IMDb: Most Popular People Born In 1920

1-50 of 2,332 names.

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1.		Ricardo Montalban Actor, The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! Ricardo Montalban was the epitome of continental elegance, charm and grace on film and television and in the late 1940s and early 1950s reinvigorated the Rudolph Valentino / Ramon Novarro "Latin Lover" style in Hollywood without achieving top screen stardom. Moreover, unlike most minority actors of his time...
2.		DeForest Kelley Actor, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan Jackson DeForest Kelley was born on January 20, 1920 in Toccoa, Georgia. He graduated from high school at age 16 and went on to sing at the Baptist church where his father was a minister. At age 17, he made his first trip outside the state to visit an uncle in Long Beach, California. He intended to stay for two weeks but ended up staying a year...
3.		James Doohan Actor, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
4.		Walter Matthau Actor, The Odd Couple Born Walter Matthow on October 1, 1920, to a pair of Russian-Jewish immigrants in New York City, Matthau grew up in poverty on the Lower East Side and started out selling soft drinks and playing bit parts at a Yiddish theater troupe at age 11. He was paid 50 cents for each of his occasional on-stage appearances...
5.		Yul Brynner Actor, The Magnificent Seven Exotic leading man of American films, famed as much for his completely bald head as for his performances, Yul Brynner masked much of his life in mystery and outright lies designed to tease people he considered gullible. It was not until the publication of the books "Yul: The Man Who Would Be King" and...
6.		Mickey Rooney Actor, The Fox and the Hound With parents who were actors, it comes as no surprise that the young Joe Yule Jr. made his debut on the stage at the age of only 15 months. He became part of the family act. He became well known for a series of some 50 silent comedies between 1927 and 1933 in which he played Mickey McGuire, a comic-strip character...
7.		Maureen O'Hara Actress, Miracle on 34th Street In America, the early performing arts accomplishments of young Maureen FitzSimons (who we know as Maureen O'Hara) would definitely have put her in the child prodigy category. However, for a child of Irish heritage surrounded by gifted parents and family, these were very natural traits. Maureen made her entrance into this caring haven on August 17...
8.		Federico Fellini Writer, 8½ The women who both attracted and frightened him and an Italy dominated in his youth by Mussolini and Pope Pius XII - inspired the dreams that Fellini started recording in notebooks in the 1960s. Life and dreams were raw material for his films. His native Rimini and characters like Saraghina (the devil herself said the priests who ran his school)...
9.		Gene Tierney Actress, Laura Gene Tierney was born in Brooklyn, New York, on November 19, 1920, to well-to-do parents. Her father was a very successful insurance broker and her mother was a former teacher. Her childhood was lavish indeed. She also lived, at times, with her equally successful grandparents in Connecticut and New York...
10.		Ray Harryhausen Producer, Clash of the Titans When it comes to motion picture special effects, there is only one name that personifies movie magic - Ray Harryhausen. From his debut films with George Pal to his final film, Harryhausen imbued magic and visual strength to motion picture special effects as no other technician has, before or since...
11.		Shelley Winters Actress, Lolita Shelley Winters was born Shirley Schrift of very humble beginnings on August 18, 1920 (some sources list 1922) in East St. Louis, Illinois. Her father moved the family to Brooklyn when she was still young so that he, a tailor's cutter, could find steadier work closer to the city's garment industry....
12.		Jack Elam Actor, Once Upon a Time in the West Colorful American character actor equally adept at vicious killers or grizzled sidekicks. As a child he worked in the cotton fields. He attended Santa Monica Junior College in California and subsequently became an accountant and, at one time, manager of the Bel Air Hotel. Elam got his first movie job by trading his accounting services for a role...
13.		Jack Warden Actor, 12 Angry Men Jack Warden was born John H. Lebzelter on September 18, 1920 in Newark, New Jersey to a Jewish father, Jack Warden Lebzelter, and his Irish wife, Laura M. Lebzelter (nee Costello). Raised in Louisville, Kentucky, at the age of 17, young Jack Lebzelter was expelled from Louisville's DuPont Manual High School for repeatedly fighting...
14.		Montgomery Clift Actor, From Here to Eternity Monty was born just after his twin sister Roberta and eighteen months after his brother Brooks Clift. Their father William made a lot of money in banking but was quite poor during the depression. Their mother Ethel "Sunny" was born out of wedlock and spent much of her life and the family fortune finding her illustrious southern lineage and raising her children as aristocrats...
15.		Jack Lord Actor, Dr. No Jack Lord will probably be best remembered as Steve McGarett in the long running television series Hawaii Five-O, but he was much more than that however. He starred in several movies, directed several episodes of his show, was in several Broadway productions, and was an accomplished artist. Two of...
16.		Toshirô Mifune Actor, Seven Samurai Toshiro Mifune achieved more worldwide fame than any other Japanese actor of his century. He was born in Tsingtao, China, to Japanese parents and grew up in Dalian. He did not set foot in Japan until he was 21. His father was an importer and a commercial photographer, and young Toshiro worked in his father's studio for a time after graduating from Dalian Middle School...
17.		Richard Farnsworth Actor, Misery An American stuntman who, after more than 30 years in the business, moved into acting and became an acclaimed and respected character actor, Richard Farnsworth was a native of Los Angeles. He grew up around horses and as a teenager was offered an opportunity to ride in films. He appeared in horse-racing scenes and cavalry charges unbilled...
18.		Jack Webb Writer, The Big Frank John (Jack) Randolph Webb's father left home before he was born; Webb would never know him. He was raised by his mother and maternal grandmother in dire poverty that preceded the Depression. Making things worse, Webb suffered from acute asthma from age six until adulthood, somewhat surprising for a man whose cigarette intake reached three packs a day at its peak...
19.		Denver Pyle Actor, Bonnie and Clyde A rather wanderlust fellow before he latched onto acting, Denver Pyle--who made a career of playing drawling, somewhat slow Southern types--was actually born in Colorado in 1920, to a farming family. He attended a university for a time but dropped out to become a drummer. When that didn't pan out he drifted from job to job...
20.		Tony Randall Actor, Pillow Talk
21.		Viveca Lindfors Actress, Stargate Ms. Lindfors was a Swedish born actress whose stage and screen career in the U.S. and Sweden spanned more than a half century. She was brought to Hollywood in 1946 by Warner Brothers in the hope that she would be a new Greta Garbo or Ingrid Bergman. She appeared with Ronald Reagan in her first Hollywood film...
22.		Neville Brand Actor, Stalag 17 Neville Brand joined the US Army in 1939, bent on a career in the military. It was while he was in the army that he made his acting debut, in Army training films, and this experience apparently changed the direction of his life. Once a civilian again, he used his GI Bill education assistance to study drama with the American Theater Wing and then appeared in several Broadway plays...
23.		Patrick Troughton Actor, The Omen Patrick Troughton was born in Mill Hill, London and was educated at Mill Hill School. He trained as an actor at the Embassy School of Acting in the UK and at Leighton Rollin's Studio for for Actors at Long Island, New York in the USA. During World War II he served in the Royal Navy and after the war ended he joined the Old Vic and became a Shakespearean actor...
24.		Ross Martin Actor, The Great Race Born in Grodek, Poland, Ross Martin grew up on New York City's Lower East Side. He spoke Yiddish, Polish, and Russian before even learning English and later added French, Spanish, and Italian to his amazing repertoire. Despite academic training (and receiving honors in) business, instruction, and law...
25.		Esther Rolle Actress, One Life to Live Affectionately known for the role of outspoken maid Florida Evans on the hit 70s sitcoms "Maude" and "Good Times," African-American actress Esther Rolle proved to be as spirited and iron-willed off-camera as well. The gap-toothed, rather plumpish and plain-looking actress with the gravelly voice was born in Pompano Beach...
26.		Beah Richards Actress, In the Heat of the Night Beah Richards left her native Vicksburg, Mississippi, for New York City in 1950. She would not acquire a significant role on stage until 1955, when she appeared in the off-Broadway show "Take A Giant Step" convincingly portraying an 84-year-old grandmother without using theatrical makeup. In 1962 she...
27.		William Conrad Actor, The Killers William Conrad became a television star relatively late in his career. In fact, the former Army Air Corps World War II fighter pilot began his screen career playing heavies. He was Max, one of The Killers hired to finish off Burt Lancaster in his dingy lodgings. He was the corrupt state inspector Turck working for the syndicate in The Racket...
28.		Werner Klemperer Actor, Judgment at Nuremberg Werner Klemperer, everyone's favorite TV German Air Force colonel, was best known for his role as the bumbling Col. Wilhelm Klink on the comedy series Hogan's Heroes. Although he'll forever be known as the blustering but inept German commandant of Stalag 13, Klemperer was in fact a talented dramatic actor...
29.		Virginia Mayo Actress, White Heat Virginia Clara Jones was born on November 30, 1920 in St. Louis, Missouri, the daughter of a newspaper reporter and his wife. The family had a rich heritage in the St. Louis area: her great-great-great-grandfather served in the American Revolution and later founded the city of East Saint Louis, Illinois...
30.		Leo McKern Actor, A Man for All Seasons Although he sounded very British, Leo McKern was an Australian. By the time he was 15 years old, he had endured an accident that left him without his left eye. A glass eye replaced it - one might conjecture for the better, as far as making McKern a one-day actor of singular focus (no pun intended; his face had that extremely focused look)...
31.		LaWanda Page Actress, Friday
32.		Dolph Sweet Actor, Another World 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...
33.		Eric Rohmer Director, My Night at Maud's Admirers have always had difficulty explaining Eric Rohmer's "Je ne sais quoi." Part of the challenge stems from the fact that, despite his place in French Nouvelle Vague (i.e., New Wave), his work is unlike that of his colleagues. While this may be due to the auteur's unwillingness to conform, some have argued convincingly that...
34.		Laraine Day Actress, Foreign Correspondent Born into a prominent Mormon family in Utah, Laraine Day's acting career began after her parents moved to Long Beach, California, where she joined the Long Beach Players. She appeared in her first film in 1937 in a bit part, then did leads in several George O'Brien westerns. Signing a contract with MGM...
35.		Ray Bradbury Writer, Something Wicked This Way Comes Ray Bradbury was an American science fiction writer whose works were translated in more than 40 languages and sold millions of copies around the world. Although he created a world of new technical and intellectual ideas, he never obtained a driver's license and had never driven a car. He was born Ray Douglas Bradbury on August 22...
36.		Saul Bass Miscellaneous Crew, Psycho Saul Bass was born in New York City in 1920 and is a widely acclaimed graphic designer with a career spanning over 40 years. Among his most famous works are the title sequences for such classic films as The Man with the Golden Arm, North by Northwest, and Psycho. Bass used his innovative ideas and unique perspective of the world to influence his art...
37.		G.D. Spradlin Actor, The Godfather: Part II G.D. Spradlin started his career as a lawyer, then became an Independent Oil producer. He was active in local politics before turning to acting. He joined the Oklahoma Repertory Theatre in 1964.
38.		Michael Bates Actor, A Clockwork Orange
39.		Mario Puzo Writer, The Godfather Mario Puzo was born October 15, 1920, in "Hell's Kitchen" on Manhattan's (NY) West Side and, following military service in World War II, attended New York's New School for Social Research and Columbia University. His best-known novel, "The Godfather," was preceded by two critically acclaimed novels...
40.		Peggy Lee Soundtrack, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button Peggy Lee was Born Norma Dolores Egstrom in Jamestown, North Dakota, on May 26, 1920. At age four her mother died. Peggy's father, a railroad station agent, remarried but later left home, leaving Peggy's care entrusted to a stepmother who physically abused her. Peggy later memorialized this in the calypso number "One Beating a Day"...
41.		Noel Neill Actress, Superman Returns Minnesota-born Noel Neill's ambition was to be a journalist like her father, the editor of a Minneapolis newspaper. However, she was hired by Bing Crosby to sing at the Turf Club at the race track in Del Mar, California (Crosby was one of the owners). Shortly thereafter, in 1941, she was signed to a contract by Paramount Pictures...
42.		Vincent Gardenia Actor, Moonstruck
43.		Isaac Asimov Writer, Bicentennial Man Isaac Asimov was born Isaak Judah Ozimov, on January 2, 1920, in Petrovichi shtetl, near Smolensk, Russia. He was the oldest of three children. His father, named Judah Ozimov, and his mother, named Anna Rachel Ozimov (nee Berman), were Orthodox Jews. Ozimov family were millers (the name Ozimov comes from the eponymous sort of wheat in Russian)...
44.		Michael Pate Actor, Hondo Michael Pate began his career in 1938 writing and broadcasting a program called "Youth Speaks" for ABC Radio with George Ivan Smith. He also wrote for newspapers and magazines and worked as a book and theatre critic. His book of short stories was published in Australia and the United States. Michael was one of the original members of "The Youth Radio" at Sydney's 2GB radio station...
45.		Franklin J. Schaffner Director, Planet of the Apes Franklin J. Schaffner was one of the most innovative creative minds in the early days of American network television, utilizing a moving camera in the days when most television directors kept the camera static. His eye for visuals was developed in the dozens of live television programs he directed on prestigious shows such as Studio One in Hollywood and Playhouse 90...
46.		Virginia Christine Actress, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner Virginia was a concert pianist and a trained lyric soprano. She studied dancing with Maria Bekefi and acting with the renowned professional studio coach, Helena Sorell and Michael Mark. Virginia spoke four languages, English, French, Swedish and German.
47.		Ralph Meeker Actor, Paths of Glory Burly American character actor Ralph Meeker first acted on stage at his Alma mater, Northwestern University, alongside other budding performers Charlton Heston and Patricia Neal. He graduated as a music major, because his dean had discouraged him from pursuing a theatrical career. Ignoring that advice...
48.		Timothy Leary Self, Walden His mother was a teacher and his father a dentist. He attended West Point, joined the Army, and earned an undergraduate psychology degree at the University of Alabama while in service. Next he earned a master's degree from Washington State University and a doctorate in psychology from the University of California at Berkeley...
49.		Nanette Fabray Actress, The Band Wagon A sparkling, entertaining, highly energetic presence ever since her early days (from age 4) as a singing and tap dancing child vaudevillian, Nanette Fabray (born Ruby Fabares in San Diego) was once billed as "Baby Nanette" and working with the top headliners of the era, notably Ben Turpin, in the Los Angeles area...
50.		Charles Bukowski Writer, Barfly Charles Bukowski, the American poet, short-story writer, and novelist, was born Heinrich Karl Bukowski, Jr. in Andernach, Germany on August 1920. He was the son of Henry Bukowski, a US soldier who was part of the post-World War I occupation force, and Katharina Fett, a German woman. His father, his wife and young "Henry Charles" returned to the United States in 1922...

1-50 of 2,332 names.