed by House of Dracula (1945). It was he who played the Creature in the cult horror/comedy classic Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948) as part of the monstrous trio of Bela Lugosi's Dracula and Lon Chaney Jr.'s Wolf Man.
As the "B" western started faded off into the sunset in the 1950s, Strange moseyed on over to TV work. He played the nemesis "Butch Cavendish" and later reprised the role, after a prison escape, on "The Lone Ranger" (1949). Among other TV roles, he capped off his career with a steady (12 years) role as Sam the bartender on the classic Gunsmoke (1955) series from 1962 until shortly before his death from lung cancer in 1973.- Music Artist
- Actor
- Music Department
Jim Croce was born on Sunday, January 10th, 1943 in a working-class section of Philadelphia, in an Italian-American family. While a teenager, he began playing the accordion, and then learning to play an acoustic guitar when he was 18. After a short stint in the U.S. Army, where he supposedly met the character who inspired the song "Bad Bad Leroy Brown," Jim entered Villanova University for a degree in psychology, but he spent a lot of time working with bands, playing musical instruments and performing musical solos, more than 90% of the time.
Jim worked as a construction worker after graduation, after surviving from a diesel accident, he then worked temporarily as a school teacher of a Junior High school in South Philadelphia. On Sunday, August 28th, 1966, Jim Croce married his wife, Ingrid Jacobson. Then in 1967, they moved to New York City where they performed together, as a folk duo performing in city nightclubs & coffeehouses & recorded an album, that's titled "Another Day, Another Town".
Jim and Ingrid moved back to Pennsylvania where they bought a farmhouse and became parents to their only son, A.J. Croce. A.J.'s name at birth was Adrian James Croce. Adrian was born on Tuesday, September 28th, 1971, in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, while Jim was a diesel truck driver to earn & pay their daily food & all other monthly utility bills. A year later, one of Jim's long time college friends advised him to record some of his newer songs & send them to ABC Records, where they signed Jim up and his first solo album, "You Don't Mess Around With Jim" was released in 1972 & it was one of the top 20 best selling albums of 1972, in the United States of America.
Combined, in 1972 to 1973, Jim Croce' performed in more than 250 concerts, he was a guest-star as TV shows and released his second album in mid 1973 titled "Life and Times." This album, featured his all time and most popular hit song, (solo 45 RPM, or 33 RPM album), of "Bad, Bad Leroy Brown!".
He also recorded his third album, "I've Got a Name" and the title song was used in the soundtrack of The Last American Hero (1973). It starred Jeff Bridges, and the complete album which was released on Monday, July 23rd, 1973.
His song, "Time in a Bottle" from his first solo album, received sudden national sales after being featured in "She Lives" a made for ABC-TV movie which originally aired on Wednesday, September 12th, 1973, during the. evening hours.
Eight days later, Thursday, September 20th, 1973, Jim Croce's life and career came to a sudden end when he and his musical partner, Maury Muehleisen and others boarded a private airplane in Natchitoches, Louisiana to travel to a gig in Texas when the plane crashed shortly after takeoff killing everyone on board.
His third album includes the songs "I Got a Name," and "I'll Have to Say I Love You in a Song" which were posthumous hits. In all, Jim Croce had eight top-10 singles and three top-10 albums from 1972 to 1974.
In the lyrics to the hauntingly wistful "Time in a Bottle", Jim left his own best epitaph as if he had foresaw his own death. Lyric: "There never seems to be enough time to do the things you want to do once you find them".
Jim Croce's lifetime: Sunday, January 10th, 1943, to Thursday, September 20th, 1973, was 11,211 days, (equaling 1,601 weeks & 4 days). His life-loss date, Thursday, September 20th, 1973, was also the date of a famous tennis match, in Houston, Texas' Astrodome, nicknamed "The Battle of the Sexes", as female tennis player, Billie Jean King defeated male tennis player, Bobby Riggs, because he was an egotistical narcissistic darer & challenge maker. Earlier in the 1970's decade, Bobby RIggs dared another female tennis player, in a male-versus-female tennis match & he defeated her. Riggs' second dare, was much more than he expected.
Jim Croce was a loving father of his only child & son, A.J. Croce for the final 723 days (103 weeks & 2 days) of his life & Jim Croce was the husband of Ingrid Jacobson. The duo were married on Sunday, August 28th, 1966, & it lasted until Thursday, September 20th, 1973, it was his last 2,580 days equaling 368 weeks & 4 days. Jim Croce's marriage was 1,857 days when parenthood began on Tuesday, September 28th, 1971, when Ingrid bore their son, A.J. Croce.- Composer
- Music Department
- Actor
Jack Marshall was born on 23 November 1921 in El Dorado, Kansas, USA. He was a composer and actor, known for Hubie Halloween (2020), The Munsters (2022) and The Giant Gila Monster (1959). He was married to Eva Katherine Pellegrini. He died on 20 September 1973 in Newport Beach, California, USA.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Marion and her twin sister Madeline Fairbanks were born on November 15, 1900 in New York City. Their mother, 'Jennie (known professionally as Jane) Fairbanks' was also an actress and their father was the son of a Civil War veteran. The twins began their career on the stage in such productions as "Alias Jimmy Valentine", "Mother", "Salomy Jane", "Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch" and coutless others before they entered films with Biograph circa 1910. They joined the Thanhouser Film Corporation in 1912 where they were known as "The Thanhouser Twins", and remained there until 1916. Their time was divided between stage and screen and in 1917 they began a run of several years with the Ziegfeld Follies. In 1923, Madeline decided to pursue dramatic roles, while Marion continued in musical revues, touring in the title role with the "Little Nellie Kelly" company in 1924. By this time however, the girls were anxious to reunite and they were rejoined on the stage in George White's "Scandals". In 1927 Marion married former Yale football star 'McCormick Steele', but within a few years the marriage had turned sour, and was a favorite topic for the gossip columns. They divorced and she married Ray Smith. This union also ended in divorce, and she married for a third and final time, to William Delph. She succeeded 'Eleanor King' as the leading lady in "Whistling in the Dark" at the Waldorf Theatre in New York City in 1932. But by the mid-thirties she was slowing down considerably in her acting career, turning instead to the beauty industry, opening a beauty parlor and directing a branch of a cosmetics company. In her later years she suffered from many problems, including addiction to alcohol. Marion Fairbanks died on September 20, 1973 at the age of 72. Having no children, her sister Madeline was her only survivor.- Actor
- Composer
- Soundtrack
Tenor saxophonist, occasional pianist and arranger, noted for his improvisational skills and sensitive rhythmic phrasing, especially on ballads. Before he developed his own unique style, Webster was strongly influenced by the legendary Coleman Hawkins. However, he eventually became a stylistic pacesetter himself with the great Duke Ellington orchestra from 1940 to 1943 (and, again, from 1948 to 1949). Famous solos from his tenure with Ellington include the Billy Strayhorn compositions 'Chelsea Bridge' and 'Satin Doll'. In addition to leading the hard-driving solo on Ellington's 'Cotton Tail', Webster also arranged the unison saxophone riffs which imbue the number with a rousing intensity.
Webster began his musical career playing stride piano and fronting a group called 'Rooster Ben and His Little Red Hens'. By 1929, he worked as a piano accompanist in a silent picture theatre in Amarillo, Texas. During the 1930's, he was constantly on the move as a sideman in big name bands led by Blanche Calloway (Cab's sister), Bennie Moten (where he played alongside Count Basie), Andy Kirk, Fletcher Henderson, Benny Carter and Teddy Wilson. At this phase of his career, Webster's robust, unrestrained playing had earned him the sobriquet of "The Brute". Exposure to the techniques of alto saxophonist Johnny Hodges (who became his mentor) and to the universe of Ellington's music in general was later to add nuance and subtlety to his playing. After leaving Duke, Webster alternately led and gigged with small groups (mostly in New York and Chicago), did regular studio work and free-lanced as a soloist. In 1949, he was signed by Norman Granz for the Verve label and made prolific recordings for the next eleven years. Seminal albums from this period include 'Ben Webster with Strings' (1955), 'Coleman Hawkins Encounters Ben Webster' (recorded 1957, with Oscar Peterson on piano and Herb Ellis on guitar) and 'The Soul of Ben Webster' (1960). In December 1964, Webster moved to Europe, touring extensively (and to great acclaim) as a solo performer through the Netherlands, Denmark and Great Britain. In 1969, he set up a permanent base in Copenhagen where he lived for the remaining years of his life.- Maury Muehleisen was born on 14 January 1949 in Trenton, New Jersey, USA. He died on 20 September 1973 in Natchitoches, Louisiana, USA.
- Lidiya Ruslanova was born on 27 October 1900 in village Chernavka, Serdobsk uyezd, Saratov Governorate, Russian Empire [now Saratov Oblast, Russia]. She was an actress, known for Vysokoe zvanie. Dilogiya: Film vtoroy. Radi zhizni na zemle (1974), Moscow Music Hall (1946) and Kontsert frontu (1942). She died on 20 September 1973 in Moscow, RSFSR, USSR [now Russia].
- "Kamel Anwar" began his life as an employee in the public affairs of the armed forces and participated as an actor in the military theater, he has also worked with other theater groups and teamed up with "The Three Theater Lights" band in many TV serials, including "Family Of C-Gomaa" , plays he shared in as: "A Year Of Hard Labor," "Airport Of Love", "Cooking Of Angels" known for the role of the small policeman and the doorman or the drunkard.
- Mario Mazza was born on 12 December 1895 in San Giovanni a Teduccio, Naples, Campania, Italy. He was an actor, known for Ettore Fieramosca (1938), Verginità (1951) and La fanciulla di Portici (1940). He died on 20 September 1973 in Città della Pieve, Umbria, Italy.
- Thomas Liessem was born on 9 September 1900 in Cologne, Germany. He was married to Karoline Müllenbach. He died on 20 September 1973 in Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia, West Germany.
- Ursula Faucit was born on 10 July 1883 in England, UK. She was an actress, known for Overtones (1929). She died on 20 September 1973 in Alameda County, California, USA.