People with funny/weird IMDb profile pictures
Pretty self-explanatory. ;) Please note some are based more on the thumbnail image than the full image.
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- Actress
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Born in Los Angeles, Gloria worked in show business as a child. Small roles in movies led Gloria to be cast as Jackie Gleason's daughter "Babs" on the television series "The Life of Riley" (1949). This show ran during the 1949-50 season. Her next television series was "Sky King" (1951), wherein she was cast as the niece, "Penny". This show ran from 1951 to 1959, and during that run Gloria began dating Dean Vernon, the show's sound engineer. This dating soon led to marriage. Gloria also played "Penny" in the comedy 'Hold That Line (1952)', which starred the Bowery Boys. Gloria retired from show business after "Sky King" ended, but she remained close to Kirby Grant until his death in 1985.Uhh, I'm guessing that's her in the window. :p- Actor
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Timothy Carey had one of the most unusual careers of all Hollywood character actors, obtaining full cult status for his portrayals of the doomed, the psychotic and the plain crazy. Carey's career was an "only in America" type of story, and he retains his status as a great American original many years after his death.
As a 22-year-old acting school graduate, Carey made his film debut in 1951, as a corpse in a Clark Gable western, but it was his brief, uncredited part as Chino's Boy #1, a member of Lee Marvin's motorcycle gang The Beetles in The Wild One (1953) which made an impression, and was a harbinger of the unsavory characters to come.
Prone to improvising, it was the fearless Carey who came up with the idea of squirting beer in Marlon Brando's face, even though the great methods actor himself had expressed reservations about what Carey was up to.
Carey registered the same year as the bordello bouncer who threatens James Dean in East of Eden (1955), making his face, if not his name (he was uncredited in both parts), known to the mass audience.
Carey followed this up with superb acting jobs in 2 Stanley Kubrick films; The Killing (1956) and Paths of Glory (1957).
In the former he played the sociopath, Nikki Arane, who 's contracted to shoot a race horse, which he does with great glee. In Paths of Glory (1957), Carey had an atypically sympathetic role as French soldier, Pvt. Ferol, unjustly condemned to be shot to atone for the stupidities of his generals during World War I. However, it was in Bayou (1957) in which Carey reached what must be considered good apex as an actor: as the psychotic Cajun Ulysses, he crafted an indelible performance that went beyond the acceptable limits of cinema scenery-chewing. He became Ulysses, on-screen, the mad Cajun who epitomized evil, his insanity perfectly encapsulated in the psychotic jig Carey danced to more fully limn his character's madness. This classic exploitation film was re-cut and re-released as "Poor White Trash" (1961), and became a grind house Gone with the Wind (1939), playing to crowds throughout the decade.
With these performances, Carey's career as a Hollywod heavy was established, though many directors saw the talent lurking within his physically forbidding, 6'4" frame. His former co-star Brando directed him in One-Eyed Jacks (1961) (Brando's sole directorial effort), gunning down the shotgun-wielding heavy in the process. Francis Ford Coppola tried to hire him for The Godfather (1972) and The Godfather Part II (1974), but Carey was working on his own project during the shooting of the first classic, and turned down the opportunity to appear in the second. He did agree to appear in Coppola's The Conversation (1974), yet another classic, but walked off the set during filming. John Cassavetes gave him a prominent role in Minnie and Moskowitz (1971) and cast him as the second lead in The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (1976).
Carey's penchant for improvising (in the execution scene for Paths of Glory (1957), his character was supposed to remain silent, but Carey began moaning, I don't what to die,', and Kubrick kept it in the film) coupled with his eccentric behavior gave him a reputation as difficult to work with in the 1960s.
During that tumultuous decade, Carey spoofed his psycho screen image in Beach Blanket Bingo (1965), playing South Dakota Slim, who - like villains of old flickers - straps the second female lead to a buzz saw. As the heavy Lord High-and-Low, he menaced The Monkees in the Jack Nicholson-penned Head (1968). Nicholson was one of his biggest fans.
Carey's greatest role was in a film he produced, wrote and directed himself, The World's Greatest Sinner (1962), in which he played a rock 'n roll-singing evangelist who, in a burst of hubris, names himself "God," runs for President and is struck down by God himself at the film's climax.
As Clarence Hilliard, the insurance salesman who drops out of straight society, starts his own evangelical religion (using rock 'n roll music played by himself and a band featuring a woman saxophone player to whip up the crowds and manipulate the masses) and eventually runs for president, Carey fully realised his talent, a grind house, exploitation circuit John Gielgud assaying his Hamlet.
Filmed fitfully between 1958- 61 for a total cost of approximately $100-thousand (the shooting was sporadic, as the production kept running out of money), it remains one of the most notorious works in grind house cinema--even Elvis Presley himself asked Carey for a copy! (Carey, always in character as the Jester, refused The King's request).
Carey's last film was Echo Park (1985). A favorite actor of cineaste/video store clerk Quentin Tarantino, he tested for the role of crime boss Joe Cabot in Tarantino's debut film, Reservoir Dogs (1992), but the tyro director didn't think he was right for the role. Instead, he cast Lawrence Tierney (equally great in the movie heavy and eccentricity departments) and dedicated the film to Carey.
Timothy Carey taught acting in his later years. This true American original died of a stroke on May 11, 1994, age of 65. He's sorely missed, as his like will not be seen again.Well, I guess he's just being himself, actually.- Jean Ransome was born on 4 April 1890. She was an actress, known for One Step Beyond (1959) and Passport to Danger (1954). She died on 13 June 1985 in Dana Point, California, USA.Very flattering.
- California native Imogene Williams (born in Los Angeles, raised in Sherman Oaks) was a student at The Pasadena Playhouse when an agent helped her get a contract with Warner Bros. Under her new name, Claudia Barrett, Warners gave her juicy secondary parts in several films, and freelance work with Republic Pictures earned her leads in a number of horse operas. In 1953 she starred in what would become her most noted picture, Robot Monster (1953), opposite George Nader. Released by third-string distributor Astor Pictures, the film is of an uncommonly low quality, and has generated a wide cult following with fans of bad and campy movies. Following this dubious project, Ms. Barret acted extensively on television for several years. After leaving show business entirely in the early 1960s, she spent 14 years working for AMPAS. More recently, she has kept busy as an artist, whose work is represented in galleries and has been commercially published.Poor girl...
- Actor
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This choir was organized in Long Beach, California in 1930 by William Ripley Dorr. By 1950, they had appeared in over 90 pictures. After WWII, the Choristers continued to be the most prolific boys choir in movie history. There was also a girl's division of St. Luke's Choir. The Choristers recorded four albums for Capitol Records, including the first album ever made by a boys choir: "Christmas Carols by the St. Luke's Choristers", "Seasonal Hymns by the Saint Luke's Choristers" and "Familiar Hymns by the Saint Luke's Choristers" featuring: soprano soloist: Philip Haynes and . They also performed weekly at St. Luke's Episcopal Church and nearly 400 concerts and broadcasts from 1930 to 1950. The illustrious St. Luke's Quartet comprised Marilyn Horne, Gloria Horne, Philip Haynes, and Bob James. Academy Award winner George Chakiris was also a Chorister. They often collaborated with Bronislau Kaper, the famed MGM musical director, on The Cheaters (1945) (featuring Philip Haynes-soloist), The Bells of St. Mary's (1945), and Sundown. They appeared in Boys Town (1938), Men of Boys Town (1941), Mrs. Miniver (1942), Since You Went Away (1944), Mrs. Parkington (1944), The Corn Is Green (1945), A Christmas Carol, The Firefly (1937), The Prince and the Pauper (1937), A Tale of Two Cities (1935), A Midsummer Night's Dream (1935), Romeo and Juliet (1936), Marie Antoinette (1938), The Story of Alexander Graham Bell (1939), and so many more.
The boys were carefully selected for their voices, natural musical ability, and good character, appearance and general desirability from a long waiting list. They were carefully trained to sing with light, pure tone. A large counter tenor section of older boys singing alto made it possible for the Choristers to sing in four parts with proper balance. They were know for having a large repertory including music from Gregorian Chant in Latin to traditional music in American, Russian, French, Italian, German, and Welsh. In "The Corn is Green" featuring Bette Davis they sang coal mining songs in the original Welsh. All members over 13 were SAG members and worked frequently both on camera and on soundtracks. Back in the days of silent pictures, Mr. Dorr's choirboys were in demand for their fine appearance and excellent conduct. The St. Luke's Choristers were not available for popular music or for pictures of questionable moral background.23 acting credits! :o- Actor
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Ray Milland became one of Paramount's most bankable and durable stars, under contract from 1934 to 1948, yet little in his early life suggested a career as a motion picture actor.
Milland was born Alfred Reginald Jones in the Welsh town of Neath, Glamorgan, to Elizabeth Annie (Truscott) and Alfred Jones. He spent his youth in the pursuit of sports. He became an expert rider early on, working at his uncle's horse-breeding estate while studying at the King's College in Cardiff. At 21, he went to London as a member of the elite Household Cavalry (Guard for the Royal Family), undergoing a rigorous 19-months training, further honing his equestrian skills, as well as becoming adept at fencing, boxing and shooting. He won trophies, including the Bisley Match, with his unit's crack rifle team. However, after four years, he suddenly lost his means of financial support (independent income being a requirement as a Guardsman) when his stepfather discontinued his allowance. Broke, he tried his hand at acting in small parts on the London stage.
There are several stories as to how he derived his stage name. It is known, that during his teens he called himself "Mullane", using his stepfather's surname. He may later have suffused "Mullane" with "mill-lands", an area near his hometown. When he first appeared on screen in British films, he was billed first as Spike Milland, then Raymond Milland.
In 1929, Ray befriended the popular actress Estelle Brody at a party and, later that year, visited her on the set of her latest film, The Plaything (1929). While having lunch, they were joined by a producer who persuaded the handsome Welshman to appear in a motion picture bit part. Ray rose to the challenge and bigger roles followed, including the male lead in The Lady from the Sea (1929). The following year, he was signed by MGM and went to Hollywood, but was given little to work with, except for the role of Charles Laughton's ill-fated nephew in Payment Deferred (1932). After a year, Ray was out of his contract and returned to England.
His big break did not come until 1934 when he joined Paramount, where he was to remain for the better part of his Hollywood career. During the first few years, he served an apprenticeship playing second leads, usually as the debonair man-about-town, in light romantic comedies. He appeared with Burns and Allen in Many Happy Returns (1934), enjoyed third-billing as a British aristocrat in the Claudette Colbert farce The Gilded Lily (1935) and was described as "excellent" by reviewers for his role in the sentimental drama Alias Mary Dow (1935). By 1936, he had graduated to starring roles, first as the injured British hunter rescued on a tropical island by The Jungle Princess (1936), the film which launched Dorothy Lamour's sarong-clad career. After that, he was the titular hero of Bulldog Drummond Escapes (1937) and, finally, won the girl (rather than being the "other man") in Mitchell Leisen's screwball comedy Easy Living (1937). He also re-visited the tropics in Ebb Tide (1937), Her Jungle Love (1938) and Tropic Holiday (1938), as well as being one of the three valiant brothers of Beau Geste (1939).
In 1940, Ray was sent back to England to star in the screen adaptation of Terence Rattigan's French Without Tears (1940), for which he received his best critical reviews to date. He was top-billed (above John Wayne) running a ship salvage operation in Cecil B. DeMille's lavish Technicolor adventure drama Reap the Wild Wind (1942), besting Wayne in a fight - much to the "Duke's" personal chagrin - and later wrestling with a giant octopus. Also that year, he was directed by Billy Wilder in a charming comedy, The Major and the Minor (1942) (co-starred with Ginger Rogers), for which he garnered good notices from Bosley Crowther of the New York Times. Ray then played a ghost hunter in The Uninvited (1944), and the suave hero caught in a web of espionage in Fritz Lang's thriller Ministry of Fear (1944).
On the strength of his previous role as "Major Kirby", Billy Wilder chose to cast Ray against type in the ground-breaking drama The Lost Weekend (1945) as dipsomaniac writer "Don Birnam". Ray gave the defining performance of his career, his intensity catching critics, used to him as a lightweight leading man, by surprise. Crowther commented "Mr. Milland, in a splendid performance, catches all the ugly nature of a 'drunk', yet reveals the inner torment and degradation of a respectable man who knows his weakness and his shame" (New York Times, December 3, 1945). Arrived at the high point of his career, Ray Milland won the Oscar for Best Actor, as well as the New York Critic's Award. Rarely given such good material again, he nonetheless featured memorably in many more splendid films, often exploiting the newly discovered "darker side" of his personality: as the reporter framed for murder by Charles Laughton's heinous publishing magnate in The Big Clock (1948); as the sophisticated, manipulating art thief "Mark Bellis" in the Victorian melodrama So Evil My Love (1948) (for which producer Hal B. Wallis sent him back to England); as a Fedora-wearing, Armani-suited "Lucifer", trawling for the soul of an honest District Attorney in Alias Nick Beal (1949); and as a traitorous scientist in The Thief (1952), giving what critics described as a "sensitive" and "towering" performance. In 1954, Ray played calculating ex-tennis champ "Tony Wendice", who blackmails a former Cambridge chump into murdering his wife, in Alfred Hitchcock's Dial M for Murder (1954). He played the part with urbane sophistication and cold detachment throughout, even in the scene of denouement, calmly offering a drink to the arresting officers.
With Lisbon (1956), Ray Milland moved into another direction, turning out several off-beat, low-budget films with himself as the lead, notably High Flight (1957), The Safecracker (1958) and Panic in Year Zero! (1962). At the same time, he cheerfully made the transition to character parts, often in horror and sci-fi outings. In accordance with his own dictum of appearing in anything that had "any originality", he worked on two notable pictures with Roger Corman: first, as a man obsessed with catalepsy in The Premature Burial (1962); secondly, as obsessed self-destructive surgeon "Dr. Xavier" in X: The Man with the X-Ray Eyes (1963)-the Man with X-Ray Eyes, a film which, despite its low budget, won the 1963 Golden Asteroid in the Trieste Festival for Science Fiction.
As the years went on, Ray gradually disposed of his long-standing toupee, lending dignity through his presence to many run-of-the-mill television films, such as Cave in! (1983) and maudlin melodramas like Love Story (1970). He guest-starred in many anthology series on television and had notable roles in Rod Serling's Night Gallery (1969) and the original Battlestar Galactica (1978) (as Quorum member Sire Uri). He also enjoyed a brief run on Broadway, starring as "Simon Crawford" in "Hostile Witness" (1966), at the Music Box Theatre.
In his private life, Ray was an enthusiastic yachtsman, who loved fishing and collecting information by reading the Encyclopedia Brittanica. In later years, he became very popular with interviewers because of his candid spontaneity and humour. In the same self-deprecating vein he wrote an anecdotal biography, "Wide-Eyed in Babylon", in 1976. A film star, as well as an outstanding actor, Ray Milland died of cancer at the age of 79 in March 1986.Most leading man headshots here are totally serious.- A big, brawny villain of many 1940s and 1950s films, Ted de Corsia was an actor in touring companies and on radio before making a memorable film debut as the killer in The Lady from Shanghai (1947). Although he occasionally played such sympathetic roles as a judge or prison warden, de Corsia's imposing size, tough New York street demeanor - he was born and raised in Brooklyn - and gravelly voice assured him steady work playing murderous street thugs, outlaw gang leaders or organized-crime bosses. One of his best-remembered roles was as the head of a murder-for-hire gang who turns state's evidence in the Humphrey Bogart crime thriller The Enforcer (1951).I've always thought this image was a little weird to use, what with the slight cross-eyedness due to him focusing on someone a foot away. :p Definitely unflattering.
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Barton MacLane graduated from Wesleyan University, where he displayed a notable aptitude for sports, in particular football and basketball. Not surprisingly, his physical prowess led to an early role in The Quarterback (1926) with Richard Dix. MacLane once commented that, as an actor, he needed to have the physical strength to tear the bad guys "from limb to limb", if necessary. Ironically, it was usually Barton himself who was destined to be at the end of a hiding (when not getting shot, instead), typically as snarling henchmen, outlaws and other assorted dubious or abrasive types throughout most of his 40-year acting career. In fact, Barton became so typecast, that his name was for a time used proverbially, to generally describe a shouting, hard-nosed ruffian.
After training at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, MacLane joined a stock company in Brooklyn. In 1927 he had his first part on Broadway, a brief moment as an assistant district attorney, in the melodrama "The Trial of Mary Dugan". He then played a small featured role as a police officer in "Subway Express" (1929-30), a drama enacted in the interior of a subway car. In mid-1932 MacLane tried his hand at writing his own starring vehicle for the stage, entitled "Rendezvous". While the play closed after just 21 performances, it led to a contract with Warner Brothers.
Barton had already appeared in bit roles for Paramount at their Astoria Studios, including The Marx Brothers' debut film The Cocoanuts (1929). He portrayed mobster Brad Collins in 'G' Men (1935) (with James Cagney), which set the tone for most of his future assignments. Brawny, with squinty eyes and a rasping voice, MacLane was the ideal surly tough guy, particularly suitable for westerns and the type of films noir Warner Brothers excelled at. He was often cast as cops, be they bent or honest. Some of his most representative performances include gangster Al Kruger in Bullets or Ballots (1936), which won him some of the best critical notices of his career; outlaw Jack Slade in Western Union (1941); crooked construction boss Pat McCormick, who gets beaten up by Humphrey Bogart and Tim Holt over past-due wages in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948); hard-nosed cops Detective Dundy in The Maltese Falcon (1941) and Lt. Reece in Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye (1950). MacLane, on loan to Universal, also had a starring role in Prison Break (1938) as an innocent tuna fisherman who is framed for murder. He was prominent as a tough but sympathetic cop, foil to sleuthing girl reporter Glenda Farrell in the "Torchy Blaine" series of the mid- to late 1930s. In the 1960s Barton began to cultivate a good-guy image as Marshal Frank Caine in the NBC western series Outlaws (1960) as well as showing up in a small recurring role as Air Force Gen. Martin Peterson in I Dream of Jeannie (1965).
Barton was married to the actress Charlotte Wynters, who appeared with him in six of his films. When not on the set, the couple spent time on their 2000-acre cattle ranch in Madera County, California. For his work in television, Barton has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.A lot of his characters were sourpusses, but I'm sure he wasn't.- Actor
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Actor, composer, songwriter, guitarist and author. He moved from Broadway acting (1928-1932) into films, touring America with his wife and daughter, and did some recordings. He was the executive producer at the El Camino Playhouse in California. Joining ASCAP in 1953, his chief musical collaborator was Perry Botkin. His popular-song compositions include "Good Ship Lalapaloo" and "Two Shillelagh O'Sullivan".Not the most flattering shot for the one-time heartthrob. :p It's from the movie "The Last Mile".- Actor
- Soundtrack
John Beal was born James Andrew Bliedung on August 13, 1909, in Joplin, Missouri. The son of a department store owner and concert pianist, he began acting in school and church plays and decided to pursue it as a career following his B.S. degree in economics from the University of Pennsylvania. The more marquee-friendly stage moniker of "John Beal" came from the names of two close college friends that same year.
Following repertory theatre work, he began his Broadway run as an understudy and walk-on before earning his first lead in the short-lived play "Wild Waves" in 1932. Following excellent notices in the hit play "Another Language," John repeated his showcase role in the film version of Another Language (1933) opposite Helen Hayes. Declining a Hollywood contract at the time, he returned to Broadway in 1933 for "She Loves Me Not". It wasn't long, however, before he was front-and-center again in films and showing great promise in RKO movie parts opposite Katharine Hepburn in both The Little Minister (1934) and Break of Hearts (1935), the title role in Laddie (1935) co-starring Gloria Stuart, and in the prime role of Marius in the Charles Laughton/Fredric March version of Les Misérables (1935).
Briefly signed by MGM, in which his best role was as Gladys George's son in the studio's classic, tear-stained drama Madame X (1937), WWII took the wind out of his career sails, serving as a staff sergeant in the motion picture unit of the Army Air Force. Theatre, radio and film would take up much of his time in the post-WWII years. Prestigious stage productions over time included "The Voice of the Turtle," "Lend an Ear," "The Teahouse of the August Moon," "Our Town," "The Long Christmas Dinner," "The Front Page," "To Be Young Gifted and Black" and "The Little Foxes". Excellent performances on TV in "A Trip to Bountiful," "Twelve Angry Men" and "The Long Way Home" added flavor and distinction to his later career.
Sporadic film roles included I Am the Law (1938), The Cat and the Canary (1939), One Thrilling Night (1942), My Six Convicts (1952), The Vampire (1957), The Sound and the Fury (1959), The Bride (1973), Amityville 3-D (1983), and his last, The Firm (1993), in which he played a bearded villain. He was never able again to achieve his early cinematic prowess of the early 1930s. In the 1960s Beal made a dent in daytime soap dramas, in particular his Judge Vail in the cult vampire series Dark Shadows (1966).
Long married (1934-1986) to actress Helen Craig and the father of two daughters, he focused on his passion for portrait painting in later years. Beal died in 1997 at age 87 in Santa Cruz, California, from the lingering effects of a stroke.That's him on the left. Well, his forehead and nose, anyway.- Actor
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William Claude Rains, born in the Clapham area of London, was the son of the British stage actor Frederick Rains. The younger Rains followed, making his stage debut at the age of eleven in "Nell of Old Drury." Growing up in the world of theater, he saw not only acting up close but the down-to-earth business end as well, progressing from a page boy to a stage manager during his well-rounded learning experience. Rains decided to come to America in 1913 and the New York theater, but with the outbreak of World War I the next year, he returned to serve with a Scottish regiment in Europe. He remained in England, honing his acting talents, bolstered with instruction patronized by the founder of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, Herbert Beerbohm Tree. It was not long before his talent garnered him acknowledgment as one of the leading stage actors on the London scene. His one and only silent film venture was British with a small part for him, the forgettable -- Build Thy House (1920).
In the meantime, Rains was in demand as acting teacher as well, and he taught at the Royal Academy. Young and eager Laurence Olivier and John Gielgud were perhaps his best known students. Rains did return to New York in 1927 to begin what would be nearly 20 Broadway roles. While working for the Theater Guild, he was offered a screen test with Universal Pictures in 1932. Rains had a unique and solid British voice-deep, slightly rasping -- but richly dynamic. And as a man of small stature, the combination was immediately intriguing. Universal was embarking on its new-found role as horror film factory, and they were looking for someone unique for their next outing, The Invisible Man (1933). Rains was the very man. He took the role by the ears, churning up a rasping malice and volume in his voice to achieve a bone chilling persona of the disembodied mad doctor. He could also throw out a high-pitched maniac laugh that would make you leave the lights on before going to bed. True to Universal's formula mentality, it cast him in similar roles through 1934 with some respite in more diverse film roles -- and further relieved by Broadway roles (1933, 1934) for the remainder of his contract. By 1936, he was at Warner Bros. with its ambitious laundry list of literary epics in full swing. His acting was superb, and his eyes could say as much as his voice. And his mouth could take on both a forbidding scowl and the warmest of smiles in an instant. His malicious, gouty Don Luis in Anthony Adverse (1936) was inspired. After a shear lucky opportunity to dispatch his young wife's lover, Louis Hayward, in a duel, he triumphs over her in a scene with derisive, bulging eyes and that high pitched laugh -- with appropriate shadow and light backdrop -- that is unforgettable.
He was kept very busy through the remainder of the 1930s with a mix of benign and devious historical, literary, and contemporary characters always adapting a different nuance -- from murmur to growl -- of that voice to become the person. He culminated the decade with his complex, ethics-tortured Senator "Joe" Paine in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939). That year he became an American citizen. Into the 1940s, Rains had risen to perhaps unique stature: a supporting actor who had achieved A-list stardom -- almost in a category by himself. His some 40 films during that period ranged from subtle comedy to psychological drama with a bit of horror revisited; many would be golden era classics. He was the firm but thoroughly sympathetic Dr. Jaquith in Now, Voyager (1942) and the smoothly sardonic but engaging Capt. Louis Renault -- perhaps his best known role -- in Casablanca (1942). He was the surreptitiously nervous and malignant Alexander Sebastian in Notorious (1946) and the egotistical and domineering conductor Alexander Hollenius in Deception (1946). He was the disfigured Phantom of the Opera (1943) as well. He played opposite the challenging Bette Davis in three movies through the decade and came out her equal in acting virtuosity. He was nominated four times for the Best Supporting Actor Oscar -- but incredibly never won. With the 1950s the few movies left to an older Rains were countered by venturing into new acting territory -- television. His haunted, suicidal writer Paul DeLambre in the mountaineering adventure The White Tower (1950), though a modest part, was perhaps the most vigorously memorable film role of his last years. He made a triumphant Broadway return in 1951's "Darkness at Noon."
Rains embraced the innovative TV playhouse circuit with nearly 20 roles. As a favored 'Alfred Hitchcock' alumnus, he starred in five Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955) suspense dramas into the 1960s. And he did not shy away from episodic TV either with some memorable roles that still reflected the power of Claude Rains as consummate actor -- for many, first among peers with that hallowed title.Mugshot? :p- Writer
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Graham Chapman was born on January 8, 1941 in Leicester, England while a German air raid was in progress. Graham's father was a chief police inspector and probably inspired the constables Graham often portrayed later in comedy sketches. Graham studied medicine in college and earned an M.D., but he practiced medicine for only a few years.
At Cambridge, he took part in a series of comedy revues and shortly after completing his medical studies at St. Bartholomew's Hospital, Graham realized what he wanted to do with his life. He wanted to perform comedy. In 1969, Graham along with University friends John Cleese, Eric Idle, Michael Palin, Terry Jones and American Terry Gilliam formed their own comedy group called Monty Python. Their BBC TV series Monty Python's Flying Circus (1969), which aired a short while later was a an instant hit. Their often self-referential style of humor was delightfully original but completely accessible to most audiences in the UK.
Before the show appeared on public television in the US, many people assumed that Americans would find Monty Python much too British to consider it funny. But PBS never had a larger audience than when stations began to air it during the early 1970s. The classic routines have since become standard college humor.
So enduring was the Python humor that fans know entire sketches such as "The Pet Shop," "Nudge-Nudge, Wink-Wink," "Argument Clinic," and "Penguin on the Telly." Graham was a standout of the group with his tall, blond profile and his zany characters (one of the more memorable was Colonel Muriel Volestrangler, a vaguely military-type character who would stop a sketch because it was "much too silly").
Graham was openly gay long before it was socially acceptable, and was open about his long-term relationship with writer David Sherlock, who lived with him for 24 years. He even adopted and raised a teenage runaway named John Tomiczek. Graham played the title role in the movie Life of Brian (1979) as well as King Arthur in Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975). By the late 1970s, most of the Python members were pursuing independent movie projects and the group was slowly fading into obscurity after their last successful effort The Meaning of Life (1983). Also in 1983, Graham co-wrote and starred in the movie Yellowbeard (1983), which received negative reviews.
In 1988, Graham began working on another series when his health began to decline. A longtime alcoholic, who suffered liver damage before he stopped drinking for good in 1977, Graham began to have trouble concentrating at work. In November 1988, a routine visit to a dentist revealed a malignant tumor on one of his tonsils which was surgically removed. A visit to the doctor a few months later revealed another tumor on his spine which had to be removed which confined him to a wheelchair. During most of 1989, he underwent a series of surgical operations and radiation therapy but for every tumor that was found and removed, another would form either along his spine or in his throat. By July 1989, his cancer was declared terminal and that he would not survive the year, yet he continued to pursue treatments which included chemotherapy. In his wheelchair, he attended the September 1989 taping for the Monty Python's 20th anniversary special. But on October 1, he was hospitalized after a massive stroke which turned into a hemorrhage. He died at the Maidstone hospital at age 48 on October 4, 1989 from complications of the stroke as well as throat and spinal cancer.I know he was a comedian, but still!- Actor
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Comedian David Herman was born on February 20, 1967, in New York, New York. He graduated from LaGuardia High School for the Performing Arts in 1985. He landed a role as one of the eight original cast members on the late night Fox sketch comedy show Mad TV (1995). After spending two full seasons on the show, he left, as did most of the original cast. In 1997, he began doing voicework on the Fox animated sitcom King of the Hill (1997), where he met writer/director/actor Mike Judge. Judge was so impressed with Herman he cast him in a supporting role as Michael Bolton in his critically acclaimed, cult classic 1999 comedy, Office Space (1999). Also in 1999, he began doing voices for the now-canceled Fox animated sitcom Futurama (1999). He currently resides in Los Angeles, California, where he supplied voices for King of the Hill (1997) and has had some supporting roles in movies.- Actor
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Jeffrey Lynn Goldblum was born October 22, 1952 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, one of four children of Shirley (Temeles), a radio broadcaster who also ran an appliances firm, and Harold L. Goldblum, a doctor. His father was of Russian Jewish descent and his mother was of Austrian Jewish ancestry.
Goldblum began his career on the New York stage after moving to the city at age seventeen. Possessing his own unique style of delivery, Goldblum made an impression on moviegoers with little more than a single line in Woody Allen's Annie Hall (1977), when he fretted about having forgotten his mantra. Goldblum went on to appear in the remake Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978) and co-starred with Ben Vereen in the detective series Tenspeed and Brown Shoe (1980) before a high-profile turn in the classic ensemble film The Big Chill (1983).
The quirky actor turned up in the suitably quirky film The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension (1984), which became a 1980s cult classic, starred in the modern-day film noir Into the Night (1985), then went on to a breakthrough role in the David Cronenberg remake The Fly (1986), which also featured actress Geena Davis, Goldblum's wife from 1987-1990 and co-star in two additional films: Transylvania 6-5000 (1985) and Julien Temple's Earth Girls Are Easy (1988).
Goldblum was the rather unlikely star of some of the biggest blockbusters of the 1990s: Steven Spielberg's dinosaur adventure Jurassic Park (1993) and its sequel The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997), as well as the alien invasion film Independence Day (1996). These films saw Goldblum playing the type of intellectual characters he has become associated with. More recently, roles have included critically acclaimed turns in Igby Goes Down (2002) and Wes Anderson's The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004). In 2009, he returned to television to star in his second crime series Law & Order: Criminal Intent (2001).I would expect nothing less.- Actor
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Alexander Johan Hjalmar Skarsgård was born in Stockholm, Sweden and is the eldest son of famed actor Stellan Skarsgård. Among his siblings are actors Gustaf Skarsgård, Bill Skarsgård, and Valter Skarsgård. For most of his formative years, his father was an acclaimed actor in Europe but had not yet achieved the international fame that came after his star turn in Breaking the Waves (1996). Young Alexander was raised under modest circumstances in a working-class Swedish neighborhood as his parents wanted their children to have as normal an upbringing as possible. He began his acting career at the age of eight and continued working in films and on Swedish television until he turned sixteen and decided acting was not the career for him. Life under a microscope lost its charm and perhaps due to the influence of My Skarsgård, his physician mother, he stopped working as an actor, to continue his education.
Instead of continuing college, at the age of nineteen, he entered compulsory military service (military conscription). He used the time to contemplate his future. He studied at the Leeds Metropolitan University then moved to New York where he enrolled at Marymount Manhattan College to study theatre. After six months in New York, a romantic entanglement lured him back to Sweden but the relationship was short-lived. Despite having a broken heart, Alexander decided to stay in Sweden and, with a bit of life experience under his belt, began his acting career again. He appeared in a number of Swedish productions and became a star in his native country but was interested in broadening his horizons and working outside of Sweden. A visit to Los Angeles landed him both an agent and a part in the Ben Stiller movie, Zoolander (2001). After that Alexander returned to Sweden where he continued honing his acting in film and theatrical productions including "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" and "Bloody Wedding". He also co-wrote and co-directed an award-winning short, Att döda ett barn (2003), (To Kill a Child), which was shown at both the Tribeca and Cannes Film Festivals.
His first big break was with the miniseries Generation Kill (2008). Alexander spent seven months broiling in the desert of Namibia but it was well worth it. His portrayal of Marine Sgt. Brad "Iceman" Colbert astonished critics and audiences, alike. Thanks to the writer's strike, after completing Generation Kill (2008), he was cast in the role of "Eric Northman", a 1,000-year-old Viking vampire on the hit series, True Blood (2008). The series was created by Alan Ball, the man behind Six Feet Under (2001). True Blood (2008) was adapted from the "Sookie Stackhouse' novels by Charlaine Harris' and rode to success on quality scripts, great acting and the public's obsession with the vampire genre. In addition to True Blood (2008), which begins its third season in 2010, Alexander has a number of film projects in the works including the remake of Straw Dogs (2011), Melancholia (2011), written and directed by Lars von Trier, action Sci-Fi film, Battleship (2012), and The East (2013), directed by Zal Batmanglij.Thanks for bringing this to my attention, RetroHound!- Paul E. Burns was born on 26 January 1881 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. He was an actor, known for Smoky River Serenade (1947), The Pilgrim Lady (1946) and Son of Paleface (1952). He died on 17 May 1967 in Van Nuys, California, USA.Sitting down on the job.
- Stephanie Blackmore was born on 13 April 1948 in the USA. She is an actress, known for Dallas (1978), Vega$ (1978) and Remington Steele (1982).Clear as mud.
- Born in Manhattan, son of big band leader Glenn Williams and Marilyn Williams, a former June Taylor dancer. Studied music and theatre at SUNY Oswego where he graduated in 1973 along with classmate Christine Estabrook ("Desperate Housewives"). Studied acting at the American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco in the mid-1970s where his classmates included Anna Deavere Smith and screenwriter Ken Hixon.Is that even him in the image? Probably not.
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Mr. Egan was the tough-talking New York City police officer whose exploits inspired the Academy Award winning film The French Connection (1971). With partner Sonny Grosso, he managed a 112-pound heroin bust in 1962, one of the biggest in New York's history. Mr. Egan was nicknamed 'Popeye' and was played in The French Connection (1971) by Gene Hackman. Mr. Egan played the role of his own boss. Mr. Egan, who retired to Fort Lauderdale, FL, in 1984, died "the toughest cop in New York", said Cheryl Kyle-Little, who shared a home with him. Kyle-Little said Mr. Egan was working on a movie deal at the time of his death.Well, he's supposedly one of those guys.- Robert Phillips was born on 10 April 1925 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. He was an actor, known for The Dirty Dozen (1967), Hour of the Gun (1967) and The Car (1977). He died on 5 November 2018.Definitely a favorite.
- Kathleen Case was born on 31 July 1933 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. She was an actress, known for Human Desire (1954), Running Wild (1955) and Highway Patrol (1955). She died on 22 July 1979 in North Hollywood, California, USA.I know it's only part of a larger picture, but that's kinda the problem. (update: the original is gone, replaced by a nice glamour photo)
- Victor Millan was born on 1 August 1920 in Los Angeles, California, USA. He was an actor, known for Touch of Evil (1958), Giant (1956) and Scarface (1983). He died on 3 April 2009 in Santa Monica, California, USA.In character or not? Haha.
- Kim Parker was born on 3 June 1932 in Vienna, Austria. She was an actress, known for Fiend Without a Face (1958), Stock Car (1955) and The Good Companions (1957). She was married to Paul Carpenter and Terry J. Howell. She died on 23 December 2010 in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA.From "Fiend Without a Face."
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Harry Cording was born on 26 April 1891 in Wellington, Somerset, England, UK. He was an actor, known for The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938), Narcotic (1933) and Gypsy Wildcat (1944). He was married to Margaret Fiero. He died on 1 September 1954 in Sun Valley, California, USA.- Actor
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Sam Laws was born on 26 January 1924 in Washington, District of Columbia, USA. He was an actor, known for Truck Turner (1974), Darktown Strutters (1975) and Project X (1987). He died on 16 March 1990 in New York City, New York, USA.- Harry Beresford was born on November 4, 1863 in London, England as Henry William Walter Horseley Beresford. He was an actor and writer, known for Seven Keys to Baldpate (1935), David Copperfield (1935) and Anna Karenina (1935).
He also used the stage name Harry's professional name was Harry J. Morgan.
His first marriage was to actress Emma Dunn, on October 4, 1897, in Chicago. They divorced on February 10, 1909, in New York City, and Dunn was awarded sole custody of their young daughter, Dorothy.
His second marriage was to Edith Wylie (actress). He died on October 4, 1944 in Los Angeles, California, USA. - Actor
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George Humbert was born on 29 July 1880 in Florence, Tuscany, Italy. He was an actor, known for Street Scene (1931), Why America Will Win (1918) and Officer Thirteen (1932). He died on 8 May 1963 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Actor
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Michael Crabtree is known for The Life of David Gale (2003), Real Genius (1985) and The Return of the Living Dead (1985).- Robert Winley was born on 9 December 1952 in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. He was an actor, known for Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), Joy Ride (2001) and Near Dark (1987). He died on 21 October 2001 in Costa Mesa, California, USA.
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Sassy comedienne Thelma White became a rather reluctant entry into cult film history with her infamous role as blonde vixen "Mae Colman", who pushes marijuana ("demon weed") onto unsuspecting school-age youths in the classic 1930s turkey Reefer Madness (1936) (originally titled "Tell Your Children"). It was not how she would have liked to be remembered, but obviously the fates decided differently. In the long run, Thelma managed to become a fairly good sport about the whole thing, finally making peace with the cult embrace.
She was born Thelma Wolpa in Lincoln, Nebraska in 1910, the daughter of itinerant carnival actors who traveled throughout the Midwest. She was barely two-years-old by the time she found herself part of the family circus act and received prime billing as "Baby Dimples". By age 10, she was old enough to join the popular singing and dancing team of "The White Sisters".
Thelma peaked fairly early on the vaudeville circuit with both the Ziegfeld Follies and Earl Carroll Revues, and went on to appear on Broadway alongside such stars as Milton Berle. Radio work started coming Thelma's way and, then, the movies.
RKO signed her up in 1928 and, while there, saw occasional freelancing trades to other studios for some of their two-reeler talkies. A number of these comedies, as well as some musicals, notably a series of Pathé, Vitaphone and MGM shorts, showcased the brightest comics of the day including Edgar Kennedy and Leon Errol. In her heyday, Thelma got to appear with the likes of W.C. Fields and Jack Benny. Progressing to "B" level feature work by 1935, the starlet co-starred with Richard Talmadge in the crimer Never Too Late (1935) before being pressured by the studio into appearing in the over-the-top propaganda drug film written by an overzealous religious group.
In "Tell Your Children," Thelma played a predatory vamp who is goaded on by her dope-pushing boyfriend into luring young students back to her apartment for a toke of the weed and resulting sex parties. She ends up regretting her ways and commits suicide by jumping out a window. The film was a certifiable bomb. The acting was horrible, the direction was wildly melodramatic and the writing inane and unintentionally funny. Nobody escaped its wrath and it pretty much poisoned Thelma's film career.
The movie was re-discovered in 1972 and given the cool, updated, hip name of Reefer Madness (1936). It had audiences rolling in the aisles, especially the ones who were high, and deservedly earned its place in the leagues of film cultdom. As for Thelma, she continued on with her career as best she could. Better known for her active private life, which included affairs with members of both sexes, she was reduced to bit roles once again with the exception of some prominent billing in the "Poverty Row" pics Spy Train (1943) and Bowery Champs (1944).
During the war, Thelma gamely went overseas as a USO performer alongside other such personalities as Carmen Miranda, but was forced to abandon her plans after contracting a rare form of polio while performing in the Aleutian Islands. Left bedridden and partially crippled for a number of years, she recovered enough to appear in a few more films and made her last with Mary Lou (1948). She subsequently became an agent for a number of Hollywood stars, including Debbie Reynolds, Robert Blake, James Coburn and actress-turned-cloistered-nun Dolores Hart. She also ventured into occasional film and TV producing.
Two failed marriages to actors Claude Stroud and Max Hoffman Jr. in the 30s and 40s led to a long and happy one with actor-cum-costume designer Maurice Millard. She was widowed in 1999 after 42 years. She had no children by her marriages.
Thelma died of pneumonia at the age of 94 on January 11, 2005, at the Motion Picture and Television Hospital in Woodland Hills, California.- Stunts
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He first came to the USA as a boy member of the famed acrobats, the Mazetti Troupe, that had been engaged by Barnum & Bailey Circus. Richard began in films, supposedly, as a stunt double for Doug Fairbanks, Sr., then graduated to films under his own name.- Actor
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The son of Swedish actress Viveca Lindfors and American director Don Siegel, actor Kristoffer Tabori was born in the wealthy area of Malibu on August 4, 1952, and appeared in one of his mother's films Weddings and Babies (1958) as a youngster. His parents divorced when he was barely a year old and his mother subsequently married Hungarian writer/director George Tabori. Kristoffer would use the name "Tabori" for his own.
Kristoffer started making the theater rounds in the late 60s, taking his first official stage bow with "The Merchant of Venice" at the Berkshire Theatre Festival in 1966. In 1968, the teenager appeared off-Broadway with his mother at the Lucille Lortel Theatre in the Bertolt Brecht play 'The Guns of Carrar," which was translated by stepfather George. After a role in "A Cry of Players" that same year, he made his 1969 Broadway debut in "The Penny Wars" and followed this immediately with a part in "Henry V" starring Len Cariou. Earlier in 1970, Kristoffer was presented with the Theatre World Award for his excellent work in "How Much, How Much?"
Tabori's stage success led to progressive strides in '70s film wherein he became a product of his generation playing lean. long-haired hippies and liberal thinker types. In unbilled movie bits as a late teen (including a flower child in the musical Sweet Charity (1969)), the nascent actor also made an unbilled appearance in his father's cop action drama Coogan's Bluff (1968), one of several projects that had Don Siegel directing Clint Eastwood.
Kristoffer earned strong reviews for his very first film lead in Making It (1971) as a sex-obsessed 17-year-old who suffers a heavy, traumatic experience with his mother, played by Joyce Van Patten. While this opened doors for major roles in such offbeat films as The Sidelong Glances of a Pigeon Kicker (1970) and Journey Through Rosebud (1972), it did not pave the way to movie stardom. He started impressing on the smaller screen instead with quality TV-movies including A Memory of Two Mondays (1971), The Glass House (1972), QB VII (1974), The Lady's Not for Burning (1974), Seventh Avenue (1977), Rappaccini's Daughter (1980), London Embassy (1987), The Hound of the Baskervilles (1988) and Marilyn & Bobby: Her Final Affair (1993).
Kristoffer also racked up dozens of guest appearances on such popular TV programs as "Medical Center," "Marcus Welby," "Owen Marshall," "Cannon," "The Rookies," "Baretta," "The Rockford Files," "Trapper John," "The Facts of Life," "The (New) Twilight Zone," "21 Jump Street," "Designing Women," "Quantum Leap," "Jake and the Fatman," "Matlock" and "Murder, She Wrote." He also played a regular part as a doctor on the dramatic series Chicago Story (1982).
In the mid 1970s and into the next decade, Kristoffer turned more and more to the stage, joining, at various times, the Arena Stage theater company in Washington, D.C., Southern California's South Coast Repertory and appearing at the National Shakespeare Festival. He embellished his impressive theatre resumé with roles in "Dream of a Blacklisted Actor," "Hamlet" (title role), "Habeas Corpus" (a replacement on Broadway), "Romeo and Juliet," "Henry IV, Part I," "The Wager," "Scribes," "St. Joan," "The Trouble with Europe," "Measure for Measure" and "Boy Meets Girl." In 1980, he appeared on stage with his mother in "An Evening with Viveca Lindfors and Kristoffer Tabori."
In the 1990s, Tabori focused on directing, predominantly on TV, helming episodes for such series as "Picket Fences," "Chicago Hope," "Providence" and "Judging Amy." Shortly before his mother's death in 1995, he appeared as her son in the film Last Summer in the Hamptons (1995). Kristofffer has also lent his crisp voice to scores of video games that focused on the "Battlestar Galactica" and "Star Wars" target area.
Kristoffer married British actress Judy Geeson in 1984, appearing on stage together in "The Common Pursuit" (1986) before divorcing in 1989.- Actor
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Alex Stevens was born on 6 January 1936 in Hartford, Connecticut, USA. He was an actor and director, known for Superman (1978), Black Rain (1989) and Goodfellas (1990). He was married to Pota Poulos. He died on 14 April 2015 in New York City, New York, USA.- The beautiful Norma Eberhardt was born in Oakhurst, New Jersey. Norma developed a love for movies early. She was at a Easter Parade event with her mother when a well-known photographer stopped her and gave her his business card. When she turned seventeen, she got on a train and went straight to New York to find the photographer. She found out after she got there that she needed her mother to sign papers, in order for Norma to model for the photos because she was only seventeen. The photographer had to drive her all the way back to New Jersey. After Norma's mother signed the papers, her modeling career began. She became a John Robert Powers model. After modeling successfully for a few years in New York, this led to an acting career on television. Norma went out to Hollywood in 1951 and she was put under contract to Universal International studios. She appeared on television first and, later, her "first" film appearance was in a small part in Sailor Beware (1952). Also interesting is that this Martin & Lewis comedy would be the second film role for James Dean, also in a small part.
Afterwards, her first main film role was as an "agorphobic" girl (Louise) in Problem Girls (1953) (aka "The Velvet Cage"), also starring Beverly Garland and Ross Elliot and directed by German director Ewald André Dupont. The storyline concerned a school for rich troubled girls. Norma later married French actor Claude Dauphin in 1955. Norma went on to appear in many more television roles, like Whirlybirds (1957), Telephone Time (1956), Captain Gallant of the Foreign Legion (1955). Then, in 1957, she got a role in the cult exploitation classic, Live Fast, Die Young (1958) with Mary Murphy and Mike Connors.
Earlier, when Norma first arrived in Hollywood, she roomed at The Studio Club For Women, where Mary Murphy also roomed. It was Norma's next film for which she would be always be remembered by horror film aficionados, as "Rachel" in The Return of Dracula (1958)! Released in (1958) by United Artists and written by Pat Fielder and directed by Paul Landres. - An extremely versatile character actor and originator of several memorable characterizations in the horror film genre, Dwight Frye had a notable theatrical career in the 1920s, moving from juvenile parts to leads before entering film. A favorite actor of Broadway theatrical producer-director Brock Pemberton, he originated the part of "the Son" in his hit 1922 production of Luigi Pirandello's "Six Characters in Search of an Author". Pemberton would continue to employ Frye in Broadway productions throughout the decade. Cast with Bela Lugosi in a 1926 production of "The Devil and the Cheese", he ultimately appeared in at least two Lugosi films.
Despite (or perhaps because of) his memorable, impassioned portrayals of real estate agent-cum-madman Renfield in Tod Browning's Dracula (1931) and Fritz the sadistic hunchbacked lab-assistant in James Whale's Frankenstein (1931), the industry seemed determined to typecast Frye, and his film career would be marked with frustration. The Crime of Doctor Crespi (1935) offered him billing second only to that of villain Erich von Stroheim, but all too soon, he was consigned to playing a lackluster array of crazies, spies, red herrings, grasping heirs and bit parts. He occasionally returned to the stage in comedies, musicals, and thrillers such as "Night Must Fall" and a stage version of "Dracula".
Frye was perplexed to find that his versatility in the theatre went unnoticed in Hollywood, where he was relegated to lunatic roles and often had his parts severely cut. Indeed, in Son of Frankenstein (1939) his role was deemed as unnecessary when an abrupt switch was made from Technicolor to black-and-white after his scenes were shot.
Dwight Frye, a devout Christian Scientist, had concealed a heart-condition from his friends and family. After the outbreak of WWII, unable to enlist, he worked nights (between films and local theatre-productions) as a draftsman for the Lockheed Aircraft Co. An uncanny physical resemblance to then-Secretary of War Newton Baker led his to being signed to a substantial role in Wilson (1944), directed by Henry King, based on the life of U.S. President Woodrow Wilson, but Frye succumbed to a heart-attack on a crowded bus a few days after being cast while returning home from a movie with his son. He was buried at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Glendale, California. - Actor
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Johnny Vegas was born on 11 September 1971 in St. Helens, Merseyside, England, UK. He is an actor and producer, known for Bleak House (2005), The Libertine (2004) and Happiness (2001). He has been married to Maia Dunphy since March 2011. They have one child. He was previously married to Catherine "Kitty" Donnelly.- Actress
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Betty Hutton was born Elizabeth June Thornburg on February 26, 1921, in Battle Creek, Michigan. Two years later, Betty's father decided that the family way of life wasn't for him, so he left (he committed suicide 16 years later). Having to fend for themselves, Mrs. Thornburg moved the family to Detroit to find work in the numerous auto factories there, but times were hard and she decided to take advantage of Prohibition and opened a small tavern, at the time called a speakeasy. The police were always looking for those types of operation, both big and small, and when they detected one, they swooped in and closed it down. Mrs. Thornburg was no different from the other owners, they simply moved elsewhere. Poverty was a constant companion. In addition to that, Mrs. Thornburg was an alcoholic.
At nine years old, Betty began singing publicly for the first time in a school production. Realizing the voice Betty had, her mother took her around Detroit to have her sing to any group that would listen. This was a small way of getting some money for the poor family. When she was 13, Betty got a few singing jobs with local bands in the area. Thinking she was good enough to make the big time, she left for New York two years later to try a professional career. Unfortunately, it didn't work out and Betty headed back to Detroit.
In 1937, Betty was hired by Vincent Lopez who had a popular band that appeared on the local radio. Later, she would return to New York and it was here that her career took off. Betty found herself on Broadway in 1940, and it was only a matter of time before her career took off to bigger heights. The following year, she left New York for Hollywood, where she was to find new life in films. She was signed by Paramount Pictures and made her debut, at 21, in The Fleet's In (1942), along with Eddie Bracken, William Holden and Dorothy Lamour. Reviews were better than expected, with critics looking favorably upon her work. She had previously appeared in a few musical shorts, which no doubt helped her in her first feature film. She made one more musical in 1942 and two more in 1943.
In 1944, she tried to break away from musicals and try her hand in a screwball comedy, The Miracle of Morgan's Creek (1943). She proved - to herself, the public and the critics - that she was marketable outside musicals. In subsequent films, Betty was able to show her comedic side as well as her singing. In 1948, she appeared in her first big box-office bomb, Dream Girl (1948), which was ripped to shreds by critics, as was Betty's acting, and the movie flopped at the box office. It wasn't long before Betty became unhappy with her career. In truth, she had the acting talent, but the parts she got weren't the types to showcase that. Though she did appear in three well-received films later, Red, Hot and Blue (1949), Annie Get Your Gun (1950) and The Greatest Show on Earth (1952), her career was winding down.
Later, after filming Somebody Loves Me (1952), Betty was all but finished. She had married Charles O'Curran that year and he wanted to direct her in an upcoming film. Paramount didn't like the idea and the temper tantrum-prone Betty walked out of her contract and movies. She did concentrate on the relatively new medium of television and the stage, but she never recovered her previous form. Her final film was a minor one, Spring Reunion (1956). Her TV series, The Betty Hutton Show (1959), didn't fare too well at all. Betty lived in quiet retirement in Palm Springs, California until her death on March 11, 2007. She was 86 years old.- Actor
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For a while he worked on the management side of his father's sporting goods firm in Belfast, but by the mid fifties he was in the chorus of an amateur dramatic and operatic society. He'd fallen for a girl member so joined the society to get to know her. While he soon got over her, he'd become fascinated by acting. He sang in 'Annie Get Your Gun', played Judd in 'Oklahoma', then later joined the local repertory company. In 1959 moved to London where he quickly made a reputation as a character actor moving from theatre to films.- Edward Woods was born on 5 July 1903 in Los Angeles, California, USA. He was an actor, known for The Public Enemy (1931), Marriage on Approval (1933) and Hot Saturday (1932). He was married to Gabrielle Margery Morris. He died on 8 October 1989 in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA.
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Fred Allen, the well-known comedian who went on to star in radio, television, and film, was born John Florence Sullivan in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1894 and educated at Boston University. His Broadway shows include "The Passing Show of 1922" and "The Greenwich Village Follies".
He produced, wrote,and starred in a network radio show entitled at various times "Linit Bath Club Revue", Town Hall Tonight", Texaco Star Theater" and finally "The Fred Allen Show" from 1932 to 1949. He was also a semi-regular on the network radio program "The Big Show" from 1950 to 1952. He was a frequent guest on "The Jack Benny Program". Jack and Fred, good friends in real life, had an accidental on air feud that begin in 1936 and lasted off and on until Fred Allen's passing.
On television, he was one of the regular rotating hosts of the Colgate Comedy Hour (1950), but did not renew his initial contract due to health reasons. He also starred on television's "Judge for Yourself" from 1953 to 1954 and was a regular panelist on What's My Line" from 1954 until his death.
He appeared in such films as "Thanks a Million", "Love Thy Neighbor", "Sally, Irene, and Mary", and "It's in the Bag".
He wrote two autobiographies. The first,about his days in radio, published in 1954, entitled "Treadmill to Oblivion". The second, about his days in vaudeville, was published after his death by his wife Portland Hoffa, entitled "Much Ado About Me." (1956). Fred was in the process of completing the final chapter at the time of his death. Also always known as an avid letter writer, a collection of these entitled "Fred Allen's Letters" was published in 1966.- Marcel was another scene-stealing character actor who came to the fore during the early years of television. He built a 40-year long career in Hollywood playing the archetypal French gendarme, maître d' or small time crook. In fact, the balding, steely-eyed little actor was born in Cologne (Germany) as Erwin Ottmar Hiller, the son of music journalist and opera singer Paul Hiller. He appeared first on stage under the name Harry Furster in order to disguise his Jewish ancestry but was eventually put in jail by the Nazis, somehow escaped, then made his way to America. He began to act in television from 1952, subsequently appearing on the Broadway stage in "The Heavenly Twins", followed by "Silk Stockings" three years later. From then on, he quickly settled on his French impersonations which would become his stock-in-trade.
Marcel excelled in comical portrayals of stereotypical characters. He was memorably larger-than-life in his first motion picture, the romantic comedy Sabrina (1954) as 'the professor' who vainly attempts to teach budding cordon bleu chef Audrey Hepburn how to break an egg. During most of the 1960s Marcel worked on the MGM lot European section where he was especially active in the spy spoof genre, notably The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (1964), Get Smart (1965) and I Spy (1965), often as well-meaning, but bumbling secret agents. He was also popularly employed in science fiction, appearing twice on The Twilight Zone (1959) and at the beginning and end of the third season of Lost in Space (1965), as two different characters.
One of Marcel's quirkiest caricatures was that of 'Fritz' , from the brilliantly inventive Woody Allen comedy Take the Money and Run (1969). 'Fritz' was the once-famous German film director hired by would-be bank robber Virgil Starkwell (Allen) to shoot a scene of a bank heist as a cover for the real bank job (eventually frustrated by a rival gang getting in on the act). Marcel played the part -- in what was arguably one of the funniest scenes in the film -- with a jaundiced eye towards the behavioral idiosyncrasies of real-life German director Fritz Lang. For the next decade, Marcel continued to appear on the small screen though he rarely had the same opportunities to shine that he did in the swinging 60's. Never married, he spent his remaining life in Los Angeles, where he died during complications from surgery in January 1988, aged 79. - Robert Osterloh was born on 31 May 1918 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. He was an actor, known for Gun Crazy (1950), Riot in Cell Block 11 (1954) and Baby Face Nelson (1957). He was married to Harriet Cecilia Hughes. He died on 16 April 2001 in Los Osos, California, USA.
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Zazie Beetz (born c. 1991) is a German-American actress known for the role of Vanessa on Atlanta (2016), as well as for starring in Deadpool 2 (2018), Joker (2019), and Nine Days (2020).
Born in Berlin to a German father and an African-American mother, Beetz was raised in New York speaking both German and English at home. Performing in community theaters and local stages since childhood, Zazie found her joy in grade school and grew up acting. She attended LaGuardia Arts High school, where she continued to engage her love for performing arts, but decided to not pursue a conservatory program afterward. Instead, she went to Skidmore College, where she received a bachelor's degree in French. Beetz currently resides in her hometown, New York.- Roger C. Carmel, who was born September 27, 1932, was named after his grandfather, Roger Charles, who carved the horses for the carousel in New York's Central Park. He became an actor and won television immortality by appearing as Harry Mudd in two classic Star Trek (1966) episodes, "I, Mudd" and "Mudd's Women" (Carmel was one of the few guest actors on Star Trek (1966) to appear in more than one episode as the same character).
After appearing on stage, Carmel began working steadily on television in the early 1960s as a character actor, appearing on both dramas ("Route 66") and situation-comedies (The Dick Van Dyke Show (1961). In 1967, he was cast as the husband of Kaye Ballard's character on NBC's Desi Arnaz Productions' sitcom The Mothers-In-Law (1967), Desi Arnazs first production since I Love Lucy (1951). NBC was disappointed by the mediocre ratings of The Mothers-In-Law (1967), and almost canceled it. It picked the show up for a second season after rival network ABC expressed interest in the show, but NBC informed Arnaz that they would not give any additional money for the show. Traditionally, salaries are increased when a TV show is picked up for a new season, and all the actors' contracts specifically called for raises in the event of renewal. Arnaz, who was also producer, director, and writer, called together the cast and crew and told them that although the series had been renewed, there was no money for salary increases.
According to Carmel's own recollection, Arnaz was already drawing down multiple salaries on the program, and would shortly cast himself as a supporting character in the series, thus drawing another salary, although Carmel didn't know that at the time. Arnaz elicited a promise from the creative people, the crew and the actors to forgo salary increases to keep the show on the air. All the actors agreed but one. Carmel told Arnaz he would quit unless he received a raise, as per his contract. In a contemporaneous account of the incident, Carmel said, "Desi called me and put it on a personal basis. I didn't feel it should be done that way - it was very unfair of him. Then Desi and the Morris Agency threatened I would be replaced. Kaye Ballard and Eve Arden also called me and asked me to go along, but I wouldn't."
Arnaz's response to Carmel's ultimatum was dismissive. "Where else is he going to make two thousand dollars a week?", the producer asked rhetorically. If Arnaz's Desilu production company gave in to Carmel, it would be faced with giving all the cast members a raise, which was financially unviable with the money on offer from NBC. Arnaz was forced to terminate Carmel, who was replaced by Richard Deacon for the second season. The show had poor ratings and was canceled following its second season.
After leaving "The Mothers-in-Law", Carmel's acting career suffered. Other than his Harry Mudd appearances, Carmel's most memorable gig on TV was as the very campy guest villain Colonel Gumm on Batman (1966) in 1967. He made regular appearances on the syndicated quiz TV show "Stump The Stars" from 1968-70. Carmel even reprised his most famous role, that of Harry Mudd, in an episode of the animated version of "Star Trek" (1973-75), an indicator of the direction of his future career. However, during the 1970s, he could not secure another regular role as an ongoing character on a TV series, though he continued to appear regularly on sitcoms, mostly in ethnic roles, including appearances on "All In The Family", "Chico and The Man", and "Three's Company". He also appeared in B-movie bombs, including the Jerry Lewis flop "Hardly Working" (1981).
At the dawn of the new decade of the 1980s, Carmel finally got another opportunity for the first time in a dozen years, when he was cast as a regular on the network program Fitz and Bones (1981). An hour-long drama starring the TV comedy-musical duo The Smothers Brothers as investigative reporters, the show was a ratings failure, lasting only one month. After this monumental flop ("Fitz and Bones" was the lowest-rated series for the entire 1981-82 season), character parts dried up and Carmel was reduced to doing voice-over work for children's cartoons, including "The Transformers".
Carmel's last triumph as an actor was in commercials. He was a huge hit in advertising playing Senor Naugles, a faux-Mexican Colonel Sanders clone, for the West Coast region Mexican fast food chain Naugles. The commercials were a success and the chain began expanding rapidly. However, both the renewed success of Carmel and the fresh success of the chain were, sadly, to prove short-lived.
According to acquaintances, Carmel suffered chest pains on the night he died and called a cab to take him to the hospital. When the cab showed up at his Hollywood high-rise but Carmel did not come down to get it, the doorman sent the cab away, never inquiring why he failed to appear. Carmel was found dead on the floor of his apartment the next morning, November 11, 1986. While there were rumors that he committed suicide (he was rumored to be a recreational drug user), the official cause of death was listed as hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a disease of the heart muscle in which the organ becomes enlarged. The condition leads to congestive heart failure. Carmel was only 54 years old. He was interred in Glendale, New York.
After Carmel's death, Naugles failed to come up with another successful ad campaign, and eventually, its financial fortunes changed. It was eventually acquired by rival, Del Taco. - Francis Compton was born on 4 May 1885 in Malvern, Worcestershire, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Witness for the Prosecution (1957), The DuPont Show of the Month (1957) and Robert Montgomery Presents (1950). He was married to Mary Wetmore Wells. He died on 17 September 1964 in St. Joseph's Hospital, Stamford, Connecticut, USA.
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Popular American star of silent and early sound westerns and serials. Raised in Michigan, he went through a number of strenuous jobs (sailor, boxer, lumberjack, coal miner, etc.) before landing in Los Angeles and getting work as a movie extra and stuntman. His good looks and athletic physique (he was a champion weightlifter) led to an offer to play the lead in a series of silent westerns, which he filmed under the stage name Bill Burns. In 1925, FBO signed him and changed his name to Tom Tyler. He became one of the studio's most popular action stars and initially made a smooth transition into talking pictures, for which he worked hard to lose his natural Lithuanian accent. As the '30s progressed, however, he began to face stiff competition in the arena of B-westerns and started taking supporting roles in larger-budget pictures, such as Stagecoach (1939) and Gone with the Wind (1939). In 1941, he took on perhaps his most famous role as the eponymous hero of Adventures of Captain Marvel (1941). This serial and several others brought him new fame, but within three years of playing Captain Marvel, Tyler's career was almost ended when his health failed. Rheumatoid arthritis crippled him and he was reduced to occasional minor supporting roles, often for John Ford, for whom he had worked in a number of films prior to his illness. During the last part of his career 1948-54, though reportedly in poor health, he appeared in supporting roles in over 35 films and TV series, including TV episodes of "The Lone Ranger", "The Cisco Kid", "The Range Rider", "Gene Autry", "Cowboy G-Men", and "Dick Tracy". He also co-starred with Tom Keene in an unsold TV pilot, "Crossroad Avengers" (1953), written and directed by Ed Wood. He eventually returned to live with his sister in the Detroit area and died there of heart failure at the age of 50 in 1954.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Laura Lee was born on 31 July 1910 in Brooklyn, New York, USA. She was an actress, known for Top Speed (1930), Maybe It's Love (1930) and Going Wild (1930). She died on 13 October 1981 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Actor
- Writer
Long-faced, emaciated-looking character actor with a thin mustache and an impeccable English accent, Anthony Dawson was typecast in a variety of villainous roles in the 1950s and 1960s.
He was born Anthony Douglas Gillon Dawson in Edinburgh, Scotland, to Ida Violet (Kittel) and Eric Francis Dawson. His father was Scottish and his mother was of German and English descent. Dawson made his greatest impact in the Alfred Hitchcock classic Dial M for Murder (1954). He was excellent as Lesgate, seedy ex-Cambridge classmate of would-be wife murderer Wendice (Ray Milland). In the scene where Wendice blackmails him to commit the killing ("There were times I felt you belonged to me"), he is nervous and visibly torn between fear and avarice. Dawson gave similarly sinister performances in the thriller Midnight Lace (1960), where he menaced hapless Doris Day, and the Terence Fisher-directed Hammer horror The Curse of the Werewolf (1961) as Count Siniestro. In a film by Terence Young, the James Bond classic Dr. No (1962), Dawson played the geologist Prof. R.J.Dent, a henchman of the title character who attempts to assassinate the hero, then finds out to his cost what Bond's "license to kill" really means.
Dawson was also the first screen incarnation of Bond villain Ernst Stavro Blofeld (in From Russia with Love (1963) and Thunderball (1965)), though the viewer only sees his hands stroking a white cat and hears the voice of Austrian actor Eric Pohlmann. A highly capable, immediately recognizable actor, Dawson deserved better roles than came his way after the mid-1960s. He eventually ended up playing small parts in minor Italian films and European co-productions, but should not be confused with the Italian horror director Antonio Margheriti who sometimes used the pseudonym 'Anthomy M. Dawson'.
An interesting footnote to Dawson's career are his unpublished memoirs, "Rambling Recollections", in which he vividly recalls meeting Hitchcock after first arriving in Hollywood. This took place at a dinner party given by the director at Perino's Restaurant in Los Angeles. Also present were 'Dial M' co-stars Grace Kelly and English actor John Williams. Dawson later escorted Kelly to her residence at Chateau Marmont, an apartment bloc on Sunset Strip. Dawson then intimated that an affair took place, which, however lasted just until Ray Milland arrived on the scene.- Writer
- Actress
- Additional Crew
Carolyn Purdy-Gordon was born on 3 June 1947 in Michigan, USA. She is a writer and actress, known for Re-Animator (1985), From Beyond (1986) and Fortress (1992). She was previously married to Stuart Gordon.- Ted Sorel was born on 14 November 1936 in San Francisco, California, USA. He was an actor, known for From Beyond (1986), Network (1976) and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993). He was married to Jacqueline Coslow. He died on 30 November 2010 in Englewood, New Jersey, USA.
- Instantly recognizable American character actor with bulbous nose and heavily lined face, who could convey integrity or menace to equal effect. He first came to prominence on radio as (Captain) Starr of Space (1953), using ray guns to combat Martians and alien queens. Beginning in 1953, Larch accumulated an impressive resume of TV series credits, spanning almost the entire spectrum of the best western, crime and science-fiction shows the 1950's and 60's had to offer. His authoritarian personality and demeanor generally typecast him as police officers, military men, attorneys and politicians. Quite a few of these turned out to be either corrupt or outright villains. Point in case, his performance as a tough hood in The Phenix City Story (1955), described by Bosley Crowther as "stinging" in "hard malevolence" (New York Times, September 3, 1955).
At his best, Larch was the nervous Mr. Fremont, father to the eminently dangerous Anthony (Bill Mumy) in the classic entry into The Twilight Zone (1959), 'It's a Good Life'. In The Invaders (1967) episode 'Genesis', he was again excellent as police officer Greg Lucather, at first skeptical, but subsequently swayed by irrefutable evidence to help in David Vincent's quest. On the big screen, he is perhaps best remembered as Harry Callahan's Chief of Police in the original Dirty Harry (1971). - A barrel-chested, bull-necked presence on stage, film and TV, the tough-minded character actor was born Adolphus Jean Sweet in New York City on July 18, 1920, the son of an auto mechanic. He initially attended the University of Alabama in 1939, but his studies were interrupted by WWII Air Force duty. As a navigator of B-24s, he was shot down during a raid and captured, spending two years as a POW in Germany. For his valor he was honored with the Distinguished Flying Cross and The Purple Heart.
A semi-pro football player and a boxer at one point, he received his Masters from Columbia University in 1949 at age 29. He subsequently became the head of the drama division of the English Department at Barnard College from 1949 to 1961. During this period of time he studied voice with Peyton Hibbett, took intensive acting classes with Tamara Daykarhanova and Joseph Anthony at the Daykarhanova School for the Stage in New York City, and appeared in random stock productions in the hopes of one day pursuing a professional career full-time.
The 40-something-year-old Sweet finally made his New York/Broadway debut in the Zero Mostel starrer "Rhinoceros" in 1961, and continued on the Great White Way with outstanding parts in "Romulus" (1962), "The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window in 1964 (and its 1972 revival) and "Streamers" in 1976. Making his TV debut with "The Defenders" in 1961, Dolph quickly became a veteran of blue-collar cop shows including "East Side, West Side" and "The Trials of O'Brien." In the late 1960s he started making a dent in soap operas with regular roles on Dark Shadows (1966), The Edge of Night (1956), Somerset (1970) and especially Another World (1964), where he remained for five seasons (1972-1977) playing (of course) Police Chief Gil McGowan, the second husband of Constance Ford's beloved Ada Davis character.
Dolph received rather scant notice for his film roles despite some good scenes in such movies as Fear Is the Key (1972) and Go Tell the Spartans (1978). TV proved to be a more accepting medium for the actor. He portrayed J. Edgar Hoover in the "King" miniseries in 1978 and in the early 1980s the portly character player won a change-of-pace comedy lead in the popular sitcom Gimme a Break! (1981) in which he played (naturally) a police chief, Carl Kanisky, a widower whose household was run by the irrepressible Nell Carter.
During the show's run, Dolph was stricken with cancer and would die on May 8, 1985. At the beginning of the 1985-1986 season, the chief's passing was incorporated into the script and Nell became surrogate mother and father to his children. In real-life, the 64-year-old actor was survived by his second wife of 11 years, actress Iris Braun, and son Jonathan from his first marriage to Reba Gillespie, which ended in divorce in 1973. - Actor
- Soundtrack
Gus Schilling was born on 20 June 1908 in New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for Citizen Kane (1941), The Lady from Shanghai (1947) and Macbeth (1948). He died on 16 June 1957 in Hollywood, California, USA.- Guy Wilkerson was born on 21 December 1899 in Whitewright, Texas, USA. He was an actor, known for The Fugitive (1963), Captain Midnight (1942) and Return of the Rangers (1943). He died on 15 July 1971 in Hollywood, California, USA.
- Richard Coogan was born on 4 April 1914 in Short Hills, New Jersey, USA. He was an actor, known for Captain Video and His Video Rangers (1949), Bronco (1958) and Girl on the Run (1953). He died on 12 March 2014 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
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- Soundtrack
Donald Douglas was born on 24 August 1905 in Kinleyside, Scotland, UK. He was an actor, known for Murder, My Sweet (1944), Gilda (1946) and Fast Company (1938). He died on 31 December 1945 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Actor
- Writer
- Soundtrack
This one-time wiry, curly-haired juvenile actor of 30s Depression era films grabbed major focus toward the end of his acting career as 50s space hero Tom Corbett on the smaller screen, then moved away from the limelight finally seeing his future in the cards.
He was born Frank M. Thomas, Jr. on April 9, 1921, the only child of acting Manhattanites Frank M. Thomas and Mona Bruns. Well-established on the New York stage, his parents encouraged their young son into the business. The young actor first conquered Broadway in the early 30s appearing with Mildred Natwick and James Stewart in "Carry Nation" (1932) at age 11. He made a few more Broadway appearances, including Little Ol' Boy (1933) and "Thunder on the Left" (1933) before tackling films, making his debut creating his stage role in Wednesday's Child (1934) as the teenage son of Karen Morley and Edward Arnold. Both of his parents appeared in minor roles. Frankie went on to star in the sentimental tearjerker A Dog of Flanders (1935), then headed the cast as the titular young hero searching for his father in Africa in Tim Tyler's Luck (1937). Although he was just one of the boys in MGM's Boys Town (1938) and just one of the Little Tough Guys (a branching off of the "Dead End Kids") in Little Tough Guys in Society (1938), he managed to grab a co-starring role and become a brief bobbysoxer crush playing Ted Nickerson, little Bonita Granville's dry-humored, sleuthing boyfriend, in the four-episode "Nancy Drew" mystery film series, which ran from 1938-1939. He played tough in such movies as Angels Wash Their Faces (1939) and a number of military cadet types in such films as On Dress Parade (1939), Flying Cadets (1941) and The Major and the Minor (1942) before military duty itself called, signifying the abrupt end of a seemingly promising start as an adult film actor.
He served with both the Navy and the Coast Guard during WWII. Upon his discharge, he moved to New York and found steady radio work (over 1500 programs) as well as parts on early TV daytime such as the 15-minute serial A Woman to Remember (1949), which was the first five-times-a-week soaper to evolve. He received lasting fame and cult identification, however, the following year when he was cast in the title role of Tom Corbett, Space Cadet (1950), as a cadet in training for the elite Solar Guard, 400 years in the future. An All-American hero to children nationwide, sci-fi was a huge rage at that time and he stayed with the show for five years. It was a 15-minute program that aired live three times a week.
Following this peak of fame, Frankie gave up acting altogether and wrote for radio and TV. He also produce the "Four Star Theater" for a time. Remaining a bachelor for much of his adult life, he lived a rather enviable Omar Sharif existence as a bridge master who taught recreational bridge while playing on the circuit with all the other master players. In addition to that, he continued to hone his writing talents as a mystery novelist. In the late 1980s, he met and married wife Virginia who had two children from a prior marriage. His wife died in 1997. Frankie passed away of respiratory failure in Sherman Oaks, California nine years later.- Tor Johnson was a big man, with a big heart, who was born October 19, 1903, in Sweden.
Most of his adult life, he was a professional wrestler. Tor started appearing (uncredited, or in bit parts) in movies as early as 1934. He was in 31 movies, usually as "Weightlifter" or "Strongman."
Later, he got larger roles with character names. Tor was in the Bing Crosby - Bob Hope movie Road to Rio (1947) as Samson; and had a part in Abbott and Costello in the Foreign Legion (1950) as Abou Ben.
Contrary to how it was depicted in the semi-documentary "Ed Wood," that Ed approached Tor and asked him if he ever fancied the notion of becoming an actor (and starting his film career), Ed worked with Tor towards the end of his movie career. Ed Wood got Tor to portray Lobo in Bride of the Monster (1955). After appearing in 3 other movies, Ed Wood cast Tor in Plan 9 from Outer Space (1957).
Then Ed had Tor reprise his role of Lobo for Night of the Ghouls (1959) -- in that movie, Paul Marco (Kelton the Cop) had a full load in the prop gun he fired at Tor where sparks hit Tor's arms, which by reflex hit Paul, knocking him unconscious in real life; Tor felt bad about that, but everybody knew it was just a case of the big guy not knowing his own strength.
A friend and cohort of Ed's (and also a writer, director and producer in his own right), was Anthony Cardoza. Ed lived in an apartment on Yucca Street (nicknamed "Yucca Flats"), and in 1961, Anthony cast Tor Johnson in a starring role in his low budget movie The Beast of Yucca Flats (1961). This movie was filmed silent, had dubbed-in sound effects, voiced-over narration, and killed off Tor's movie career once and for all (for which Tor was paid only $300). However, Tor had somewhat of a TV career in the 1960s, appearing on "You Bet Your Life" with Groucho Marx, several appearances on "The Red Skelton Show," and even doing a number of TV commercials.
Costars spoke fondly of Tor, remembering, "Tor had such warmth! He was so cooperative-- just a lovely man. As you know, he was a former wrestler ... he would go and have drinks with his opponents after a wrestling match." And, he lived large. Friends spoke of his gracious wife Greta who made great Swedish dinners, along with desserts consisting of her homemade ice cream with strawberries, bananas, coconut and whipped cream.
Little wonder his son, Karl, grew up to be big and strong, and became a Lieutenant with the San Fernando Police Department. And, some friends would chuckle as they recalled that, as big as he was, Tor drove a midget foreign car which was "not much bigger than he was."
Tor Johnson died on May 12, 1971, in San Fernando, CA, due to a heart ailment; he was 67. - Clarence Wilson was born on 17 November 1876 in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA. He was an actor, known for You Can't Take It with You (1938), The Count of Monte Cristo (1934) and Penguin Pool Murder (1932). He died on 5 October 1941 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Wavy-haired, articulate, quietly-spoken Bardette was one of Hollywood's archetypal villains of westerns and cliffhanger serials. He initially aspired to become a mechanical engineer after graduating from Oregon State University in June 1925. However, by the late 1920s, he had changed his name from Terva Gaston Hubbard to Trevor Bardette and embarked on a brief, unremarkable acting career on the East Coast stage, before moving to Hollywood in 1937. Though he went on to essay the occasional sheriff, rustic, frontiersman or hero's sidekick, his stoney features and deep-set, cold eyes ensured that he would invariably be cast as a ruthless heavy, sneaky spy, swindler, gangster or double-crosser. In the course of a thirty year career, the majority of his characters rarely survived until the final scene.
A hard-working character player, Bardette took on just about any role offered him. Between 1938 and 1940 alone, he appeared in some 33 films, including bits in prestige pictures like Jezebel (1938), Marie Antoinette (1938), Gone with the Wind (1939), Abe Lincoln in Illinois (1940) and The Grapes of Wrath (1940). At the smaller studios and later for television, he fared rather better in terms of screen time. Serials, especially, gave him the opportunity to chew the scenery at his most menacing: as the scar-faced Pegleg (aka Mitchell) of Overland with Kit Carson (1939), the icily controlled, preening killer Raven of Winners of the West (1940); and the deceptively meek Jensen, head of a Nazi spy ring, in The Secret Code (1942). On TV, he was Old Man Clanton, cattle rustler and perpetual nemesis of law and order in The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp (1955) (though, in actual fact, N.H. Clanton never faced the Earps, having met his fate earlier at the hands of Mexican cowboys in Guadalupe Canyon). Then there were recurring roles in series like Lassie (1954), Cheyenne (1955) and Gunsmoke (1955), to name but a few.
Perhaps not surprisingly, Bardette bought his own ranch in Green Valley, Arizona, where he spent his remaining years after retiring from acting in 1970. In interesting footnote is his authorship (under his original name) of a short story entitled "The Phantom Photoplay", published in the August 1927 issue of Weird Tales magazine. His first name Terva, evidently sounded sufficiently feminine to be included among the publication's list of lady writers. - Actor
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Richard Stahl was born on 4 January 1932 in Detroit, Michigan, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for Overboard (1987), The American President (1995) and Private School (1983). He was married to Kathryn Ish. He died on 18 June 2006 in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA.- Carroll Borland was born on 25 February 1914 in San Francisco, California, USA. She was an actress, known for Mark of the Vampire (1935), Biohazard (1985) and Scalps (1983). She was married to Vernon John Parten. She died on 3 February 1994 in Arlington, Virginia, USA.
- Allen Jung was born on 8 August 1909 in Oakland, California, USA. He was an actor, known for The Party (1968), Terry and the Pirates (1940) and Murder by Television (1935). He died on 12 September 1982 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Actor
- Additional Crew
Tall and gaunt American character actor prominent in a number of classic American films. A native of Cincinnati, Ohio, he attended Brown University and subsequently went to work as an economist for the United States Department of State. In 1941, he joined the American Red Cross and served in Great Britain during the war. There he met director John Huston, who took a liking to Dierkes and recommended that he try Hollywood after the war. Instead, Dierkes went to work for the U.S. Treasury Department, which, coincidentally, sent him to Hollywood to function as technical adviser on the film To the Ends of the Earth (1948). 'Orson Welles' cast him as Ross in his adaptation of Macbeth (1948). Dierkes returned to the Treasury Department, but two years later, Huston called on him to play The Tall Soldier in The Red Badge of Courage (1951). Dierkes took a leave of absence from his job, a leave which lasted for the rest of Dierkes's life. His quiet dignity and distinctive appearance led him to dozens of roles in film and on television. In John Wayne's The Alamo (1960), Dierkes plays a Scot, "Jocko Robertson", named after Dierkes's own maternal grandfather. He died in 1975, and was survived by his wife, two sons, and two daughters.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Milton Frome was born on 24 February 1909 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. He was an actor, known for Batman: The Movie (1966), The Nutty Professor (1963) and The St. Valentine's Day Massacre (1967). He was married to Marjorie Ann Widman. He died on 21 March 1989 in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA.- With a mysterious past and a mouth marred by burns, Reggie Nalder has a unique, if under appreciated, place in the history of cinema.
Nalder was born Alfred Reginald Natzler in Vienna, Austria, the son of Ida (Herzog), from Safov, and Sigmund Natzler. His parents were from Jewish families The year of his birth has been a matter of speculation. While his obituary in the New York Times claimed 1922, photographic evidence has revealed that it was significantly earlier; most sources now cite 1911. Little is known about his early years. His mother was a beautiful actress who appeared in German films between 1919 and 1929. Nalder himself was an Apache dancer and stage actor in the 1920s and 1930s, and the anecdotes he occasionally shared with friends hint at a colorful career even before his life in films. Photos of Nalder from this period, which surfaced after his death, reveal a handsome young man in his early 20s, almost unrecognizable as the man we know from celluloid.
The burns that scarred the lower third of his face and forever cast him as a villain are also a source of uncertainty; Nalder had at least three different explanations for them. Whatever the true cause, it was this disfigurement which bestowed upon him a permanent place in the annals of film. His career was punctuated by two definite high points. The first was his role as Rien, the leering assassin of Hitchcock's 1956 remake of The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956). His second great triumph was as the horrifyingly effective vampire Barlow in the TV mini-series Salem's Lot (1979). In between he had some memorable film and television appearances -- the cold Russian operative in The Manchurian Candidate (1962), the yellow-jacketed gunman in Dario Argento's The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (1970), a part written especially for him, the lecherous witch-hunter Albino in Adrian Hoven's notorious Mark of the Devil (1970), the title character in the The Return of Andrew Bentley (1961), and the alien Shras, Andorian ambassador, in the classic Star Trek episode Journey to Babel (1967).
Though small, Nalder's role in Casanova (1976) was also a source of personal pride. Along the way were many forgotten roles, and a few of which he himself was embarrassed (he insisted on being credited as Detlef Van Berg in the sex films Dracula Sucks (1978) and Blue Ice (1985)). However dubious the quality of some of the films in which he appeared, his gaunt face, expressive eyes, and soft, haunting voice never fail to absorb. In real life, Nalder was soft-spoken man of considerable culture and taste who knew four languages and enjoyed the opera ("Tosca" was reputedly his favorite). He died of bone cancer at a Santa Monica nursing home on November 11, 1991. With him went the truth behind "The Face That Launched a Thousand Trips" and the keys to much of his mystery-shrouded past.
Reggie Nalder may be far from a household name, and he may have appeared in many films of questionable artistic merit. But he has provided film buffs with indelible cinematic images and characterizations for which he was singularly well-equipped. Whether you were chilled by the methodical killer behind the curtain at the Albert Hall in "The Man Who Knew Too Much" or terrified by the shining eyes of the vampire of "Salem's Lot," you -- along with cinema-goers the world over -- have felt the icy touch of Reggie Nalder. - June Dayton was born on 24 August 1923 in Dayton, Ohio, USA. She was an actress, known for Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970), The Streets of San Francisco (1972) and Robert Montgomery Presents (1950). She was married to Dean Harens. She died on 13 June 1994 in Sherman Oaks, California, USA.
- Actor
- Director
Sebastian Rice-Edwards was born on 16 August 1976 in the UK. He is an actor and director, known for Hope and Glory (1987), Friday (2012) and Queen & Country (2014).- Actor
- Additional Crew
- Soundtrack
Short, squat, voluble and Italian-born, Tito Vuolo could not avoid being typecast as the jolly Italian in office. In the nineteen fifties and sixties, Tito Vuolo portrayed dozens of Italian barbers, pizza makers, vendors, grocers, waiters, hotel or restaurant proprietors. He played them well but he was at his best when he was not restricted to stereotypes, particularly in film noir where his good nature created a powerful contrast with the atmosphere of moral decay prevailing in such films as Kiss of Death (1947), The Web (1947), T-Men (1947), The Racket (1951), and what is probably the best of them all, The Enforcer (1951), as the taxi driver witnessing the murder at the beginning of the film.- Actor
- Additional Crew
Eliot Feld was born in Brooklyn, New York, and studied dance at the School of American Ballet, the New Dance Group, the High School of Performing Arts, and with Richard Thomas. At age 11 he danced with the New York City Ballet as the "Child Prince" in Balanchine's original production of The Nutcracker as well as with the companies of Donald McKayle, Pearl Lang, Sophie Maslow and Mary Anthony. At 16 he joined the Broadway cast of West Side Story and appeared as Baby John in the movie version, and later danced on Broadway in "I Can Get It for You Wholesale" and "Fiddler on the Roof." Mr. Feld danced with the American Ballet Theatre, the American Ballet Company and Feld Ballets/NY. He has choreographed 145 ballets since 1967, creating dances for the American Ballet Theatre, the American Ballet Company, the Royal Danish Ballet, the Joffrey Ballet, the John Curry Skating Company, The Juilliard School, The National Ballet of Canada, the Royal Swedish Ballet, the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, the London Festival Ballet, the Boston Ballet, the San Francisco Ballet, the Atlanta Ballet, the Richmond Ballet, the New York City Opera, the New York City Ballet, and the Ballet Tech, among others.
Inspired by the notion that all children with talent and desire should have access to classical dance training, Mr. Feld, together with Cora Cahan, founded the tuition-free Ballet Tech School in 1978. Today Ballet Tech auditions 30,000 children in more than 200 elementary public schools throughout New York City and provides intensive dance training and rigorous academic education at Ballet Tech, aka the NYC Public School for Dance, at its headquarters at 890 Broadway in Manhattan.- Actor
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
- Casting Department
Jose De Vega was born on 4 January 1934 in San Diego, California, USA. He was an actor and assistant director, known for West Side Story (1961), The Karate Kid Part II (1986) and Island of the Lost (1967). He died on 8 April 1990 in Westwood, California, USA.- Director
- Producer
- Additional Crew
Tony Mordente was born on 3 December 1935 in New York City, New York, USA. He is a director and producer, known for West Side Story (1961), The Greatest American Hero (1981) and Quincy M.E. (1976). He has been married to Jean G Fraser since 30 December 1978. They have one child. He was previously married to Sandra C Roveta and Chita Rivera.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Sandra Descher was born to Mr. and Mrs. Fred Descher on November 30, 1945 in Burbank, California. Ironically, she was discovered while on vacation with her family in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Her first jobs were in uncredited bit parts in 1952. In 1954 Sandy played the traumatized little girl in "Them!" which is the role for which she is best-remembered. At that time she signed a long-term contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Loretta Young was her idol, and in 1962 she was hired to co-star in "The New Loretta Young Show." In 1964 she appeared in "The New Phil Silvers Show", which only lasted eight episodes. By the time she was 17, she had made some 16 movies and 100 television shows. Descher attended North Hollywood High School.
In 1967, now known as Sandra, she left acting. Her parents owned Michaels, a chain of stores featuring Hawaiian fashion and style. In 1967, Descher left acting. She and her husband, Donald White, began to manage Michaels' Palm Springs, California location. In 2013 Descher attended the opening of the Hollywood Museum's "Loretta Young: Hollywood Legend" exhibit.- Beverly Adams was born on 7 November 1945 in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. She is an actress, known for The Silencers (1966), How to Stuff a Wild Bikini (1965) and The Ambushers (1967).
- Actor
- Director
- Soundtrack
Alan Tilvern was born on 5 November 1918 in London, England, UK. He was an actor and director, known for Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988), Love and Death (1975) and Firefox (1982). He was married to Diane Elliott. He died on 17 December 2003 in London, England, UK.- David Surtees is known for Lord of the Flies (1963), M.U.G.E.N (1999) and Battle Chess: Enhanced CD-ROM (1991).
- Actor
- Composer
- Soundtrack
Moustache was born on 14 February 1929 in Paris, France. He was an actor and composer, known for How to Steal a Million (1966), Zorro (1975) and Ni vu, ni connu (1958). He died on 25 March 1987 in Arpajon, Essonne, France.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Donald Madden was born on 5 November 1933 in New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for 1776 (1972), Play of the Week (1959) and The United States Steel Hour (1953). He died on 22 January 1983 in Central Islip, Suffolk, New York, USA.- Actor
- Producer
Born in China, Kim Chan fled China in 1928 with his father Lem and two older sisters. Settling first in Rhode Island, then in New York, Kim left his family after his father caught him lying about an afternoon spent at the cinema. Faced with an ultimatum, Kim left for years as a day laborer, occasionally homeless, frequently sleeping on vermin-infested ironing boards.
Yet when he was not laboring in laundries and restaurants, Kim Chan sought work as an actor in film, television, and the theater. Many roles were small, often reflecting racial stereotypes - casting as a Japanese soldier was common in the 1940s. Chan's big break came only in 1983 with his comedic turn as Jonno, the butler to the late night talk show host Jerry Langford (Jerry Lewis) in Martin Scorsese's _The King of Comedy (1983)_. Since then he has appeared in numerous roles, seemingly never wanting for work.- Actress
- Writer
Natasha Lytess was born on 16 May 1911 in Ekaterinoslav, Yekaterinoslav Governorate, Russian Empire [now Dnipro, Ukraine]. She was an actress and writer, known for Once Upon a Honeymoon (1942), Comrade X (1940) and The House on Telegraph Hill (1951). She died on 12 May 1963 in Zurich, Switzerland.- Pascale Roberts was born on 21 October 1930 in Boulogne-Billancourt, Hauts-de-Seine, France. She was an actress, known for Marius and Jeannette (1997), Au théâtre ce soir (1966) and The Blonde from Peking (1967). She was married to Pierre Mondy, Pierre Rey and Michel Le Royer. She died on 26 October 2019 in Garches, Hauts-de-Seine, France.
- Actor
- Soundtrack
Rod Lauren was born Roger Lawrence Strunk in Fresno, California, on March 26, 1939. He moved with his parents to Tracy, California, when he was three. Father Larry Strunk was a schoolteacher who subsequently found work as a switchman for the Southern Pacific Railroad; his mother was also a teacher and a church organist. While attending Tracy High School, Roger appeared in school plays and played the trombone in the high school band. Graduating in 1957, he began singing in local clubs in Tracy.
A recording executive was taken by his easy vocal style that differed significantly from the popular rock 'n' roll genre. The exec gambled with it, offered the teen an audition and Roger ended up winning an RCA recording contract. He took on the professional name of Rod Lauren. The fledgling singer appeared on both Ed Sullivan and Dick Clark's variety showcases between 1959 and 1960 and earned a mild hit along the way (#31 on the Billboard chart) with "If I Had a Girl" in 1960. However, with the British invasion, his singing career fell away. Fortunately, Rod had a dark, sulky, greaser-type appeal that recalled the rebel in Fabian and, with that look, he started to find acting jobs on TV. He also earned singing work in Vegas and Southern California lounge clubs on the sly.
In 1963 alone Rod made six films, all of them low-budget in nature but a couple that found cult infamy. In the cheapjack shocker Terrified (1962) he is one of a group of college students trapped in a ghost town with a masked psychopathic killer. In Black Zoo (1963) it is veteran actor Michael Gough who imperils Lauren's life as a demented animal owner who triggers his caged pets to attack. The third horror flick is his best known, The Crawling Hand (1963), in which the hand of a deceased astronaut comes to life and wreaks havoc. Other genres mixed in were party flicks such as The Young Swingers (1963) and the mediocre oaters The Gun Hawk (1963) and Law of the Lawless (1964).
Following isolated appearances on Gomer Pyle: USMC (1964) and Combat! (1962), Lauren's film career pretty much dissolved. His last film appearance was in director John Derek's Childish Things (1969) (aka "The Confessions of Tom Harris"), which starred Derek's then-wife Linda Evans. The film was made in 1966 but not released until three years later.
In 1964 Lauren went to the Philippines for the filming of Once Before I Die (1966), and while there met Nida Blanca, a then-rising Filipino film star. He shuttled back and forth between the Philippines and Southern California for over a decade before finally marrying Ms. Blanca in 1979. He then took permanent residence in Manila. Ms. Blanca was a star in the Philippines comparable to Doris Day or Debbie Reynolds. Rod functioned as his wife's escort as his own career dissipated.
His last years were like a bad horror story. On November 6, 2001, wife Nida was viciously stabbed to death in a parking garage. In November of 2003 Rod (who had long returned to his real name of Roger Strunk) was to be charged with her murder after authorities claimed he hired an assassin to kill his wife who had threatened to divorce and disinherit him. In an example of the dysfunctional Manila justice system, authorities allowed Rod to return to the U.S. before charges could be filed against him. Claiming his mother, who lived back in Tracy, California, was dying of cancer and he needed to be with her, he managed to resist extradition and resettled in Tracy.
The former actor found employment as a camera operator for the city of Tracy's public-access station, Channel 26. The pressures of the ongoing investigation, however, finally took its toll and he ended it all on July 11, 2007, by jumping to his death from a second-floor motel balcony in Tracy. He was 68.- Rufus Collins was born on 11 August 1935 in New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for The Hunger (1983), The Professionals (1977) and Shock Treatment (1981). He died on 4 November 1996 in Amsterdam, Noord-Holland, Netherlands.
- Actor
- Script and Continuity Department
Walter James was born on 3 June 1882 in Chattanooga, Tennessee, USA. He was an actor, known for The Monster (1925), Street Scene (1931) and The Kid Brother (1927). He was married to Ida James (c.1880-1930). He died on 27 June 1946 in Gardena, California, USA.- Born in St. Paul, Minnesota, Richard Simmons later moved to Minneapolis where he attended West High School and then the University of Minnesota. While at university he competed in fencing and swimming and also acted in a few theater productions. He left the Twin Cities in the 1930s and spent several years traveling the world, working on freighters and tankers.
Eventually he settled in Los Angeles where, according to one story, Louis B. Mayer saw him breaking in an Arabian horse and immediately offered him a screen test. Simmons played a number of minor parts in MGM movies but finally achieved a degree of fame in the mid-1950s when he starred in the half-hour syndicated TV series, Sergeant Preston of the Yukon (1955). With his horse Rex, and his husky King, Preston brought law-and-order into the 1890s Gold Rush as a member of the Northwest Mounted Police. Each episode ended with Preston hugging his dog and saying: "Well, King, it looks like this case is closed." - Urbane, grey-eyed, silver-haired Australian-born character actor, notable for his smooth manner and clipped upper-class English diction. A grazier's son, Matheson first worked as a clerk in a bank in Geelong, Victoria. However, his overriding ambition to become an actor caused him to abscond to Melbourne, where he eventually joined the Little Theatre and spent two years being trained by the celebrated actress Ada Reeve. He made his theatrical debut at His Majesty's Theatre in Melbourne in 1934 and then spent a year with touring companies, afterwards making the inevitable move to England. Matheson's first appearance on the London stage was in the 1937 revue "And On We Go", followed by performances in "Oscar Wilde" and "Candida". In the course of many years, he became a prolific interpreter of roles in plays by Noël Coward. In 1940, Matheson's acting career was put on hold by wartime service as an intelligence officer in the RAF, attached to the British Embassy in Moscow.
His screen career took off after a post-war move to Canada. Initially cast in radio and TV productions, Matheson was signed by Paramount to play a convict clergyman in the 18th century seafaring drama Botany Bay (1952). In between the numerous TV assignments which followed, Matheson had featured billing in several other Hollywood pictures, including King of the Khyber Rifles (1953), Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing (1955) and Signpost to Murder (1964). However, he became most familiar to 1960s' and '70s TV audiences as a regular guest star, equally versed in playing civilised, benevolent authority figures or crooks of the 'polite, yet deadly' variety. His most cherished performances may well include the evil KAOS mastermind Cedric Devonshire of Get Smart (1965); the alien Dr. Reynard, heading an indoctrination facility for The Invaders (1967); a discarded clown, one of "Five Characters in Search of an Exit" from The Twilight Zone (1959); and the antiquarian Felix Mulholland, owner of Mulholland's Rare Books & Prints and purveyor of information to Banacek (1972) (a recurring role for which he had signed a six-months contract).
Matheson also remained true to his roots in legitimate theatre, occasionally appearing in modern plays at the Pasadena Playhouse and other West Coast venues. He died in April 1985 at the age of seventy-two in Los Angeles. - Christine Schuler was an actress, known for Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975) and A Dream Within a Dream: The Making of 'Picnic at Hanging Rock' (2004). She was married to John Lawrance. She died in October 2010 in Adelaide, South Australia, Australia.
- Actor
- Writer
- Additional Crew
Jean Servais was born on 24 September 1910 in Antwerp, Belgium. He was an actor and writer, known for Rififi (1955), The Longest Day (1962) and Le Plaisir (1952). He was married to Dominique Blanchar and Gilberte Graillot. He died on 17 February 1976 in Paris, France.- Roland Varno's daughter is Jill Taggart. His sister, Anneke, was for many years the Dear Abby of Holland. Roland spent his younger years on the island of Java, moved back to Holland as a teenager, went to Berlin in the late 1920s where he was featured in Der Blaue Engel (The Blue Angel) with Marlene Dietrich and came to the U.S. in 1930 to shoot "All Quiet on the Western Front." His ship was stalled in the Atlantic so the role went instead to Lew Ayers, who became both a major star and Roland's best friend. He joined the OSS and learned Japanese during WWII and, because he was also fluent in German he used his talents at home making propaganda war films. He played everything from a spy to a freedom-fighter.
- Actor
- Additional Crew
- Writer
Tutte Lemkow was born on 28 August 1918 in Oslo, Norway. He was an actor and writer, known for Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), Fiddler on the Roof (1971) and Love and Death (1975). He was married to Sara Luzita and Mai Zetterling. He died on 10 November 1991 in London, England, UK.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Avon Long was a featured singer and dancer in the Cotton Club in New York in 1934. Lena Horne credits him with bringing her out of the chorus line to a featured spot. In the 1940's, he won critical acclaim as "Sportin' Life" in the Broadway production of "Porgy and Bess". He also appeared in featured roles on Broadway in "Bubbling Brown Sugar"- John Butler was born on 1 May 1884 in Canada. He was an actor, known for Torchy Runs for Mayor (1939), We Who Are Young (1940) and Mob Town (1941). He died on 9 October 1967 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Art Department
- Additional Crew
- Location Management
Brian Mannain was born in 1959. He is known for War of the Worlds (2005), Limitless (2011) and Shutter Island (2010).- Dortha Duckworth was born on 28 September 1905 in Newton, Kansas, USA. She was an actress, known for The Honeymoon Killers (1970), The Man with One Red Shoe (1985) and 'Way Out (1961). She was married to Hugh Rennie. She died on 14 November 1996 in Camp Hill, Pennsylvania, USA.
- Stunts
- Actor
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
- Doria Cook-Nelson was born on 17 May 1949 in the USA. She is an actress, known for The Parallax View (1974), Mame (1974) and The Swarm (1978). She has been married to Craig T. Nelson since 1987.
- Actor
- Writer
- Additional Crew
Michael Kane was born on 21 March 1922 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. He was an actor and writer, known for Three Days of the Condor (1975), Lonely Are the Brave (1962) and The Bedford Incident (1965). He died on 14 December 2007 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Jean-Pierre Zola was born on 5 February 1916 in Vienna, Austria-Hungary. He was an actor, known for Triple Cross (1966), My Uncle (1958) and The Train (1964). He died on 18 January 1979 in Maisons-Laffitte, Yvelines, France.
- Actor
- Additional Crew
Aldo Silvani was born on 21 January 1891 in Turin, Piedmont, Italy. He was an actor, known for Nights of Cabiria (1957), The Road (1954) and Rigoletto e la sua tragedia (1956). He was married to Amelia Piemontese. He died on 12 November 1964 in Milan, Lombardy, Italy.