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- Actress
- Soundtrack
Mary Field was born on 10 June 1909 in New York City, New York, USA. She was an actress, known for Ball of Fire (1941), Shadows on the Stairs (1941) and The Prince and the Pauper (1937). She was married to Allan Douglas and James Madison Walters II. She died on 12 June 1996 in Fairfax, Virginia, USA.- Actress
- Soundtrack
The 'Real' Billie
Lillian--aka "Billie"--Yarbo. A forgotten name, to be sure (at least ever since the 1949 release of Look for the Silver Lining (1949), featuring Yarbo's final onscreen appearance, uncredited as were the great majority, in a career spanning not quite 15 years), yet the face that goes with that name will likely prove familiar to connoisseurs of Hollywood's "Golden Age."
Yarbo (née Yarbough) was an African-American actress, comedienne, dancer and singer, of both stage and screen. Born in Washington, D.C. on Friday, March 17, 1905, parents unknown (although it should be noted there is a "Yarbough, George; fireman," listed in the 1904, -05 and -06 D.C. Directories), Billie eventually made her way to New York, as did both her mother and at least one sister--though exactly when this happened and whether they made this pilgrimage all at once or separately and at different times remains unclear. By her early twenties, Yarbo--credited, prior to 1928, as Billie Yarbough--was a rising star, both in Harlem night spots and on the Broadway stage. Her early stage work, occasionally likened to that of her contemporary, Josephine Baker, was embraced by audiences and critics alike, beginning in the late 1920s and continuing until her 1936 screen debut.
Indeed, just a few years prior to launching his own screenwriting career, a young Charles Brackett, writing of Yarbo's breakout performance in the Broadway revue, "Keep Shufflin,'" registered his most emphatic 'thumbs up' in the March 10 New Yorker: "There is a Miss Billie Yarbough, who must have been designed by Covarrubias and must be seen." Granted, the Covarrubias reference may have been entirely lost on a sizable portion of TNY's readership; nonetheless, the near-simultaneous publication of both Vyvyan Donner's eye-catching New York Times caricature / caption and Ibee's characteristically terse yet unambiguously positive Variety blurb makes a compelling case that Billie's time had indeed come.
Yet despite what seemed a thriving stage career, both as a highly acclaimed dancer and, at the very least, a hugely self-assured singer ("To hell with Billie Holiday," as Yarbo later admonished jazz trumpeter Buck Clayton, "come down and listen to me--the real Billie!"), it is strictly her film work--undeniably more lucrative but affording relatively little margin for creativity or self-expression--for which Yarbo's face has come to be remembered. She appeared in at least two films in 1936 and another the following year before getting great notices and her first onscreen credit in the otherwise indifferently received Warren William vehicle, Wives Under Suspicion (1938). For that performance and her equally acclaimed turn in director Frank Capra's star-studded, award-winning comedy, You Can't Take It with You (1938), Yarbo was judged the year's best Negro comic actress by Pittsburgh Courier film critic Earl J. Morris. (In 1939, she was officially awarded that same distinction by the short-lived, Hollywood-based Sepia Theatrical Writers Guild). Indeed, even prior to 1938, the then thoroughly anonymous Yarbo--in Alfred L. Werker's much-rewritten Big Town Girl (1937)--managed to catch the eye of one discerning Philadelphia Inquirer critic, the suitably inquisitive Mildred Martin:
"... and a Negro lassie--inexcusably omitted from the cast list--renders yeoman service and considerable comedy as the "countess' " maid".
Awards and critical plaudits aside, and notwithstanding the career-building intentions ascribed to her erstwhile director King Vidor (following Yarbo's sophomore screen turn, appearing uncredited alongside Barbara Stanwyck in Stella Dallas (1937)), Yarbo continued to be routinely cast in bit parts, primarily as a maid, cook or otherwise low-skilled worker, often uncredited, appearing in close to 50 films between 1936 and 1949.
One melancholy footnote:
In the fall of 1943, amidst an otherwise setback-laden half-decade (with her immediate family beset by both sudden death and serious illness), a potentially career-altering opportunity for Billie--appearing in a straight dramatic role alongside Canada Lee, under Orson Welles's direction, in what most likely would have become the definitive screen version of Richard Wright's "Native Son"--fell by the wayside when Welles proved unavailable. Not quite one month later, a near fatal car crash added injury to insult, putting Yarbo out of commission for the first half of 1944, and setting the stage for an uncharacteristically light workload over the remaining five years of her screen career; going out much as it had come in--i.e. with an almost entirely uncredited whimper.
As if to add one final insult, said career concluded with this onetime must-see musical comedy wunderkind--forever denied the opportunity to translate her own unique, exhilarating and much-lauded skill set from stage to screen--reduced to portraying the maid of the celebrated but considerably less distinctive stage-AND-screen musical comedy star Marilyn Miller (as portrayed by June Haver, no less; a movies-only song-'n'-dance star of decidedly lesser proportions then either Yarbo or Miller, who nonetheless, in the course of her own relatively short-lived, nondescript career, achieved far greater fame than Billie Yarbough ever would).- Writer
- Producer
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Adolfo Torres Portillo was born on 29 December 1920 in Mexico, Distrito Federal, Mexico. He was a writer and producer, known for Hellish Spiders (1968), Cazadores de espías (1969) and Santo vs. the Head Hunters (1971). He died on 12 June 1996 in Querétaro, Querétaro, Mexico.- Winni Riva was born on 10 July 1918 in Turin, Piedmont, Italy. She was an actress, known for The Leopard (1963), 1900 (1976) and Il garofano rosso (1976). She died on 12 June 1996 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.
- Actress
- Writer
Ilona Ference was born on 10 October 1917 in Bar Harbor, Maine, USA. She was an actress and writer, known for BBC Sunday-Night Theatre (1950), Solo for Canary (1958) and ITV Television Playhouse (1955). She died on 12 June 1996 in London, England, UK.- Adam Mularczyk was born on 13 January 1923 in Kraków, Malopolskie, Poland. He was an actor, known for Kariera (1955), The Hours of Hope (1955) and Kalosze szczescia (1958). He died on 12 June 1996 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
- Aleksandr Ivanov (December 9, 1936, Moscow, the RSFSR, the USSR - June 12, 1996, Moscow, Russia) was a Soviet and Russian teacher, a parody poet, and a permanent host of the TV program "Around the Laughter" (1978-1991). In 1960 he graduated from the faculty of drawing and drawing of the Moscow Correspondence Pedagogical Institute. He worked as a teacher of drawing and descriptive geometry. Fame brought him poetic parodies. In 1962, his creative career began. Ivanov Peru owns a number of articles, pamphlets, notes. In 1968, his first parody book, Love and Mustard, was published, followed by the collections Laughing and Crying, Not With Your Own Voice, Where From Anything ..., Red Pashechka, Pegasus - Not Luxury, With Pushkin on a friendly foot "," Fruits of inspiration "," Favorites of others "," The Word is not the case "," On the two ends ". In 1970 he was admitted to the Union of Writers. For many years Aleksandr Ivanov performed on the stage with his satirical works, played several small film roles, worked closely with Literary Newspaper (16th page, Club 12 Chairs). Since 1980, married to Olga Leonidovna Zabotkina, ballerina, soloist of the Leningrad Opera and Ballet Theater named after Kirov. When Ivanov became the host of the TV program Around the Laughter, Zabotkina had to leave the stage, move to Moscow and become her husband's secretary.
- Writer
- Director
- Music Department
Director, educator. He came from an acting family. He studied at the Faculty of Humanities at the Stefan Batory University in Vilnius and started working at the local Polish Radio station. He was a literary clerk, rapporteur and producer of radio plays. During the German occupation, he fought in the ranks of the Home Army and collaborated with the secret Martyka and Szpakiewicz Dramatic Studio in Vilnius. In 1948-93 he was a full-time director of the Polish Radio Theater. In 1953-60, he was the literary director and director of the Guliwer Theater in Warsaw.- Romeu Correia was born on the 17th of November 1917 in Cacilhas, Almada (Portugal).
Writer, novelist, playwright, journalist, Romeu Correia worked for many Portuguese publications such as Record, A Bola, Comercio do Porto, Revista Vertice, amongst others. In his youth, and before publishing any book, he was an accomplished athlete and a boxeur.
Romeu Correia had a prolific career with over forty of his works being published, mostly plays and novels. Some of his work is translated to Italian, German, Chinese and Hungarian.
Calamento (1950, novel), Casaco de Fogo (1953 play), Bonecos de Luz (1960, novel), Vagabundo das Maos de Oiro (1962, play), Bocage (1965, play), Cravo Espanhol (1970, play), or Andarilho das Sete Partidas (1983, play) are some of his better known novels and plays.
Romeu Correia won seven Literary Awards during his career. - Actor
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Tolga Askiner was born on 18 February 1942 in Sivas, Turkey. He was an actor and assistant director, known for Caniko (1976), Güzel Bir Gün Için (1965) and Yaban Gülü (1970). He was married to Nisa Serezli. He died on 12 June 1996 in Istanbul, Turkey.