1-50 of 852 names.

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1. Judy Holliday Judy Holliday Actress, Born Yesterday A New York girl, born and raised, Judith Tuvim was the only child of parents Abe Tuvimand Helen. In school, she excelled in academics, winning several awards for her skills as a writer. While in her early teens, she developed what would become a life-long love for theater. In 1938, she made her professional debut as part of a nightclub act called "The Revuers"...
2. Stan Laurel Stan Laurel Actor, The Flying Deuces Stan Laurel was born Arthur Stanley Jefferson on the 16th of June in Ulverston, Cumbria in England, 1890. His father was a vaudeville performer and this led Arthur to being a stage performer too. He didn't get much schooling and this led to the joining of Fred Karno's Troupe where Arthur understudied the future star...
3. Max M. Gilford Max M. Gilford Actor, Mustang!
4. Linda Darnell Linda Darnell Actress, My Darling Clementine Linda Darnell, one of five children of a postal clerk, grew up fast. At 11, she was modeling clothes, giving her age as 16. At 13, she was appearing on the stage with little theater groups. Her mother encouraged her to audition when Hollywood talent scouts came to Dallas. She went to California and when the studio found out how young she really was...
5. Ray Collins Ray Collins Actor, Citizen Kane Ray Bidwell Collins was an American actor in film, stage, radio and television. One of his best remembered roles was that of Lt. Arthur Tragg in the long-running series Perry Mason. Collins was born in Sacramento, California, to Lillie Bidwell and William C. Collins, a newspaper drama editor. He started acting on stage at the age of 14...
6. Clara Bow Clara Bow Actress, Wings Clara Bow was born in a run-down tenement in old Brooklyn, to a schizophrenic Mother and a chronically destitute, physically abusive father. As a child, she was a tomboy and played games in the streets with the boys; since her clothes were so ragged and dirty other girl children wouldn't play with her...
7. Dorothy Dandridge Dorothy Dandridge Actress, Carmen Jones Dorothy Jean Dandridge was born in Cleveland, Ohio on November 9, 1922. Under the prodding of her mother, Dorothy and her sister, Vivian Dandridge, began performing publicly, usually in black Baptist churches throughout the country. Her mother, Ruby Dandridge, an entertainer herself, would often join her daughters on stage...
8. Everett Sloane Everett Sloane Actor, Citizen Kane Everett Sloane, the actor most known for playing Mr. Bernstein in Orson Welles classic Citizen Kane as a member of Welles' Mercury Players, was born in New York, New York on October 1, 1909. Sloane was bitten by the acting bug quite early, and first went on-stage when he was seven years old. After high school...
9. Henry Travers Henry Travers Actor, It's a Wonderful Life British-born Henry Travers was a veteran of the English stage before emigrating to the U.S. in 1917. He gained more stage experience there on Broadway working with the Theatre Guild, and began his long film career with Reunion in Vienna. Travers' kindly, grandfatherly demeanor became familiar to filmgoers over the next 25 years...
10. Malcolm X Malcolm X Writer, Malcolm X Malcolm X was born Malcolm Little on May 19, 1925, in Omaha, Nebraska, one of eight children. His father, Earl Little, was a Baptist preacher who supported Marcus Garvey's Back to Africa movement. When Malcolm was four, the family moved to Lansing, Michigan, where Earl tried opening a store while continuing his preaching...
11. Steve Cochran Steve Cochran Actor, White Heat Husky, hirsute, darkly handsome Steve Cochran was all man -- and a slick ladies' guy to boot. They didn't come much rougher and tougher than he both off- and on-camera. Throughout post-WWII Hollywood and the 1950s, he played the swarthiest and sexiest of coldhearted villains, with mustache or without...
12. Rita Johnson Rita Johnson Actress, Here Comes Mr. Jordan Rita Johnson was born on 8/13/13 in Worcester Ma. She attended the New England Conservatory of Music, did summer stock, then moved on to Broadway in 1935. She was an extremely versatile actress, who played virtually every type of role. Unfortunately, her career came to a halt in 1948 when a hair dryer fell on her head causing brain damage...
13. Nat 'King' Cole Nat 'King' Cole Soundtrack, Catch Me If You Can Nat King Cole was born Nathaniel Adams Coles at Montgomery, Alabama. He received music lessons from his mother and his family moved to Chicago when he was only five, where his father Edward James Coles was a minister at the True Light Baptist Church and later Pastor of the First Baptist Church. At 12 he was playing the church organ and at 14 he formed a 14 piece band called the Royal Dukes...
14. Zachary Scott Zachary Scott Actor, Mildred Pierce American leading man of suave or sinister roles. A collateral relative of George Washington and William Barclay 'Bat' Masterson, Scott was the son of a wealthy surgeon. Intending to follow his father into medicine, Scott studied at the University of Texas, but found he preferred the theater. He dropped out of college and signed on as a cabin boy on a freighter bound for England...
15. Constance Bennett Constance Bennett Actress, Topper Often described as the most beautiful of the Bennett sisters with her blonde hair and blue eyes, Constance Bennett was the daughter of actor Richard Bennett and actress Adrienne Morrison. Her sisters were Joan Bennett and Barbara Bennett. She was educated at Miss Shandor's school, Mrs. Merrill's school and Mme...
16. Jeanette MacDonald Jeanette MacDonald Soundtrack, San Francisco Jeanette MacDonald began her career at age 6, where she had small roles in theaters and operas. By age 13, she was winning singing contests along the eastern United States. Jeanette was a very talented operatic singer/lyrical soprano, with a wide vocal range, E above high C, close to 3 octaves. Her talent soon was spotted by Ernst Lubitsch...
17. David O. Selznick David O. Selznick Producer, Gone with the Wind David O. Selznick was a son of the silent movie producer Lewis J. Selznick. David studied at Columbia University until his father lost his fortune in the 1920s. David started work as an MGM script reader, shortly followed by becoming an assistant to Harry Rapf. He left MGM to work at Paramount then RKO...
18. Winston Churchill Winston Churchill Writer, Young Winston Born in Blenheim Palace, England. Mother's name was Lady Randolph Churchill who had American lineage. On his father's side he was grandson of the 7th Duke of Marlborough, his ancestry extending into the aristocracy. After passing through famous English public schools such as Harrow, he went on to fulfil his ambition for a life in the army...
19. Bill Elliott Bill Elliott Actor, The Showdown Born Gordon Nance in 1904 on a farm in Pattonsburg, Missouri -- a small town about 60 miles northeast of Kansas City -- the future "Wild Bill Elliott" grew up around horses. His father was a commissioner at the Kansas City Stockyards. and at age 16 Elliott won a first-place ribbon in that city's annual "American Royal Horse and Livestock Show." After a move to California...
20. Trigger Trigger Actor, Melody Time Trigger, Roy Rogers' beautiful Golden Palomino stallion, and co-star with Roy in many of his movies and Roy's TV show, was often billed as "the smartest horse in the movies". The two of them appeared in dozens of westerns in the 1930s and 40s, always chasing and thwarting the bad guys, and working to serve peace and justice...
21. W. Somerset Maugham W. Somerset Maugham Writer, The Painted Veil Popular British novelist, playwright, short-story writer and the highest-paid author in the world in the 1930s, Somerset Maugham graduated in 1897 from St. Thomas' Medical School and qualified as a doctor, but abandoned medicine after the success of his first novels and plays. During World War I he worked as a secret agent and in 1928 settled in Cap Ferrat in France...
22. Irving Bacon Irving Bacon Actor, Gone with the Wind A minor character actor who appeared in literally hundreds of films, actor Irving Bacon could always be counted on for expressing bug-eyed bewilderment or cautious frustration in small-town settings with his revolving door of friendly, servile parts - mailmen, milkmen, clerks, chauffeurs, cabbies, bartenders...
23. Bobby Jordan Bobby Jordan Actor, Angels with Dirty Faces Bobby was raised in Flatbush, Brooklyn. By the time he was four and a half, he could act, tap dance and play the Saxophone. He made his stage debut in 1930 and film debut at Warner Bros./Vitaphone in 1931. He also reportedly had a bit part in the 1934 Eddie Cantor film, "Kid Millions". He then appeared on Broadway in "Dead End"...
24. Margaret Dumont Margaret Dumont Actress, Duck Soup Margaret Dumont would probably consider it a tragedy that she is best-known for her performances as the ultimate straight woman in seven of the Marx Brothers' films (including most of their best). By all accounts she never understood their jokes (offscreen and on), which is of course a major reason why she's so funny...
25. Edward R. Murrow Edward R. Murrow Self, Harvest of Shame Pioneering radio and TV reporter who was the dominant figure in American broadcast journalism during its early years. His dramatic, in-person coverage of the 1938 German occupation of Austria, the 1939 German blitzkrieg against Czechoslovakia and the 10-month-long Battle of Britain, fought in the skies between 1940 and 1941...
26. Dorothy Kilgallen Dorothy Kilgallen Self, Episode dated 5 October 1952 Dorothy Kilgallen was the daughter of James Kilgallen, a colorful and popular newspaperman. She followed her father into the newspaper business and made her early reputation as a crime reporter (a novelty for women in those days) and for her participation in an around-the-world race. Although she came in second...
27. Spike Jones Spike Jones Actor, Fireman Save My Child
28. Henry Kulky Henry Kulky Actor, Love Nest
29. Nancy Carroll Nancy Carroll Actress, Laughter Born Ann Veronica LaHiff in New York on November 19, 1904, Nancy Carroll was to be one of the finest actresses ever to grace the silver screen. She was smitten, early, by the acting bug when she appeared as Fay Larkin in 1918's RIDERS OF THE PURPLE SAGE a film that went absolutely no where. Prior to that she had limited experience on the stages surrounding NYC...
30. Mary Boland Mary Boland Actress, The Women Lively, buxom character actress Mary Boland made a name for herself playing vacuous or pixillated motherly types during the 1930's. One of her most memorable performances was as the addle-brained Mrs. Rimplegar of Three-Cornered Moon, who gives away her family fortune to a swindler because he seemed like 'such a nice young man'...
31. Helen Chandler Helen Chandler Actress, Dracula Helen Chandler was born in Charleston, South Carolina on February 1, 1906. By the late 1920s she had become a hugely popular actress on the New York stage. That Hollywood should beckon was inevitable, but unfortunately whatever quality made Chandler a success on the stage did not survive the transition to film...
32. Minor Watson Minor Watson Actor, Woman of the Year Minor Watson was a jovial, grandfatherly actor specializing in playing warm-hearted doctors, affable small-town businessmen, concerned army officers and other such characters. Watson wasn't as prolific as many other actors of his type; while he made slightly more than 100 films, his colleagues such as Russell Hicks and Pierre Watkin had over 300 to their credit...
33. Tom Kennedy Tom Kennedy Actor, Monkey Business Once a boxer, brawny character actor Tom Kennedy began his film career early in the silent era. He frequently played big, dumb, likable, working-class types, such as in The Case of the Stuttering Bishop. He also worked with W.C. Fields, The Marx Brothers, and Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy in a career that lasted until his death at the age of 80.
34. Frank Reicher Frank Reicher Actor, King Kong Though most famous as Capt. Englehorn, the ship captain who carried the expedition to Skull Island to capture the great ape in King Kong--and its sequel, The Son of Kong--Frank Reicher had a long history as a stage actor and director, and film director, prior to his "Kong" appearances, and in fact has more than 200 film roles to his credit...
35. John Larkin John Larkin Actor, The Edge of Night
36. Russell Collins Russell Collins Actor, The Enemy Below
37. Marie McDonald Marie McDonald Actress, The Geisha Boy Kentucky-born Marie McDonald, born Cora Marie Frye in 1923, was a leggy, voluptuous blonde starlet who pursued her career with a vengeance but found little reward in the end. Her mother was a former Ziegfeld girl and her grandmother an operatic singer. Her father, on the other hand, was not so artistically inclined...
38. Marlon Brando Sr. Marlon Brando Sr. Producer, The Naked Edge The movie industry executive and producer Marlon Brando, Sr. was the father of Marlon Brando Jr., whom many consider the greatest movie actor of all time, and of movie and TV actress Jocelyn Brando. Marlon, Jr. made his father, a former salesman and businessman, the head of his personal production company in Hollywood...
39. T.S. Eliot T.S. Eliot Writer, Cats T.S. Eliot ranks with William Butler Yeats as the greatest English language poet of the 20th Century and was certainly the most influential. He was born Thomas Stearns Eliot into the bosom of a respectable middle class family on September 26, 1888 in St. Louis, Missouri. The family had roots in New England...
40. Mae Murray Mae Murray Actress, The Merry Widow Dubbed "The Girl with the Bee Stung Lips", silent screen actress Mae Murray began her career on stage partnered with ballroom dancing extraordinaire Vernon Castle in the 1906 Broadway show "About Town." Born the daughter of émigrés, she began studying dance at a young age. Two years later she joined the "Ziegfeld Follies" chorus line and moved up to headliner status by 1915...
41. Clyde Beatty Clyde Beatty Actor, Africa Screams Clyde Raymond Beatty was born to Margaret Beatty on June 10, 1903, in Bainbridge, Ross County, OH, the eldest of nine children. For most of these years Margaret was a single parent, and young Clyde took every part-time job in town he could find to help his mother and siblings. He graduated from nearby Chillicothe High School...
42. John Kitzmiller John Kitzmiller Actor, Dr. No
43. Bert Hicks Bert Hicks Actor, Once More, My Darling
44. Shirley Jackson Shirley Jackson Writer, The Haunting Shirley Jackson was a horror and mystery writer born in San Francisco, California in 1916. She is best remembered for her unsettling novel of paranoia and the supernatural, 'The Haunting of Hill House' (1959) and her terrifying short story 'The Lottery' (1948), a horror tale rife with symbolism that is still puzzled over by critics and academics to this day...
45. Dick Wessel Dick Wessel Actor, Dick Tracy vs. Cueball Rough-and-tumble American actor Dick Wessel had a fierce-looking scowl on a bulldog of a mug. That, coupled with a thick build and imposing stance, earned him appearances in countless Warner Bros. comedies and hard-boiled crime dramas throughout the late 1930s and 1940s. Although he made hundreds of films...
46. Bing Davidson Bing Davidson Actor, Move Over, Darling
47. Hoi-Chuen Lee Hoi-Chuen Lee Actor, My Son, Ah Chung
48. Johnny Lee Johnny Lee Actor, Song of the South
49. Syd Chaplin Syd Chaplin Actor, Shoulder Arms
50. Fred Quimby Fred Quimby Producer, The Cat Concerto
1-50 of 852 names.