1-50 of 1,042 names.

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1. Walter Brennan Walter Brennan Actor, To Have and Have Not In many ways the most successful and familiar character actor of American sound films and the only actor to date to win three Oscars for Best Supporting Actor, Walter Brennan attended college in Cambridge, Massachusetts, studying engineering. While in school he became interested in acting and performed in school plays...
2. John Ford John Ford Director, The Searchers John Ford is, arguably, The Great American Director. When Orson Welles, who repeatedly screened Ford's Stagecoach as a crash course in filmmaking before helming his first film, Citizen Kane, was asked who his three favorite directors were, he answered, "John Ford, John Ford, and John Ford." Along with D.W. Griffith and Cecil B. DeMille...
3. Jean Renoir Jean Renoir Director, La Grande Illusion Son of the famous Impressionist painter Pierre Auguste, he had a happy childhood. Pierre Renoir was his brother, and Claude Renoir was his nephew. After the end of World War I, where he won the Croix de Guerre, he moved from scriptwriting to filmmaking. He married Catherine Hessling, for whom he began to make movies; he wanted to make a star of her...
4. Jack Benny Jack Benny Actor, To Be or Not to Be The son of a saloonkeeper, Jack Benny (born Benny Kubelsky) began to study the violin at the age six, and his "ineptness" at it later become his trademark (in reality, he was a very accomplished player). When given the opportunity to play in live theatre professionally, Benny quit school and joined vaudeville...
5. Will Wright Will Wright Actor, Adam's Rib One of those familiar character actors who seems to have been born old, Will Wright specialized in playing crusty old codgers, rich skinflints, crooked small-town politicians and the like. A former newspaper reporter in San Francisco, he switched careers and entered vaudeville, then took to the stage...
6. Zasu Pitts Zasu Pitts Actress, Greed First a silent-screen heroine, then a daft-headed character actress in US films from the 20s through the 50s.
7. Beatrice Lillie Beatrice Lillie Self, Episode #1.36 Dubbed "the funniest woman in the world", comedienne Beatrice Lillie was born the daughter of a Canadian government official and grew up in Toronto. She sang in a family trio act with her mother, Lucy, and her piano-playing older sister, Muriel. Times were hard and the ambitious mother eventually took the girls to England to test the waters...
8. Henry Daniell Henry Daniell Actor, The Great Dictator One of Hollywood's greatest screen villains, Charles Henry Daniell had the profound misfortune to make his professional theatrical debut on the eve of World War I. His life thus interrupted, he served in the trenches on the Western Front with the British Army's Norfolk Regiment. Wounded in action, he...
9. Aldous Huxley Aldous Huxley Writer, Pride and Prejudice Aldous Leonard Huxley was born on July 26, 1894, at Laleham in Godalming, Surrey, England. He was the third of four children. His brother Julian Huxley was a biologist known for his theories of evolution. His grandfather, named Thomas Henry Huxley, was a naturalist known as "Darwin's Bulldog." His father...
10. King Vidor King Vidor Director, War and Peace
11. Billy Gilbert Billy Gilbert Actor, The Great Dictator The son of singers in the Metropolitan Opera, Billy Gilbert began performing in vaudeville at age 12. He developed a drawn-out, explosive sneezing routine that became his trademark (he was the model for, and voice of, Sneezy in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs). Gilbert's exquisite comic timing made him the perfect foil for such comedians as Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy...
12. Josef von Sternberg Josef von Sternberg Director, The Blue Angel Josef von Sternberg split his childhood between Vienna and New York City. His father, an ex-soldier in the Austro-Hungarian army, could not support his family in either city; Sternberg remembered him only as "an enormously strong man who often used his strength on me." Forced by poverty to drop out of high school...
13. Ben Hecht Ben Hecht Writer, Notorious Ben Hecht, one of Hollywood & Broadway's greatest writers, won an Oscar for best original story for Underworld at the first Academy Awards in 1929 and had a hand in the writing of many classic films. He was nominated five more times for the best writing Oscar, winning (along with writing partner and friend Charles MacArthur...
14. Percy Helton Percy Helton Actor, 20000 Leagues Under the Sea One of the most familiar faces and voices in Hollywood films of the 1950s. Percy Helton acted almost from infancy, appearing in his father's vaudeville act. The famed Broadway producer David Belasco cast Helton in a succession of child roles over several years, giving the boy an invaluable grounding in the technique and spirit of the theatre...
15. Ernst Ziegler Ernst Ziegler Actor, Something for Everyone
16. Arthur Treacher Arthur Treacher Actor, Mary Poppins Born Arthur Veary Treacher in Brighton, East Sussex, England, he was the son of a lawyer. He established a stage career after returning from World War I, and by 1928, he had come to America as part of a musical-comedy revue called Great Temptations. When his film career began in the early 1930s, Treacher was Hollywood's idea of the perfect butler...
17. Frank Borzage Frank Borzage Director, A Farewell to Arms
18. Estelle Taylor Estelle Taylor Actress, Cimarron A former typist, Estelle Taylor married a banker at age 14 and, after leaving him, moved to New York to study dramatic acting. She also modeled for artists and appeared in the chorus of a couple of Broadway shows. In the early 1920s she came to Hollywood and was noted as one of the film colony's most beautiful women...
19. Warren William Warren William Actor, Gold Diggers of 1933 Warren William, the stalwart leading man of pre-Production Code talkies, was born Warren William Krech on December 2, 1894 in Aitkin, Minnesota, the son of a newspaper publisher. William originally planned to become a journalist, but he had a change of heart, and instead went to the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and trained to become an actor...
20. Mae Marsh Mae Marsh Actress, The Birth of a Nation Mae Marsh's father was an auditor for the railroad who died when she was four. Her family moved to San Francisco, where her stepfather was killed in the 1906 earthquake. Her great-aunt then took Mae and her sister to Los Angeles. With her show business background, Mae's aunt took them to the various movie studios for work as extras...
21. Billy Bletcher Billy Bletcher Actor, Dry and Thirsty Diminutive-sized comedian, in Hollywood from 1920.
22. Rondo Hatton Rondo Hatton Actor, The Brute Man An only child, Rondo Hatton was born to Stewart and Emily Hatton in Hagerstown, Maryland. The family moved to Tampa, Florida, in 1912, when he was a high-school senior, and his father joined a family-owned business there. Rondo was apparently popular and a good athlete, especially in football. After leaving high school...
23. Dimitri Tiomkin Dimitri Tiomkin Music Department, It's a Wonderful Life Dimitri Tiomkin was a Russian Jewish composer who emigrated to America and became one of the most distinguished and best-loved music writers of Hollywood. He won a hallowed place in the pantheon of the most successful and productive composers in American film history, earning himself four Oscars and sixteen Academy Awards nominations...
24. Kathleen Lockhart Kathleen Lockhart Actress, A Christmas Carol
25. William Fawcett William Fawcett Actor, The Lottery "Doc T". as he was known, was a Ph.D., and Professor of Theatre at Michigan State University in the early 1940's, just before World War II. He often spoke about leaving academia and actually trying his hand at the craft he taught. After the war, he got his chance and never looked back.
26. Lois Wilson Lois Wilson Actress, Guiding Light School teacher turned brief stage actress before entering films at Paramount in 1916. She was playing leading roles well into the sound era, mostly in unflattering parts. After retiring from the screen she went on to work in television and on stage. Miss Wilson never married, but two of her sisters Diane Kane and Connie Lewis became actresses.
27. Moms Mabley Moms Mabley Self, Episode #1.4 One the most successful entertainers of the Black vaudeville stage, also known as the Chitlin Circuit, was Jackie "Moms" Mabley, born Loretta Mary Aiken in 1894. At the apex of her long career, she was earning $10,000 a week at Harlem's Apollo Theatre. Mabley focused on conventional topics such as family and others not normally covered by comedians of the era...
28. Albert Lewin Albert Lewin Writer, The Picture of Dorian Gray
29. Dashiell Hammett Dashiell Hammett Writer, The Maltese Falcon Dashiell Hammett was born May 27l, 1894, in St. Mary's County, Maryland, to Richard Hammett and Mary Bond. He joined the Baltimore branch of the Pinkerton Detective Agency in 1915. He enlisted in the US Army's Ambulance Corps in June 1918 and was posted to a camp 20 miles from Baltimore, where he caught the flu...
30. Olive Thomas Olive Thomas Actress, The Flapper Oliva R. Duffy was born on October 20, 1894, in Charleroi, Pennsylvania. Ollie, as she was known to family and friends, did not have much of a childhood. Life in industrial Pittsburgh was depressing and grim, with its smoky factories and hard living. Olive's father died while she was still young, forcing her to leave school to help earn her keep...
31. Norma Talmadge Norma Talmadge Actress, Going Straight Norma Talmadge was born on May 26, 1895, in Jersey City, New Jersey. The daughter of an unemployed alcoholic and his wife, Norma did not have the idyllic childhood that most of us yearn for. Her father left the family on Christmas Day and his wife and three daughters had to fend for themselves. Her mother...
32. Fred Allen Fred Allen Self, Judge for Yourself 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...
33. Walter Wanger Walter Wanger Producer, Cleopatra A graduate of Dartmouth College, New Hampshire, Walter Wanger was among the more literate and socially conscious American film producers of his time. At the peak of his career, his salary was exceeded only by that of Louis B. Mayer at MGM. Wanger had served in the air force on the Italian front during World War I...
34. Basil Sydney Basil Sydney Actor, Around the World in Eighty Days
35. Clare Eames Clare Eames Actress, The New Commandment
36. James A. FitzPatrick James A. FitzPatrick Producer, The Inside Passage American documentary film director. After completing training in the dramatic arts, he worked for a while as a journalist. In 1925 he entered films and specialized throughout his career in travel documentaries. Besides directing, he also wrote, produced, and narrated many of his films. MGM distributed...
37. Tay Garnett Tay Garnett Director, The Postman Always Rings Twice Following his service as a naval aviator in WW I, Tay Garnett entered films in 1920 as a screenwriter. After a stint as a gag writer for Mack Sennett and Hal Roach he joined Pathe, then the distributor for both competing comedy producers, and in 1928 began directing for that company. Garnett garnered some attention in the early 1930s with such films as One Way Passage and Her Man...
38. Sammy White Sammy White Actor, Pat and Mike
39. Robert Williams Robert Williams Actor, Platinum Blonde It's fair to say that if 'Frank Capra (I)' hadn't cast Robert "Bobby" Williams in his 1931 film Platinum Blonde the actor would be entirely forgotten today. When the movie was made available on video in the 1980s the promotional copy on the video box emphasized the names most buffs would recognize: actresses Jean Harlow and Loretta Young...
40. Bobby Barber Bobby Barber Actor, Barber Lou
41. Jolie Gabor Jolie Gabor Self, The People vs. Zsa Zsa Gabor
42. Aleksandr Dovzhenko Aleksandr Dovzhenko Director, Arsenal
43. Martha Graham Martha Graham Self, Night Journey American dancer and choreographer Martha Graham was a revolutionary artist of modern dance in the early 20th century. Born in Allegheny, a suburb of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in May 1894, her family moved to California when she was 10. She was inspired at that early age to become a dancer when she saw Ruth St. Denis perform her exotic "Epytia" modern dance in 1914...
44. Fay Compton Fay Compton Actress, The Haunting
45. Duke of Windsor Duke of Windsor Self, A King's Story Prince Edward Albert Christian George Andrew Patrick David was born on June 23, 1894. He was the son of the future King George V and Queen Mary. He was in the army and was an uncrowned King for a little under a year after the death of his father in 1936. In the early 30s he met an American divorcee...
46. Arthur Freed Arthur Freed Soundtrack, Léon: The Professional Producer, songwriter and author, brother to Ralph Freed, Walter and Ruth Freed. He was educated at the Phillips Exeter Academy, and became associated with Gus Edwards musical acts. He performed in vaudeville with Louis Silvers, with whom he wrote revues for New York restaurants. During World War I...
47. Nikita Khrushchev Nikita Khrushchev Self, Finlandia Survey No 334 Nikita Khruschev was born on April 17, 1894, into a family of peasants in the village of Kalinovka, Kursk region, Russian Empire. He was raised among agricultural and mining workers. He studied for only two years at grammar school as a child. After the Russian Revolution he joined the Red Army, then joined the Communist party in 1918 and made a career as a politician...
48. Minerva Urecal Minerva Urecal Actress, The Corpse Vanishes Of Scottish descent, cruel-eyed, hatchet-faced veteran actress Minerva Urecal was a radio-trained player who spent some time on the clock with stage work before setting her sights on film and TV. Born Minerva Holzer in 1894 in the town of Eureka, California, her subsequent stage moniker would become a partial anagram of her hometown name...
49. Corinne Griffith Corinne Griffith Actress, The Divine Lady Corinne Griffith was a silent film star. She was born in 1894 and appeared in the first of her sixty films at the age of 22 in 1916. She was the executive producer of eleven of her films starting with Single Wives in 1924 and ending with Three Hours in 1927. She was known as "The Orchid Lady." Unlike many of the silent stars she did not fade into obscurity taking smaller and smaller roles...
50. Joe Yule Joe Yule Actor, Boom Town Former burlesque and vaudeville entertainer who played Hollywood character roles from the late 30's until his death.
1-50 of 1,042 names.