Deaths: November 28
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- Actor
- Producer
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Leslie William Nielsen was born in Regina, Saskatchewan, and raised in Tulita (formerly Fort Norman), Northwest Territories. His mother, Mabel Elizabeth (Davies), was Welsh. His father, Ingvard Eversen Nielsen, was a Danish-born Mountie and a strict disciplinarian. Leslie studied at the Academy of Radio Arts in Toronto before moving on to New York's Neighborhood Playhouse. His acting career started at a much earlier age when he was forced to lie to his father in order to avoid severe punishment. Leslie starred in over fifty films and many more television films. One of his two brothers became the Deputy Prime Minister of Canada. On October 10, 2002, he was appointed Officer of the Order of Canada (OC) in recognition of his contributions to the film and television industries. On November 28, 2010, Leslie Nielsen died at age 84 of pneumonia and was buried at Evergreen Cemetery in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.- Died after watching a soccer match of his beloved team, Boca Juniors against Spain's Real Madrid played in Tokio for the Intercontinental Cup. As Boca Juniors won the match he suffered a strong emotional shock that provoked the attack and died after the match.
- André Morell was born on 20 August 1909 in St. Pancras, London, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Ben-Hur (1959), The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) and The Message (1976). He was married to Joan Greenwood. He died on 28 November 1978 in London, England, UK.
- Actress
- Writer
The daughter of a well-to-do attorney and a socialite, Jane Bethel Leslie was born on August 3, 1929, in New York City. She was a 15-year-old student at the Brearley School on the Upper East Side when she was discovered by legendary producer George Abbott for the Broadway play "Snafu" in 1944. She quickly became a theatre mainstay with such plays as "The Dancer" (1946), "How I Wonder" (1947), "Goodbye, My Fancy" (1948), "Pygmalion" (1952) and "The Time of the Cuckoo" (1952) under her belt.
In later years she gave stunning theater performances in "Inherit the Wind" (1955), "Career" (1957), and "Catch Me If You Can" (1965), then capped her formidable career with a Tony nomination as drug-addicted mother Mary Tyrone in "Long Day's Journey Into Night" in 1986 opposite Jack Lemmon, Kevin Spacey, and Peter Gallagher. It was subsequently televised.
While not as well known for her movie work, the seriously attractive actress was best utilized as a brittle support player in such films as The Rabbit Trap (1959) and Captain Newman, M.D. (1963). Sporadic filming later included A Rage to Live (1965), The Molly Maguires (1970), Old Boyfriends (1979), Ironweed (1987), and Message in a Bottle (1999). On TV as a teen, her first series was playing Cornelia Otis Skinner in The Girls (1950), in 1950. Throughout the '50s, she appeared in scores of dramatic parts on episodic TV and became one of those faces without a name, playing neurotic or cruel villainesses. TV soaps took up her later years; she appeared in The Doctors (1963), All My Children (1970), and One Life to Live (1968), at various times. At one point, she was a head writer for The Secret Storm (1954).
Bethel died of cancer at age 70, survived by her daughter Leslie McCullough Jeffries.- Cal Worsham was born on 11 June 1963 in California, USA.
- Solidly built, boyishly handsome American leading-man, Christopher George was the son of Greek immigrants. Weaned on stories of the legendary Greek heroes, George and his brother Nick (later a prominent fashion photographer) both quit high school to join the Marines. Completing his education after his tour of duty, George acted in numerous TV commercials, winning a New York Film Festival Award for his efforts. Appearing in Broadway plays like A Street Car Named Desire and films like Howard Hawks's El Dorado (1966). He became a great friend of John Wayne also in Chisum (1970). George also became a TV star in the wartime adventure series The Rat Patrol (1966). He later starred in the science fiction series The Immortal (1969) and then returned to filmmaking. He also starred in Project X (1968), The Train Robbers (1973), Midway (1976), Grizzly (1976), Day of the Animals (1977), The Exterminator (1980), Graduation Day (1981), and his last, Mortuary (1982). He also appeared in another 30 other films and TV guest appearances. Christopher George died of a heart attack. He was married to his wife, actress Lynda Day George (a frequent co-star) for 14 years.
- Actor
- Composer
Danny Wells was born on 7 April 1941 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. He was an actor and composer, known for Magnolia (1999), The Last Kiss (2006) and Private Benjamin (1980). He died on 28 November 2013 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.- Actor
- Additional Crew
Doug Lennox was born on 21 January 1938 in Sudbury, Ontario, Canada. He was an actor, known for X-Men (2000), Lars and the Real Girl (2007) and Interstate 60 (2002). He died on 28 November 2015 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.- Enrico Fermi (29 September 1901 - 28 November 1954) was an Italian (later naturalized American) physicist and the creator of the world's first nuclear reactor, the Chicago Pile-1. He has been called the "architect of the nuclear age" and the "architect of the atomic bomb". He was one of very few physicists to excel in both theoretical physics and experimental physics. Fermi was awarded the 1938 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on induced radioactivity by neutron bombardment and for the discovery of trans-uranium elements. With his colleagues, Fermi filed several patents related to the use of nuclear power, all of which were taken over by the US government. He made significant contributions to the development of statistical mechanics, quantum theory, and nuclear and particle physics.
- Actor
- Soundtrack
Garry Moore was born on 31 January 1915 in Baltimore, Maryland, USA. He was an actor, known for It Happened to Jane (1959), The Schaefer Century Theatre (1952) and Fireside Theatre (1949). He was married to Mary Elizabeth Knoernschild deChant and Eleanor Borum Little. He died on 28 November 1993 in Hilton Head, South Carolina, USA.- Gary Haisman was born on 29 January 1958 in Buckinghamshire, England, UK. He died on 28 November 2018 in the UK.
- Georges Marchal was one of the most important lead actors in French cinema in the '50s, together with Jean Marais. He was the lead in various costume dramas and swashbuckling films before taking part in some of the films of Luis Buñuel, a close friend of his. He retired in 1989.
- Producer
- Additional Crew
Grant Tinker was born on 11 January 1926 in Stamford, Connecticut, USA. He was a producer, known for Going Places (1973), The Lily Tomlin Special (1975) and Great Television Moments: What We Watched (1993). He was married to Brooke Knapp, Mary Tyler Moore and Ruth Prince Byerly. He died on 28 November 2016 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Gregg Barton was born on 5 June 1912 in Long Island City, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for Tripoli (1950), The Gunman (1952) and The Gene Autry Show (1950). He was married to Bonita Cooper and Helen Norris. He died on 28 November 2000 in Fallbrook, California, USA.
- Harry Leslie Smith was born on 25 February 1923 in Barnsley, Yorkshire, England, UK. He was married to Elfriede Gisela Edelmann. He died on 28 November 2018 in Belleville, Ontario, Canada.
- Actor
- Additional Crew
Jan Nygren was born on 10 April 1934 in Hamra, Gävleborgs län, Sweden. He was an actor, known for Den vite riddaren (1994), Någonstans i Sverige (1973) and Kråsnålen (1988). He was married to Berit Nygren. He died on 28 November 2019 in Stockholm, Sweden.- Jeanne Bates began her acting career while a student at San Mateo Junior College, appearing on radio soap operas in San Francisco. She played the lead in an airwave mystery series, Lew X. Lansworth's "Whodunit" (Bates' scream was the show's "signature"), which became so successful that it (and Bates) moved to Hollywood in 1941. Bates and Lansworth married in 1943. By the time the two were married, Bates was already under contract to Columbia Pictures, where she debuted in a Boston Blackie mystery.
- One of the USA's most notorious serial killers, Jeffrey Dahmer was born and raised in Bath Township, Ohio, a middle-class suburb of Akron. Much has been made of his childhood tendencies -including cases of cruelty to animals- but to outward appearances, at least, he seemed to be a normal child. As an adult he was always gainfully employed and was perceived as quiet and polite by co-workers. At the time of his arrest he had been working at a chocolate factory in Milwaukee and living alone in a small one-bedroom apartment. Dahmer's home was searched on July 22, 1991, after a young man fled his apartment and flagged down a police car. An investigation revealed that the apartment contained the remains of 11 young men, most of them black, Hispanic, or Asian. The bodies had been dismembered, and Dahmer confessed that he had cooked and eaten some of the remains. Asked why he committed such heinous acts, Dahmer told police that he killed because he was "lonely" and did not want his victims to leave him. He explained that he would meet potential victims in bars, shopping malls, or adult bookstores, and invite them back to his apartment where, in exchange for money or beer, he would photograph them naked. He would then drug the beer and, once the victim was unconscious, strangle and dismember the body. Dahmer's victims ranged in age from 14 to 33. On February 15, 1992, Dahmer was found guilty on 15 murder counts in Wisconsin. He was subsequently convicted of another killing in his Ohio hometown. Charges linking him to other murders were dropped for lack of evidence. He was sent to prison in Wisconsin with 15 mandatory life sentences to serve. The first year of his sentence, Dahmer was isolated from the general prison population for his own protection. In 1994 he was sent to a maximum security facility in Portage and was allowed some contact with the other inmates. He died after a brutal beating to death late night November 28, 1994, by Christopher Scarver, a fellow inmate who claimed God had instructed him to murder Jeffrey Dahmer. Even after Dahmer's death, legal battles continue over his estate. Several families of his victims sued him and were awarded millions of dollars in restitution. Those families have since been trying to gain control of the contents of Dahmer's apartment, including a 55-gallon vat he used to decompose bodies and the refrigerator where he stored his victims' hearts.
- Actor
- Additional Crew
- Soundtrack
Johnnie Davis was born on 11 May 1910 in Brazil, Indiana, USA. He was an actor, known for Hollywood Ending (2002), Cowboy from Brooklyn (1938) and Garden of the Moon (1938). He died on 28 November 1983 in Pecos, Texas, USA.- Karyn Kupcinet was born on 6 March 1941 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. She was an actress, known for The Little Shop of Horrors (1960), The Gertrude Berg Show (1961) and Hawaiian Eye (1959). She died on 28 November 1963 in West Hollywood, California, USA.
- Actor
- Soundtrack
The son of a naval officer who ran what were called "concert parties", Kenneth Connor made his stage debut at age two, and by 11 was performing in both a solo act and a doubles act with his brother in various revue shows. He later decided to become a serious actor rather than just a revue performer, and attended a professional music and drama school. After a six-year stint in the army, he returned to the theater as an actor, and secured quite a few roles on the stage. For all his training, though, he found his greatest success doing voice characterizations on radio comedy shows. His success there led to his being cast in the first "Carry On" film, and he went on to become one of the regulars in the long-running series. After it ended Connor did a lot of television work, and achieved another round of success as the undertaker Alphonse in the popular TV series, 'Allo 'Allo! (1982). He died of cancer in 1993.- Actor
- Producer
- Director
Born and raised in Honolulu, Hawaii, Keo has starred as the King of Siam in a revival of The King and I at the London Palladium in London's West End, playing over 350 performances opposite Elaine Paige and Josie Lawrence. In New York City and Los Angeles, he appeared in numerous productions, including his own critically acclaimed, award winning one-man shows.
Keo contributed to the Grammy-nominated "Island Warriors" (2002) as a songwriter and vocalist. He was a member of the vocal group Brownskin who shared concert stages with Christina Aguilera, Ginuwine and Mya.
Trained in traditional hula (Kahiko and Auana), he continues to study with hula and Hawaiian music legend Robert Cazimero and is co-producer of the award winning documentary, Na Kamalei: Men of Hula.- Actor
- Composer
Magín Díaz was born on 30 December 1922 in Gamero, Mahates, Colombia. He was an actor and composer, known for Déjala Morir 'La Niña Emilia' (2017) and Magín Díaz, el Orisha de la Rosa (2018). He died on 28 November 2017 in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA.- Actor
- Director
- Writer
American character actor who specialized in underworld types, despite a far greater range. A native of the Bronx, he participated in plays in school, then attended City College of New York. In 1930, he was accepted into Eva Le Gallienne's company, where he became friendly with another young actor, one day to be known as John Garfield. The two appeared in a number of plays, both with Le Gallienne's company and with the highly-politicized Group Theatre, before Lawrence was given a film contract with Columbia Pictures. His scarred complexion and brooding appearance made him a natural for heavies, and he played scores of gangsters and mob bosses over the next six decades. Nevertheless, he could turn in fine performances in very different kinds of roles as well, such as his bewildered mountain boy in The Shepherd of the Hills (1941).
Following the Second World War, as anti-Communist fervor gripped America, Lawrence found himself under scrutiny for his political leanings. When called before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), he admitted he had once been a member of the Communist Party. The Committee broke down his resolve and he "named names" (including Sterling Hayden, Lionel Stander, Anne Revere, Larry Parks, Karen Morley and Jeff Corey). Nonetheless, he was blacklisted and departed for Europe, where he continued to make films, often in leading roles. Following the demise of the blacklist, he returned to America and resumed his position as a familiar and talented purveyor of gangland types. He was also a writer and director.- Marion McClinton was born on 26 July 1954 in St. Paul, Minnesota, USA. He was an actor, known for Laurel Avenue (1993), Working in the Theatre (1976) and Blue Note - A Story of Modern Jazz (1997). He was married to Jan Mandell. He died on 28 November 2019 in St. Paul, Minnesota, USA.
- Actress
- Soundtrack
Poised and lovely Marjorie Lord started her long and varied career on the Broadway stage and in "B" films as a sweet-natured ingénue. Born Marjorie F. Wollenberg, of German and Czech heritage, on July 26, 1918 in San Francisco, California, her family transported themselves to New York City when she was 15. Here she enrolled in both acting and ballet at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and the Chaliff School of Dance, respectively.
Marjorie's first job (billed as Marjorie Lord) was as a 17-year-old replacement on Broadway in "The Old Maid" starring Judith Anderson in 1935. Film parts from recently-signed RKO Studio started coming her way in 1937 with the Harry Carey western Border Cafe (1937); the murder mystery Forty Naughty Girls (1937); the Wheeler & Woolsey musical comedy High Flyers (1937); and a top role in the family drama The Middleton Family at the New York World's Fair (1939).
She met actor John Archer after they appeared together in the stage production of "The Male Animal" and married at the end of 1941, they settled in Hollywood after playing Los Angeles in a stage tour of "Springtime for Henry" with Edward Everett Horton in 1942. The couple had two children before divorcing in 1953. Son Gregg avoided show business and became an airline pilot while daughter Anne Archer followed in her parents' footsteps as an actress.
Marjorie earned a Universal contract in the process and throughout the 1940s and 1950s and would alternate between theater and film assignments. She returned to Broadway with the plays "Signature" in 1945 and "Little Brown Jug" a year later, returning a decade later as a replacement in the popular Moss Hart comedy "Anniversary Waltz" in the mid-1950s. Most of Marjorie's films were inconsequential and set her up as a pretty diversion -- Escape from Hong Kong (1942), Moonlight in Havana (1942) and The Adventures of Smilin' Jack (1943). Some of her better films of that period included a loan-out, Johnny Come Lately (1943), with James Cagney, and Sherlock Holmes in Washington (1943) starring the irrepressible sleuthing team of Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce.
Freelancing from the late 1940s on, Marjorie was the co-star or second lead in such films as the jazzy musical drama New Orleans (1947) for Hal Roach Studios; the Universal crimers The Strange Mrs. Crane (1948) and The Argyle Secrets (1948) as a femme fatale; the Columbia action adventure Air Hostess (1949); the Tim Holt RKO western Masked Raiders (1949) in an interesting shady role; Monogram's Bomba the Jungle Boy offering The Lost Volcano (1950); the Columbia action drama Chain Gang (1950); and the amusing crime comedy Stop That Cab (1951).
Moving more into the new 1950s medium of TV, Marjorie had guest parts on such shows as "Racket Squad," "The Adventures of Kit Carson," "China Smith," "Ramar of the Jungle," "Hopalong Cassidy," "The Loretta Young Show" and "Wagon Train," along with the anthology series "Four Star Playhouse," "Schlitz Playhouse," "Fireside Theatre," and "'Cavalcade of America." Marjorie greatest exposure, however, came in 1957 when she was cast as the second wife of widower/entertainer Danny Thomas in the long-established comedy hit The Danny Thomas Show (1953). She lucked into the role when Danny's "first wife" (played by actress Jean Hagen, best known for her classic role as screechy "Lina Lamont" in Singin' in the Rain (1952)) asked to leave the series and the writer had her character "die." Marjorie proved an able sparring partner for the comedian for seven more seasons, but was unsparingly typecast as the wholesome wife thereafter.
Following this Marjorie appeared in a number of dinner theater productions for work, but would indelibly remain Kathy ("Clancy") Williams in the public eye and appeared very sparsely on TV ("Love, American Style") and film (fifth billed as the wife of Bob Hope in the comedy Boy, Did I Get a Wrong Number! (1966)). As a result, she graciously returned to Danny Thomas and her famous TV wife role in the sequel series Make Room for Granddaddy (1970).
Marjorie gently phased her career out for the most part after her third marriage in 1977, but could be seen from time to time in such programs as "Fantasy Island" and "The Love Boat." In 1987, she returned for a short-lived run on the domestic sitcom Sweet Surrender (1987) starring Dana Delany and Mark Blum, as the latter's mother. Her last camera appearance was a featured part in the "grumpy old men"-styled TV movie Side by Side (1988) starring Milton Berle, Sid Caesar and her TV husband Danny Thomas.
Made a widow by her second and third husbands, Marjorie published her memoir, "A Dance and a Hug," in 2005. She died on November 28, 2015, age 97, in Beverly Hills, California, of natural causes.- Composer
Padu del Caribe was born on 26 April 1920 in Oranjestad, Aruba, Kingdom of the Netherlands. He was a composer, known for Abo So (2013). He was married to Daisy Croes. He died on 28 November 2019 in Oranjestad, Aruba, Kingdom of the Netherlands.- Patrícia Gabancho was born on 29 September 1952 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She died on 28 November 2017 in Barcelona, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain.
- Pim Verbeek was born on 12 March 1956 in Rotterdam, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands. He was married to Anneke. He died on 28 November 2019 in Netherlands.
- Actor
- Writer
- Producer
Roberto Gomez Bolaños more commonly known by his pseudonym Chespirito, or "Little Shakespeare" was a Mexican screenwriter, actor, comedian, film director, television director, playwright, songwriter, and author. He is widely regarded as the most important Latin and Spanish-language humorist of all time.
He was internationally known for writing, directing, and starring in the Chespirito (1968), El Chavo (1971), and El Chapulín Colorado (1972) television series. The character of El Chavo is one of the most iconic in the history of Latin American television, and El Chavo continues to be immensely popular, with daily worldwide viewership averaging 91 million viewers per episode.
On 28 November 2014, Chespirito died from heart failure as a complication of Parkinson's disease at the age of 85, in Cancún, Quintana Roo, Mexico.- Editor
- Music Department
- Editorial Department
Roger Neumann was born on 4 January 1941 in Minot, North Dakota, USA. He was an editor, known for Wednesday Again (2008), Powder Park (2001) and Rebel Highway (1994). He was married to Madeline Vegari Neumann. He died on 28 November 2018 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Actress
- Writer
- Soundtrack
The middle of seven children, she was named, not for the heroine of "As You Like It" but for the S.S. Rosalind on which her parents had sailed, at the suggestion of her father, a successful lawyer.
After receiving a Catholic school education, she went to the American Academy of Dramatic Art in New York, having convinced her mother that she intended to teach acting. In 1934, with some stock company work and a little Broadway experience, she was tested and signed by Universal. Simultaneously, MGM tested her and made her a better offer. When she plead ignorance of Hollywood (while wearing her worst-fitting clothes), Universal released her and she signed with MGM for seven years.
For some time she was used in secondary roles and as a replacement threat to limit Myrna Loy's salary demands. Knowing she was right for comedy, she tested five times for the role of Sylvia Fowler in The Women (1939). George Cukor told her to "play her as a freak". She did and got the part. Her "boss lady" roles began with the part of reporter Hildy Johnson in His Girl Friday (1940), through whose male lead, Cary Grant, she met her future husband, Grant's house-guest at the time.
In her forties, she returned to the stage, touring "Bell, Book and Candle" in 1951 and winning a Tony Award for "Wonderful Town" in 1953. Columbia, worried the public would think she had the female lead in Picnic (1955), billed her "co-starring Rosalind Russell as Rosemary." She refused to be placed in the Best Supporting Actress category when Columbia Pictures wanted to promote her for an Academy Award nomination for her role in Picnic (1955). Many felt she would have won had she cooperated. "Auntie Mame" kept her on Broadway for two years followed by the movie version.
Oscar nominations: My Sister Eileen (1942), Sister Kenny (1946), Mourning Becomes Electra (1947), and Auntie Mame (1958). In 1972, she received the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award for contributions to charity.- After serving in World War I, Roy Barcroft spent most of the 1920s and early 1930s moving from job to job. It was in the 1930s, after he moved to California with his wife, that he found his calling while acting in amateur theatrical productions. In 1937 he was appearing in bit parts in various genres, but by 1938 he was in westerns, where he became a well-known (and memorable) "heavy". Roy would alternate among Monogram, Universal, Columbia and other studios. In 1943, however, he signed an exclusive ten-year contract with Republic Pictures and became the convincing, and tireless, menace to all the good people in the West. He also did more than sneer at the likes of Don 'Red' Barry, Bill Elliot, Sunset Carson and Allan Lane. Roy acted in The Fighting Seabees (1944), which starred John Wayne. He was the Purple Martian in The Purple Monster Strikes (1945) and Capt. Mephisto in Manhunt of Mystery Island (1945), and who can forget his Retik, The Moon Menace. from the classic Radar Men from the Moon (1952)? Roy even played the good-natured marshal in Oklahoma! (1955). It was westerns, though, that were his bread and butter, and he knocked out a lot of them over the years. Outlaws of Cherokee Trail (1941), Riders of the Rio Grande (1943) and Sun Valley Cyclone (1946) were but a few of the "B" westerns Roy turned out. Off-screen, he was known as one of the nicest, kindest and most helpful people anyone would want to meet, with a terrific sense of humor. More than once, many a leading hero type such as Barry or Elliot would find that their hairpieces would mysteriously disappear before they were to put them on prior to shooting. When the era of the "B" westerns started to fade out, Roy's volume of work also slowed. He appeared in a handful of films, but his movie career had stalled by the end of 1957. He moved into the small screen with roles in TV westerns and also a recurring role in the Walt Disney production of The Adventures of Spin and Marty (1955). In the early 1960s he worked in a couple of movies, but his resurgence began in the mid-'60s when he appeared in low-budget films like Billy the Kid Versus Dracula (1966). Roy would make some better films, such as Texas Across the River (1966) and The Reivers (1969).
- Actress
- Music Department
- Soundtrack
Shadia was born on 8 February 1929 in Cairo, Egypt. She was an actress, known for Lahn el wafaa (1955), Shati el zekriat (1955) and Uyoon Sahranah (1956). She was married to Salah Zulfikar, Aziz Fathi and Imad Hamdi. She died on 28 November 2017 in Cairo, Egypt.- Actress
- Additional Crew
Tamara De Treaux was born on 21 October 1959 in California, USA. She was an actress, known for E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), Ghoulies (1984) and Rockula (1990). She died on 28 November 1990 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Terry Lester began his acting career while in the Army, and upon completing his service, decided to move to Hollywood to pursue acting. He had no problem finding work with his acting, singing, and piano playing. After a few bit parts, he found a starring role on Ark II (1976), and was soon courted by The Young and the Restless (1973) to fill in for departing stars, but insisted he would only take a new role, which was finally offered to him as "Jack Abbott", a role which garnered him a long string of Daytime Emmy nominations. Although a perennial nominee, he was outspoken against the Academy and, unsurprisingly, never won a Daytime Emmy. He left Y&R for Santa Barbara (1984), to replace fellow actor and friend Lane Davies as "Mason Capwell".
With that show in its twilight, Lester took some time off before moving to New York to take a role on As the World Turns (1956), where he was close with the head writers. As that show's writing team changed, his role decreased, and Lester left in frustration in 1994. Moving back to Hollywood, he made a few appearances on television, but spent most of his time either acting on stage or composing music for various media. In 2003, Terry Lester died at age 53, following two heart attacks.- Tiny Ron was born on 21 November 1947 in Torrance, California, USA. He was an actor, known for Last Man Standing (1996), Road House (1989) and Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (1994). He died on 28 November 2019 in Santa Clarita, 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
- Soundtrack
You could probably shoehorn actor Van Williams right in there with the other dark-haired, impossibly handsome film and TV heartthrobs Tom Tryon, Robert Logan, Gardner McKay, Brian Kelly, Adam West, Roger Smith and John Gavin of the late 1950s/early 1960s who were saddled with colorless heroic leads to play on film and/or TV -- roles that played off their photogenic prowess, manly charisma and charm but seldom tested their dramatic mettle.
Born on February 27, 1934 as Van Zandt Jarvis Williams, he was the son of a cattle rancher. He majored in animal husbandry and business at Texas Christian University but moved to Hawaii which changed the course of his life. While operating a salvage company and a skin-diving school during the mid-1950s, he was approached by Elizabeth Taylor and husband/producer Mike Todd, who were filming there. Encouraged by Todd to try his luck, Van arrived in Hollywood with no experience. Todd perished in a plane crash before he was able to help Van, but the young hopeful ventured on anyway, taking some acting/voice lessons, and was almost immediately cast in dramatic TV roles.
Warner Brothers had a keen eye for camera-loving hunks and smartly signed Van up. Fitting in perfectly, he was soon showing just how irresistible he was as a clean-cut private eye on the series Bourbon Street Beat (1959). Although the show lasted only one season, Warners carried his Kenny Madison character into the more popular adventure drama Surfside 6 (1960) opposite fellow pin-up / blond beefcake bookend Troy Donahue. Series-wise, Van tried comedy next opposite Walter Brennan in The Tycoon (1964) . After his contract expired at Warners, 20th Century-Fox handed him his most vividly recalled role, that of the emerald-suited superhero The Green Hornet (1966) with the late Bruce Lee as his partner Kato. The show, inspired by the huge cult hit Batman (1966) enjoyed a fast start but, like its predecessor, met an equally untimely finish.
Never a strong draw in films, Van revealed quite a bit of himself (literally) in his debut in Tall Story (1960) coming out of a shower. Although handed a typically staid second lead in the drama The Caretakers (1963), he focused strictly on the TV medium. Continuing well into the 1970s to guest sporadically on such TV classics as The Dick Van Dyke Show (1961), Love, American Style (1969), Mission: Impossible (1966), The Big Valley (1965)", Nanny and the Professor (1970), Barnaby Jones (1973), and The Rockford Files (1974). Another starring series attempt with Westwind (1975) failed to make the grade and he soon let his career go.
Van let his career subside and went quite successfully into business with telecommunications, real estate and law enforcement supplies among his lucrative ventures. With his glossy, pretty-boy years far behind him, he had no need to look back at his show biz success with the exception of an occasional autograph convention. He died of renal failure in Scottsdale, Arizona, on November 28, 2016, at age 82.