Deaths: November 29
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- Actor
- Writer
- Producer
O'Neal was born in New York in 1969, but moved to Boston when he was just 1 year old. He was educated at West Roxbury High School and went on to attend Northeastern University, both in Boston. After this, various jobs followed including a sausage cart vendor at a train station, flower seller and popcorn seller at the Boston Garden Arena.
In October 1992, O'Neal attended an open microphone comedy night. He heckled one of the comedians, who challenged O'Neal to perform himself at the next open mic night. He did just that and so began his comedy career. Over the next 6 years, O'Neal became a fixture on the Boston comedy circuit. He then relocated to New York, becoming a regular at Manhattan's Comedy Cellar. After this, O'Neal moved to Los Angeles and radio, television and film projects followed.
He appeared in various shows, both in acting roles and as himself. In 2005, he taped his own episode of One Night Stand (2005) and in 2011 he had his own Comedy Central special, 'Patrice O'Neal: Elephant in the Room'. As well as on-screen projects, O'Neal worked on radio and continued as a stand-up in clubs and theaters.
O'Neal's final screen appearance was in September 2011 when he took part in the Comedy Central Roast of Charlie Sheen (2011). On November 29, 2011, O'Neal, who suffered from diabetes, passed away, following complications from a stroke. He was 41 years old.- Production Manager
- Writer
- Producer
Alfred Masini was born on 5 January 1930 in Jersey City, New Jersey, USA. He was a production manager and writer, known for Triple Threat, Entertainment Tonight (1981) and Preview: The Best of the New (1990). He was married to Charlyn Honda Masini. He died on 29 November 2010 in Honolulu, Hawaii, USA.- Aschira was born on 28 December 1924 in Morocco. She died on 29 November 2019 in Madrid, Spain.
- Actor
- Additional Crew
Ben Tatar was born on 23 January 1930 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. He was an actor, known for Crack in the World (1965), The Cemetery Club (1993) and The Exquisite Cadaver (1969). He died on 29 November 2012 in Shadyside, Pennsylvania, USA.- Actor
- Writer
- Producer
Bill Scott was born on 2 August 1920 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for The Bullwinkle Show (1959), Hoppity Hooper (1964) and The Crazy World of Laurel and Hardy (1966). He was married to Dorothy Scott. He died on 29 November 1985 in Tujunga, California, USA.- Director
- Writer
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Brilliant, distinguished American director, particularly of Westerns, whose simple, bleak style disguises a complex artistic temperament. The adopted son of a wealthy hardware retailer, Boetticher attended Culver Military Academy and Ohio State University, where he excelled in football and boxing.
Following his schooling Boetticher, something of an adventurer, went to Mexico and transformed himself into a formidable professional matador. His school chum, Hal Roach Jr., used his film connections to get Boetticher minor jobs in the film industry, most importantly the job of technical adviser on the bullfighting romance Blood and Sand (1941). By studying the work of the film's director, Rouben Mamoulian, and from editor Barbara McLean, he gained a thorough grounding in filmmaking.
After an apprenticeship as a studio messenger and assistant director, he was given a chance to direct, first retakes of scenes from other directors' films, then his own low-budget projects. For producer John Wayne Boetticher filmed his first prominent work, a fictionalization of his own experiences in Mexico, Bullfighter and the Lady (1951), although the work was re-edited without Boetticher's approval by his mentor, John Ford (the director's cut was restored several decades later).
Following a number of sprightly but inconsequential programmers in the early 1950s, Boetticher formed a partnership with actor Randolph Scott which, with the participation of producer Harry Joe Brown and writer Burt Kennedy, led to a string of the most memorable Western films of the 1950s, including 7 Men from Now (1956) and The Tall T (1957). He directed a sharp gangster film, The Rise and Fall of Legs Diamond (1960), then, with his wife Debra Paget, left for Mexico to film a monumental documentary on famed matador Carlos Arruza. The travail of the next seven years, which Boetticher detailed in his autobiography "When In Disgrace", included near-fatal illness, divorce, incarceration in jails, hospitals and an insane asylum, and the accidental deaths of Arruza and most of the film crew. The film, Arruza (1972), was both an exquisite documentary and a testament to Boetticher's immutable drive. Though he returned to Hollywood to form a partnership with Audie Murphy, they completed only one film together before Murphy's death in 1971.
Since then Boetticher completed another documentary and had announced several feature films in preparation. He died at age 85.- Actor
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Once told by an interviewer, "Everybody would like to be Cary Grant", Grant is said to have replied, "So would I."
Cary Grant was born Archibald Alec Leach on January 18, 1904 in Horfield, Bristol, England, to Elsie Maria (Kingdon) and Elias James Leach, who worked in a factory. His early years in Bristol would have been an ordinary lower-middle-class childhood, except for one extraordinary event. At age nine, he came home from school one day and was told his mother had gone off to a seaside resort. However, the real truth was that she had been placed in a mental institution, where she would remain for years, and he was never told about it (he would not see his mother again until he was in his late 20s).
He left school at age 14, lying about his age and forging his father's signature on a letter to join Bob Pender's troupe of knockabout comedians. He learned pantomime as well as acrobatics as he toured with the Pender troupe in the English provinces, picked up a Cockney accent in the music halls in London, and then in July 1920, was one of the eight Pender boys selected to go to the United States. Their show on Broadway, "Good Times", ran for 456 performances, giving Grant time to acclimatize. He would stay in America. Mae West wanted Grant for She Done Him Wrong (1933) because she saw his combination of virility, sexuality and the aura and bearing of a gentleman. Grant was young enough to begin the new career of fatherhood when he stopped making movies at age 62.
One biographer said Grant was alienated by the new realism in the film industry. In the 1950s and early 1960s, he had invented a man-of-the-world persona and a style - "high comedy with polished words". In To Catch a Thief (1955), he and Grace Kelly were allowed to improvise some of the dialogue. They knew what the director, Alfred Hitchcock, wanted to do with a scene, they rehearsed it, put in some clever double entendres that got past the censors, and then the scene was filmed. His biggest box-office success was another Hitchcock 1950s film, North by Northwest (1959) made with Eva Marie Saint since Kelly was by that time Princess of Monaco.
Although Grant retired from the screen, he remained active. He accepted a position on the board of directors at Faberge. By all accounts this position was not honorary, as some had assumed. Grant regularly attended meetings and traveled internationally to support them. The position also permitted use of a private plane, which Grant could use to fly to see his daughter wherever her mother Dyan Cannon, was working. He later joined the boards of Hollywood Park, the Academy of Magical Arts (The Magic Castle - Hollywood, California), Western Airlines (acquired by Delta Airlines in 1987) and MGM.
Grant expressed no interest in making a career comeback. He was in good health until almost the end of his life, when he suffered a mild stroke in October 1984. In his last years, he undertook tours of the United States in a one-man-show, "A Conversation with Cary Grant", in which he would show clips from his films and answer audience questions. On November 29, 1986, Cary Grant died at age 82 of a cerebral hemorrhage in Davenport, Iowa.
In 1999, the American Film Institute named Grant the second male star of Golden Age of Hollywood cinema (after Humphrey Bogart). Grant was known for comedic and dramatic roles; his best-known films include Bringing Up Baby (1938), The Philadelphia Story (1940), His Girl Friday (1940), Arsenic and Old Lace (1944), Notorious (1946), An Affair to Remember (1957), North by Northwest (1959) and Charade (1963).- Charles Cooper was born on 11 August 1926 in San Francisco, California, USA. He was an actor, known for Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989), The Wrong Man (1956) and Blind Fury (1989). He was married to Pamela Searle. He died on 29 November 2013 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Actor
- Writer
- Director
Sensitive, boyishly handsome, dark-haired Gallic lead and character actor Daniel Gelin did not have an easy personal life but was warmly embraced as a talented star who appeared to fine advantage for such legendary directors as Max Ophüls, Louis Malle, Jean Cocteau, Alfred Hitchcock, and Claude Lelouch.
Born Daniel Yves Alfred Gelin in Angers, France, on May 19, 1921, he left home at age 16 to take dramatic arts classes and trained at the Cours Simon in Paris, later studying at the Paris Conservatoire with Louis Jouvet his mentor. He made his first film appearance in Miquette (1940) and for several years played extra or bit parts in French films.
His rebellious bohemian nature served him well in films, if not his private life. Adept at both light comedy and heavy drama, Gelin moved into leading roles in 1949 and went on to mesmerize audiences in such films as Rendezvous in July (1949), Edward and Caroline (1951), Dirty Hands (1951), Le Plaisir (1952), Rue de l'Estrapade (1953), Young Love (1951), Napoleon (1955) (title role), The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956), Testament of Orpheus (1960) and many more.
Numerous starring/co-starring roles in primarily French films followed, a healthy mixture of farce and drama. These included Shadows of Adultery (1961), El niño y el muro (1965), Line of Demarcation (1966), À belles dents (1966), Witness Out of Hell (1966), La trêve (1968), Hallucinations sadiques (1969), La servante (1970), Far from Dallas (1972), Diálogos de exiliados (1975), L'honorable société (1978) and The Children (1985). His final films would be in Les ténors (1994), Des feux mal éteints (1994), Fugueuses (1995) and Les Bidochon (1996). Gelin's last few years were spent on TV with projects including roles on Chercheurs d'or (1996), Les marmottes (1998) and Madame le proviseur (1994).
Despite his enviable resume (150 films), It's generally considered that Gelin professional career was compromised by a turbulent, unhappy life off screen. Gelin lived an emotionally up-and-down rollercoaster life pocked with stormy relationships, severe depression and suicide attempts. A lengthy battle with alcohol and drugs quickly hardened his initially boyish features. One child son, Pascal, died tragically in 1957 at the age of 14 months when he accidentally swallowed pills. Another son, actor/producer Xavier Gélin, lost his battle with cancer in 1999.
Gelin was married three times, including his first to actress Danièle Delorme. He had six children in all. One daughter, actress Maria Schneider was the product of his liaison with French model Christine Marie Schneider, whom he never married. Another daughter was actress Fiona Gélin. Gélin was a writer as well, and penned a number of poetry poems, memoirs and even a manual on gardening. He died in Paris on November 29, 2002, at the age 81 of kidney failure.- Edith Tolkien was the wife and muse of novelist J. R. R. Tolkien and the inspiration for his fictional characters Lúthien Tinúviel and Arwen Evenstar.
Edith Tolkien died on 29 November 1971 at the age of 82, and was buried in Wolvercote Cemetery, Oxford. Tolkien was buried with her when he died twenty-one months later. Below the names on their grave are the names of the characters of Beren and Lúthien. - Actress
During the Golden Age of Hollywood there were an array of character actors who came out and perfected their craft alongside some of the era's most popular stars. Within that category is one Edith Evanson.
She was born on April 28, 1896 in Tacoma, Washington, the daughter of a Protestant minister. In the the 1910s she was educated at the historic Stadium High School in which she appeared in various drama productions. In the 1910s and 1930s she appeared in various stage productions through a stock company.
In 1939 she came to Hollywood to begin work as a supporting actress in motion pictures; she made her debut the following year in The Man Who Wouldn't Talk (1940). She soon made a name for herself in films often appearing as spinsters, landladies, wealthy widows, maids, town gossips, middle-aged secretaries, and snobs.
During her film career she appeared in such classics as Citizen Kane (1941), Woman of the Year (1942), Reunion in France (1942), The Strange Woman (1946), Rope (1948), The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), and Toby Tyler or Ten Weeks with a Circus (1960). With the advent of TV, she expanded in her career and made guest appearances on such programs as Jane Wyman Presents the Fireside Theatre (1955), The Loretta Young Show (1953), Lassie (1954), Bachelor Father (1957), and, Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955).
In her later years work became harder to find due to old age and she retired from acting in 1974 following a guest role in the TV show Apple's Way (1974). Upon retirement she moved to Riverside Country, California, where she lived until her death from natural causes on November 29, 1980, aged 84. As she had no close family, she left money to her church, to the Democratic National Committee, and to the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital.- Composer
- Actor
- Music Department
Probably the most important musician to be born in Cuba, Ernesto Lecuona was already playing piano at age 5. He obtained his master in piano with a gold medal at the National Conservatory when he was barely 17 years old. Among his teachers were Antonio Saavedra (a disciple of Ignacio Cervantes), Joaquin Nin and the Dutch composer Hubert de Blanck who resided in Havana. When his father died, young Lecuona was forced to work playing piano in silent-movie bistros in order to help the family finances. As he became known as a concert pianist he also started composing. In spite of being a classical pianist, early on Lecuona showed interest in popular music and composed "La Comparsita" and other dance pieces which defined Cuban music by uniting the Spanish-European musical tradition with African rhythms. In 1917 he made his first recordings in New York, where he settled for a while, but in 1918 he was back in Cuba to found the Instituto Musical de La Habana. He composed his first operetta in 1919 and became wildly successful in this genre, turning out more than 50 staged musicals. In 1927 he unveiled his "Malaguena" at the Roxy Theater in New York with enormous success (fellow composer Ravel exclaimed, "It is more beautiful and melodic than my 'Bolero!'").
The hit parade success in 1929 of "Siboney" marked another milestone in Lecuona's career and he became known as the "Cuban Gershwin." This encouraged him to form the "Orquestra Cubana", which quickly became a favorite ensemble worldwide. During a tour of Spain, the composer had to leave the orchestra for health reasons and went back to Cuba for a needed rest. The group, now under the direction of Armando Orechife, change its name to "Lecuona Cuban Boys" and continued touring the world for many years, even appearing in films.
In the late 1930s and 1940s Lecuona wrote several soundtracks for films at MGM, 20th Century-Fox and Warner Bros. The love theme for Always in My Heart (1942) became a huge hit, with more than 1,000 versions recorded by vocalists and orchestras. By the end of World War II Lecuona had built an impressive catalog of music, which included 400 songs, 176 pieces for piano, 52 operettas, zarzuelas and musical revues, 31 orchestral works, 11 soundtracks for the cinema, 5 ballets, one trio and an opera. It was obviously time to relax and enjoy the fruit of his labors, so he spaced out his musical commitments and dedicated himself to gardening and the breeding of tropical birds. Although quite wealthy, Lecuona preferred a simple lifestyle and was very proud of his roses and fruit trees. He detested politics but was notoriously generous: he financed, with his own money, various artists' associations including, with maestro Gonzalo Roig, the founding of Sociedad Nacional de Autores, devoted to protecting the copyrights of Cuban musicians.
When 'Fidel Castro (I)' (v) came to power, Lecuona, along with hundreds of thousands of Cubans, went into exile. He settled in Tampa, Florida, and it's possible that he later moved to New York, where he led a quiet life hoping for the end of the communist dictatorship on his beloved island. In 1963 he traveled to the Canary Islands off the coast of Spain to attend a tribute being held in his honor and died there on November 23rd. His body was claimed by the government of Malaga, Spain, which wanted to bury the immortal composer of "Malaguena" in their land; it was also claimed by the Cuban government, which hoped to cover up the fact that its most prestigious artist was in exile. Cuban organizations in Miami protested the move and Lecuona's body rests today at the Westchester Cemetery in New York.- Casting Director
- Producer
- Casting Department
Ethel Winant was born on 5 August 1922 in Worcester, Massachusetts, USA. She was a casting director and producer, known for Ronin (1998), George Wallace (1997) and World War II: When Lions Roared (1994). She was married to H.M. Wynant. She died on 29 November 2003 in West Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA.- Actor
- Additional Crew
Frank Latimore was born on 28 September 1925 in Darien, Connecticut, USA. He was an actor, known for All the President's Men (1976), 13 Rue Madeleine (1947) and Patton (1970). He was married to Sukarno, Rukmini. He died on 29 November 1998 in Denville Hall, Northwood, Hillingdon, London, England, UK.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Gene Rayburn was born on December 22, 1917, in Christopher, Illinois. After his father died at a very young age, his mother moved to Chicago and married Milan Rubessa, and Gene adopted his stepfather's name. As Gene Rubessa, he acted in high school plays and hoped to follow an acting career. He moved to New York City in the 1930s where he was a page for NBC, later working as an usher for the NBC symphony orchestra. Before World War Two, he went to announcers school and worked with various radio personalities around New York City. He married Helen Tricknor, in 1940, with whom he had one child, Lynn, in 1942. Soon afterwards, he was called to Military Service and joined the U.S. Air Corps. After the war, Gene worked on the "Rayburn and Finch Show" and, later, the "Gene Rayburn Show" in the early fifties. During the 50s, Rayburn was instrumental in highlighting corruption on radio, by playing an older song so many times that it became a hit. This was alleged to have proved that record promoters could pay DJs to play records on stations for bribes, making the songs very popular, albeit for a price. His breakthrough came in the mid-50s as the announcer on The Tonight Show (1953), with Steve Allen. Rayburn and Allen were associated on The Tonight Show (1953) Show for three years and Rayburn became a household name for many years after that. In 1955, he hosted his first game show called The Sky's the Limit (1954). Subsequent game shows included The Match Game (1962), Make the Connection (1955), Musical Chairs (1954), Play Your Hunch (1958), Tic Tac Dough (1956) and Dough Re Mi (1960). He always flew by jet from his home in Massachusetts to host his various shows. Rayburn was also a Broadway performer, and appeared in plays such as "Bye, Bye Birdie"- Charles Nelson Reilly was his understudy. He also had a small part in the movie, It Happened to Jane (1959).- Music Artist
- Actor
- Producer
A master musician, a film producer and actor, best known as the lead guitarist and occasionally lead vocalist of The Beatles, George Harrison was born February 25, 1943, in Liverpool, Merseyside, England. He was also the youngest of four children, born to Harold Harrison and Louise Harrison.
Like his future band mates, Harrison was not born into wealth. Louise was largely a stay-at-home mom while her husband Harold drove a school bus for the Liverpool Institute, an acclaimed grammar school that George attended and where he first met a young classmate, Paul McCartney. By his own admission, Harrison was not much of a student and what little interest he did have for his studies washed away with his discovery of the electric guitar and American rock-'n'-roll.
There were a lot of harmonies in the Harrison household. He had a knack of sorts for it by age 12 or 13, while riding a bike around his neighborhood and hearing Elvis Presley's "Heartbreak Hotel", playing from a nearby house. By the age of 14 George--who was a fan of such legends as , Harrison, who grew up in the likes of listening to such rock legends Carl Perkins, Little Richard and Buddy Holly--had purchased his first guitar and taught himself a few chords.
McCartney', who had recently joined up with another Liverpool teenager, John Lennon, in a skiffle group known as The Quarrymen, invited Harrison to see the band perform. Harrison and Lennon had a few things in common, such as the fact that they both attended Dovedale Primary School but didn't know each other. Their paths finally crossed in early 1958. McCartney had been egging the 17-year-old Lennon to allow the 14-year-old Harrison to join the band, but Lennon was reluctant; as legend has it, after seeing McCartney and Lennon perform, George was granted an audition on the upper deck of a bus, where he wowed Lennon with his rendition of popular American rock riffs.
The 17-year-old Harrison's music career was in full swing by 1960. Lennon had renamed the band The Beatles and the young group began cutting its rock teeth in the small clubs and bars around Liverpool and Hamburg, Germany. Within two years, the group had a new drummer, Ringo Starr, and a manager, Brian Epstein, a young record store owner who eventually landed the group a record contract with EMI's Parlophone label.
Before the end of 1962, Harrison and The Beatles recorded a song, "Love Me Do", that landed in the UK Top 20 charts. Early that following year, another hit, "Please Please Me," was released, followed by an album by the same name. "Beatlemania" was in full swing across England, and by early 1964, with the release of their album in the US and an American tour, it had swept across the States as well.
Largely referred to as the "Quiet Beatle" Harrison took a back seat to McCartney, Lennon and, to a certain extent, Starr. Still, he could be quick-witted, even edgy. During the middle of one American tour, the group members were asked how they slept at night with long hair.
From the get-go, Lennon-McCartney were primary lead vocalists. While the two spent most of the time writing their own songs, Harrison had shown an early interest in creating his own work. In the summer of 1963 he spearheaded his first song, "Don't Bother Me," which made its way on to the group's second album. From there on out, Harrison's songs were a staple of all Beatle records. In fact, some of the group's more memorable songs--e.g., "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" and "Something," which was the only Beatle song ever recorded by Frank Sinatra--were penned by Harrison.
However, his influence on the group and pop music in general extended beyond just singles. In 1965, while on the set of The Beatles' second film, Help! (1965), Harrison took an interest in some of the Eastern instruments and their musical arrangements that were being used in the film. He soon developed a deep interest in Indian music. He taught himself the sitar, introducing the instrument to many western ears on Lennon's song, "Norwegian Wood"" He soon cultivated a close relationship with renowned sitar player Ravi Shankar. Other groups, including The Rolling Stones, began incorporating the sitar into some of their work. It could be argued that Harrison's experimentation with different kinds of instrumentation helped pave the way for such ground-breaking Beatle albums as "Revolver" and "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band".
Harrison's interest in Indian music soon extended into a yearning to learn more about eastern spiritual practices. In 1968 he led The Beatles on a journey to northern India to study transcendental meditation under Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.
Having grown spiritually and musically since the group first started, Harrison, who wanted to include more of his material on Beatle records, was clearly uneasy with the McCartney-Lennon dominance of the group. During the "Let It Be" recording sessions in 1969, Harrison walked out, staying away for several weeks before he was coaxed to come back with the promise that the band would use more of his songs on its records.
However, tensions in the group were clearly high. Lennon and McCartney had ceased writing together years before, and they, too, were feeling the need to go in a different direction. In January of 1970 the group recorded Harrison's "I Me Mine." It was the last song the four would ever record together. Three months later, McCartney announced he was leaving the band and The Beatles were officially over.
After the breakup of The Beatles, Harrison pursued a solo career. He immediately assembled a studio band consisting of ex-Beatle Starr, guitar legend Eric Clapton, keyboardist Billy Preston and others to record all the songs that had never made it on to The Beatles catalog. The result was a three-disc album, "All Things Must Pass". While one of its signature songs, "My Sweet Lord," was later deemed too similar in style to The Chiffons' 1963 hit "He's So Fine," forcing the guitarist to cough up nearly $600,000, the album as a whole remains Harrison's most acclaimed record.
Not long after the album's release, Harrison combined his charitable work and his continued passion for the east when he put together a series of ground-breaking benefit concerts at New York City's Madison Square Garden to raise money for refugees in Bangladesh. Known as the "Concert for Bangladesh", the shows, which featured Bob Dylan, Leon Russell, and Ravi Shankar, would go on to raise some $15 million for UNICEF, produced a Grammy-winning album, a successful documentary film (The Concert for Bangladesh (1972)) and laid the groundwork for future benefit shows like "Live Aid" and "Farm Aid".
Not everything about post-Beatle life went smoothly for Harrison, though. In 1974, his marriage to Pattie Boyd, whom he'd married eight years before, ended when she left him for Eric Clapton. His studio work struggled, too, from 1973-77, starting with, "Living in the Material World", "Extra Texture," and "33 1/3," all of which failed to meet sales expectations.
Following the release of that last album, Harrison took a short break from music, winding down his own label, Dark Horse Records--which he had started in 1974, and which had released albums by a number of other bands--and started his own film production company, Handmade Films. The company produced the successful Monty Python film Life of Brian (1979) and would go on to make 26 other films before Harrison sold his interest in the company in 1994.
In 1979, he returned to the studio to release his self-titled album. It was followed two years later by, "Somewhere in England," which was still being worked on at the time of John Lennon's assassination in December of 1980. The record eventually included the Lennon tribute track, "All Those Years Ago," a song that reunited ex-Beatles Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, along with ex-Wings members Denny Laine and Linda McCartney. While the song was a hit, the album, its predecessor and its successor, "Gone Troppo," weren't. For Harrison the lack of commercial appeal and the constant battles with music executives proved draining and prompted another studio hiatus.
A comeback of sorts came in November 1987, however, with the release of the album "Cloud Nine," produced by Jeff Lynne (of Electric Light Orchestra). The album turned out several top-charting hits, including "Got My Mind Set On You"-- remake of the 1962 song by Rudy Clark--and "When We Was Fab," a song that reflected on the life of Beatlemania, with Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney, who was dressed up as a walrus, but was a camera shy, in February 1988. Later that year Harrison formed The Traveling Wilburys. The group consisted of Harrison, Lynne, Roy Orbison, Tom Petty and Bob Dylan, and spawned two successful albums. Buoyed by the group's commercial success, Harrison took to the road with his new bandmates in 1992, embarking on his first international tour in 18 years.
Not long afterwards he was reunited with McCartney and Starr for the creation of an exhaustive three-part release of a Beatles anthology--which featured alternative takes, rare tracks and a John Lennon demo called "Free as a Bird," that the three surviving Beatles completed in the studio. The song went on to become the group's 34th Top 10 single. After that, however, Harrison largely became a homebody, keeping himself busy with gardening and his cars at his expansive and restored home in Henley-on-Thames in south Oxfordshire, England.
Still, the ensuing years were not completely stress-free. In 1997, Harrison, a longtime smoker, was successfully treated for throat cancer. Eighteen months later, his life was again put on the line when a deranged 33-year-old Beatles fan somehow managed to circumvent Harrison's intricate security system and broke into his home, attacking the musician and his wife Olivia with a knife. Harrison was treated for a collapsed lung and minor stab wounds. Olivia suffered several cuts and bruises.
In May 2001, Harrison's cancer returned. There was lung surgery, but doctors soon discovered the cancer had spread to his brain. That autumn, he traveled to the US for treatment and was eventually hospitalized at the UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles, CA. He died November 29, 2001, at ex-bandmate McCartney's house in Los Angeles, at aged 58, with his wife and son at his side.
Just one year after his death, Harrison's final studio album, "Brainwashed," was released. It was produced by Lynne, Harrison's son Dhani Harrison and Harrison himself, and featured a collection of songs he'd been working at the time of his death. Dhani finished putting the album together and it was released in November of 2002.- Music Department
- Composer
- Writer
Italian composer, one of the greatest exponents of operatic realism, who virtually brought the history of Italian opera to an end. His mature operas include "La Bohème" (1896), "Tosca" (1900), "Madama Butterfly" (1904), and "Turandot" left incomplete.- Actor
- Writer
- Producer
Cambridge won a four-year scholarship to study medicine at Hofstra University but decided, instead, to become an actor, leaving college in his third year. He acted in many off-Broadway productions, winning the Village Voice's Obie Award in Jean Genet's "The Blacks"; and, on Broadway, he gained a Tony Award Nomination in "Purlie's Victorious". It was as a comedian that he broke into television, initially on The Tonight Show Starring Jack Paar (1957) (aka "The Jack Paar Show"). Having previously had occasional parts, he established himself in films in the late sixties. He played both comic and straight roles but is likely remembered for such portrayals as that of the white bigot who wakes up one morning to find himself turned black in Watermelon Man (1970). His compulsive eating probably contributed to his untimely death at 43 on the set of the television film Victory at Entebbe (1976), in which he was to have played General Idi Amin.- Harue Akagi was born on 14 March 1924 in Manshu, Japan [now China]. She was an actress, known for Pecoross' Mother and Her Days (2013), The Swamp (1956) and Yokosuka Navy Prison (1973). She was married to Kenji Oda. She died on 29 November 2018 in Tokyo, Japan.
- Actress
- Soundtrack
Heather North was an American voice actress from Pasadena, California. She was the regular voice of amateur detective Daphne Blake from 1970 to 1985, voicing the character in 7 different television series. She briefly resumed the role in 1997 for a guest appearance of Daphne in the animated series "Johnny Bravo". She voiced Daphne again for the direct-to-video films "Scooby-Doo and the Legend of the Vampire" (2003) and "Scooby-Doo and the Monster of Mexico" (2003). She then mostly retired from acting.
North was born in 1945. She started her acting career c. 1956, at the age of 11. She had several guest-roles in television series of the 1960s, such as "My Three Sons", "Gidget", and "The Monkees". She made her film debut in the drama film "Git" (1965). She played Elaine Garrett, the adolescent daughter of dog breeder Andrew Garrett. Her character found no love or affection from her father, but found romance in his employee Deke (played by Jack Chaplain).
In 1967, North joined the cast of the soap opera "Days of Our Lives". She played Sandy Horton, a granddaughter of the original main character Dr. Thomas Horton (played by Macdonald Carey). North remained in this role until 1972, when her character was written out. Sandy was reintroduced in 1982, but played by a different actress.
In 1969, North was a roommate of fellow actress Nicole Jaffe. Jaffe was voicing Velma Dinkley in the mystery animated series "Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!" (1969-1970). Stefanianna Christopherson was voicing Daphne Blake, Velma's partner in mystery solving. Christopherson quit the role when she and her husband relocated to New York, and Jaffe recommended North to serve as Christopherson's replacement. North voiced Daphne in several episodes of the animated series' second season.
In 1971, North played the female lead Jennifer Scott in the comedy film "The Barefoot Executive". Jennifer and her boyfriend were the co-owners of a chimpanzee who could predict whether a new television series was going to be a hit or a flop. That same year, North married television producer H. Wesley Kenney (1926-2015). He was the producer of "Days of Our Lives" and they had met on the soap opera's set. Their marriage lasted until his death in 2015.
Animation studio Hanna-Barbera next recruited North to voice Daphne Blake in "The New Scooby-Doo Movies" (1972-1973), the first sequel to the original Scooby-Doo series. In this one, the Mystery, Inc. gang of detectives joined forces with various guest stars. The series featured crossovers with characters from "Harlem Globetrotters", "Josie and the Pussycats", "Jeannie", "Speed Buggy", "The Addams Family" and "Batman and Robin".
After a hiatus of several years, North resumed the role of Daphne in "The Scooby-Doo/Dynomutt Hour" (1976). It featured two different segments about crime-fighting dogs and their owners. She voiced Daphne in all 3 seasons of "The Scooby-Doo Show" (1976-1978). The show was variously broadcast with several packages of Hanna-Barbera shows. North also voiced incidental characters in the superhero series "Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels" (1978-1980).
Her next appearance in a Scooby-Doo series was in "Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo" (1979-1980). In this series, Scrappy-Doo was added as the new co-protagonist, and Daphne's role was increasingly de-emphasized. Daphne was eventually written out of the series. North returned to voice Daphne in "The New Scooby Doo Mysteries" (1983-1984), where Daphne was re-introduced as a co-protagonist. Daphne was depicted as a reporter for this series, but continued solving mysteries.
North had her last regular appearance in a Scooby-Doo television series in "The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo" (1985). It was the first series in the franchise to have an ongoing story-line. Scooby-Doo and his owner Shaggy Rogers were manipulated into releasing 13 powerful ghosts and demons from captivity. They and a small group of allies (including Daphne) then had to recapture the ghosts, while each ghost schemed to eliminate them. The next series in the franchise was "A Pup Named Scooby-Doo" (1988-1991), which featured child versions of the main characters. North was replaced as the regular voiced of Daphne by a younger actress, Kellie Martin.
North mostly retired from acting in 1985, after Hanna-Barbera ceased requiring her services. She emerged from retirement once in 1997, and twice in 2003. In all three occasions, she voiced her signature role of Daphne. She was widowed in 2015, when her husband H. Wesley Kenney died of cardiac arrest. North herself died in November 2017, at the age of 71. She was suffering from bronchiolitis, a respiratory disease.
Though long gone, North remains one of the most popular voice actresses of the 1970s and the 1980s. Several actresses have voiced Daphne Blake since North's heyday, but none has been identified with this role to the degree that North was. Despite her limited success in live-action roles, North is fondly remembered for a few notable comedy roles.- Actor
- Soundtrack
A well known character actor, Vigran was originally a law school graduate. He later chose to pursue acting, and performed in hundreds of radio shows with the likes of Jack Benny, Bob Hope and Jimmy Durante. He appeared frequently as various villains on the TV Series Adventures of Superman (1952), and made several guest appearances on television series like The Brady Bunch (1969) and I Love Lucy (1951).- English character actress best known for her many portrayals of feisty cockney types, ranging from barmaids to landladies, charwomen to cooks. Unlike her working class screen personae, Irene's parentage was quite cosmopolitan, her father (Frederick) a Viennese banker, her mother (Maria) a French aristocrat - affluent enough to enable her to travel extensively in her youth. She received her acting training at the Embassy School, under the auspices of the sister of Sybil Thorndike, but did not make her debut on the London stage until 1938.
Her first successful role was in a West End comedy entitled 'George and Margaret' and this led to many other parts, including 'Blithe Spirit' by Noël Coward. From 1937, plump, cheerful Irene Handl became a popular supporting character in British films, usually in small roles or cameos, often as eccentric or pixillated old ladies. On occasion she could be a scene-stealer, as in I'm All Right Jack (1959) as the grumbling wife of shop steward Peter Sellers. She was also the definitive Mrs. Hudson, landlady to the famous detective at 221b Baker Street, in The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970).
Irene Handl enjoyed a prolific career on radio (partnering Arthur Askey in 'Hello Playmates' and Tony Hancock in 'Hancock's Half Hour'), as well as in television. Her best-loved appearance was opposite Wilfred Pickles in the title role of Ada Cresswell in the sitcom For the Love of Ada (1970). She also made guest appearances in numerous shows, ranging from The Adventures of Robin Hood (1955) to The Rag Trade (1975), and remained an active performer well into her eighties. She also narrated an audio-book version of The Importance of Being Earnest and published two novels: The Sioux in 1969 (described by a reviewer as a 'gothic comic melodrama') and a more downbeat sequel, The Gold Tip Pfitzer in 1986. Besides acting and writing, Handl was a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, loved Chihuahua dogs and Rock and Roll music. Irene never married. Shortly before she died at her flat in Kensington, she had been making plans for a third novel. - Soundtrack
Songwriter ("Day O", "Jamaica Farewell"), composer, author and singer, educated at Juillard and the University of Arizona. He was a singer in night clubs and on radio and television, and wrote songs for Harry Belafonte and The Kingston Trio. He also wrote the off-Broadway stage score for "Ballad for Bimshire". Joining ASCAP in 1956, his song compositions include "Island in the Sun", "I Do Adore Her", "The Wanderer", "Dolly Dawn", "Land of the Sea and Sun", "El Matador", "The Seine", "Silver Earring", "Yesterday Was Such a Lovely Day", "Come Back Lisa", and "Angelina".- Additional Crew
Jerry Fodor is known for The Ray Bradbury Theater (1985).- Director
- Writer
- Actor
John Berry was born on 6 September 1917 in New York City, New York, USA. He was a director and writer, known for Ça va barder (1955), 'Round Midnight (1986) and A Captive in the Land (1990). He was married to Myriam Boyer and Gladys Berry. He died on 29 November 1999 in Paris, France.- Writer
- Producer
- Director
John D.F. Black was born on 30 December 1932 in the USA. He was a writer and producer, known for Star Trek (1966), Mr. Novak (1963) and Charlie's Angels (1976). He was married to Mary Black. He died on 29 November 2018.- Actor
- Director
American actor with a sporadic career, the son of stage and screen legend John Barrymore. His father and mother, actress Dolores Costello divorced in his infancy and he claimed to remember seeing his father only once. His mother attempted to keep him from the acting life, sending him to St. John's Military Academy and intending that he attend college. But young Barrymore rebelled and signed a movie contract at 17. He chose not to apprentice in the theatre in small roles, leaping blindly into leading roles then bailing out of them at least twice before ever managing to make his stage debut. Although his family, especially his aunt Ethel Barrymore, was humiliated by the embarrassment these failures brought to the Barrymore name, he received encouragement from them as well. His rebellious nature began to cause him great personal and professional difficulty. He had repeated scrapes with the law and was jailed numerous times for drunkenness and spousal abuse. (He had married actress Cara Williams.) In 1958 he changed his name to John Drew Barrymore and had a brief resurgence in film, appearing in leading roles in several not completely uninteresting projects. But his social behavior continued to derail any professional progress and he had further incarcerations in the Sixties for drug activity. Although he continued to appear occasionally onscreen, he became more and more reclusive, eventually disappearing into the wilderness to live a mystical existence that has also been described as derelict. He was long estranged from his family, including his son John Blyth Barrymore (who has repeated many of his father's career and personal patterns) and daughter, actress Drew Barrymore.- John Justin was born on 24 November 1917 in London, England, UK. He was an actor, known for The Thief of Bagdad (1940), The Teckman Mystery (1954) and Island in the Sun (1957). He was married to Alison McMurdo, Barbara Murray and Pola Nirenska. He died on 29 November 2002 in London, England, UK.
- Actor
- Soundtrack
John Newman Mitchum was the September child of a Norwegian mother and an Irish/Blackfoot father whom he never knew, as he was killed in a tragic train yard accident in 1919. His two-years-older brother Robert filled the role as best as he could, while their older sister Annette studied the lively arts and eventually joined a traveling vaudeville team. Born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, the young family moved to Rising Sun, Delaware, where farm life didn't agree with the young boys. Scarce opportunities took them to New York City, where the streets of Hell's kitchen taught the brothers to fight, a skill they developed so well they earned the moniker 'them ornery Mitchum boys'. Eventually, when the Great Depression deepened, the family was forced to separate with the intention of meeting up with sister Annette, who had married a sailor and moved to California, changing her name to Julie. The teenage boys set out with little more than clean handkerchiefs to find their way across the country by the only means they could: hitchhiking and riding the rails. Their somewhat aimless journey took them to places they had never been; where their Eastern accents were not welcome, so they quickly learned that accurately mimicking the local dialect would keep them out of trouble--some of the time! While brother Robert fairly quickly discovered his place in Hollywood legend, John sought his destiny on the high seas, professionally boxing, or conducting a choir. When the opportunity for acting came along John found his perfect niche as a character actor, mostly playing heavies since he was an imposing figure of a man. John's roles had him playing alongside a wide range of celebrities, from Humphrey Bogart in "Knock On Any Door" (1949) to Gladys Knight in "Pipe Dreams" (1976), Clint Eastwood of "Dirty Harry" (1971) to John Wayne in "Chisum" (1970), appearing in 58 films overall. It was during production of "Chisum" that John Wayne offered his voice for an anthology of John's poetry that seeks to uplift US culture, "America, Why I Love Her", a recording for which Mitchum was nominated for a Grammy in 1973. John was a consummate storyteller (as was his brother Robert), and with his fascination with US history in particular he was ever-ready to regale anyone with a thoughtful, interesting, and insightful anecdote, especially if a guitar was available. It was the wedding of music and history that brought him to create the recording "Our Land, Our Heritage" with Dan Blocker; big "Hoss" from "Bonanza", in 1964. Mitchum had some recurring roles throughout his television career; such as "Pickalong" from "Riverboat", or "Hoffenmueller" from "F-Troop", over 150 appearances in all during the span of a half-century career. The brothers Mitchum legacy has been well-preserved in his often hilarious autobiography, "Them Ornery Mitchum Boys", published in 1989. The subjects range from brother Robert escaping a Georgia chain-gang to his "poontang" interview; from John surviving an attacking whale on a three-masted schooner to his adventures riding the rails, developing a great love and respect for the people of the United States.- Cinematographer
- Camera and Electrical Department
- Actor
Jordan Cronenweth was born on 20 February 1935 in Los Angeles, California, USA. He was a cinematographer and actor, known for Blade Runner (1982), Peggy Sue Got Married (1986) and Altered States (1980). He was married to Carolyn June Ervin. He died on 29 November 1996 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Judith Lowry was born on 27 July 1890 in Fort Sill, Oklahoma, USA. She was an actress, known for Cold Turkey (1971), The Anderson Tapes (1971) and Phyllis (1975). She was married to Rudd Lowry. She died on 29 November 1976 in New York City, New York, USA.
- Kamala Devi was born on 8 October 1933 in Bombay, Bombay Presidency, British India. She was an actress, known for The Brass Bottle (1964), The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (1964) and Branded (1965). She was married to Maurie Beaumont, Wallace Guberman and Chuck Connors. She died on 29 November 2010 in Arlington, Virginia, USA.
- Macon McCalman was born on 30 December 1932 in Memphis, Tennessee, USA. He was an actor, known for Smokey and the Bandit (1977), Fried Green Tomatoes (1991) and Deliverance (1972). He died on 29 November 2005 in Memphis, Tennessee, USA.
- Makio Inoue was born on 30 November 1938 in Yamanashi, Japan. He was an actor, known for Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro (1979), Arcadia of My Youth (1982) and Lupin the 3rd: The Mystery of Mamo (1978). He died on 29 November 2019 in Chiba, Japan.
- Actress
- Soundtrack
An Alabama native she made a name for herself playing good girl roles in the 1940s. The middle of six children she was born in Birmingham, Alabama on Christmas Day 1919 to William and Gladys Early, both of whom had originally come from Montgomery. She was raised on the family chicken farm rooted in home-sprung tradition and religious faith. Her early acting endeavors usually involved her work in Christmas and Easter pageants at her local Baptist church but in the mid-1930s she found herself starring in leading roles while touring in stock companies, which found her performing in various stage productions in New York City, Philadelphia, and Chicago.
In 1936 while starring in "Idiot's Delight" on Broadway she was spotted by a talent scout who brought her to California for an RKO screen test. She made her screen debut in Stage Door (1937) followed by turns in Jezebel (1938), Judge Hardy and Son (1939), Strike Up the Band (1940), Andy Hardy's Private Secretary (1941), and Stage Door Canteen (1943). With 13 film titles to her resume she left movies in 1946 following her appearance in Cinderella Jones (1946) and moved to Laguna Beach where she spent the remainder of her life working as a receptionist for a local doctors office and she continued to be active in the Baptist church and Republican politics. She died in 2000 from complications of congestive heart failure at age 80.- Writer
- Director
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Mario Monicelli was born on 16 May 1915 in Rome, Lazio, Italy. He was a writer and director, known for The Organizer (1963), Speriamo che sia femmina (1986) and Big Deal on Madonna Street (1958). He was married to Chiara Rapaccini and Antonella Salerni. He died on 29 November 2010 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.- Miguel Romero Esteo was born in 1930 in Montoro, Córdoba, Spain. He was a writer, known for Teatro breve (1966) and Solsticio (2014). He died on 29 November 2018 in Malaga, Spain.
- Actress
- Music Department
- Additional Crew
Natalie Wood was an American actress of Russian and Ukrainian descent. She started her career as a child actress and eventually transitioned into teenage roles, young adult roles, and middle-aged roles. She drowned off Catalina Island on November 29, 1981 at age 43.
Wood was born July 20, 1938 in San Francisco to Russian immigrant parents: housewife Maria Gurdin (née Zoodiloff), known by multiple aliases including Mary, Marie and Musia, and second husband Nick Gurdin (née Zacharenko), a janitor and prop builder. Nicholas was born in Primorsky Krai, son of a chocolate-factory worker. Maria was born in Barnaul, southern Siberia to a wealthy industrialist. Natalie's maternal grandfather owned soap and candle factories.
Wood's parents had to migrate due to the Russian Civil War. Her paternal grandfather joined the anti-Bolshevik civilian forces early in the war and was killed in a street fight between Red and White Russian soldiers. This convinced the Zacharenkos to migrate to Shanghai, China, where they had relatives. Wood's paternal grandmother remarried in 1927 and moved the family to Vancouver, British Columbia. In 1933 they resettled along the U.S. West Coast. Nicholas met Wood's mother, four years his senior, while she was still married to Alexander Tatuloff, an Armenian mechanic she divorced in 1936.
Mary Tatuloff, Wood's mother, had unfulfilled ambitions of becoming a ballet dancer. She grew up in the Chinese city of Harbin and had married Alexander there in 1925. The Tatuloffs had one daughter, Ovsanna, before coming to America in 1930. After marrying Nicholas Zacharenko in 1938, five months before Wood's birth, Mary (now calling herself Marie) transferred her dream of stardom onto her second child. Marie frequently took a young Wood with her to the cinema, where she could study the films of Hollywood child stars.
Wood's parents changed the family name to Gurdin upon obtaining U.S. citizenship, and her pseudonymous mother finally settled on a permanent first name: Maria. In 1942 they bought a house in Santa Rosa, where young Natalie was noticed by members of a crew during a film shoot. She got to audition for roles as an actress, and the family moved to Los Angeles to help seek out roles for her. RKO Radio Pictures' executives William Goetz and David Lewis chose the stage name Wood for her, in reference to director Sam Wood. Natalie's younger sister Svetlana Gurdin would eventually follow an acting career as well, under the stage name Lana Wood.
Wood made her film debut in Happy Land (1943). She was only five years old, and her scene as the "Little Girl Who Drops Ice Cream Cone" lasted 15 seconds. Wood somehow attracted the interest of film director Irving Pichel who remained in contact with her family. She had few job offers over the following two years, but Pichel helped her get a screen test for a more substantial role in the romance film Tomorrow Is Forever (1946). Wood passed through an audition and won the role of Margaret Ludwig, a post-World War II German orphan. At the time, Wood was unable to "cry on cue" for a key scene, so her mother tore a butterfly to pieces in front of her, giving her a reason to cry for the scene.
Wood started appearing regularly in films following this role and soon received a contract with 20th Century Fox. Her first major role was that of Susan Walker in the Christmas film Miracle on 34th Street (1947), which was a commercial and critical hit. Wood got her first taste of fame, and afterwards Macy's invited her to appear in the store's annual Thanksgiving Day parade. Following her early success, Wood receive many more film offers. She typically appeared in family films, cast as the daughter of such stars as Fred MacMurray, Margaret Sullivan, James Stewart, Joan Blondell, and Bette Davis. Wood found herself in high demand and appeared in over twenty films as a child actress.
The California laws of the era required that until reaching adulthood, child actors had to spend at least three hours per day in the classroom. Wood received her primary education on the studio lots, receiving three hours of school lessons whenever she was working on a film. She was reportedly a "straight A student." Director Joseph L. Mankiewicz was quite impressed by Wood's intellect. After school hours ended, Wood would hurry to the set to film her scenes.
While Wood acquired the services of agents, her early career was micromanaged by her mother. An older Wood gained her first major television role in the short-lived sitcom The Pride of the Family (1953). At the age of 16, she found more success with the role of Judy in Rebel Without a Cause (1955). She played the role of a teenage girl who wears makeup and dresses up in racy clothes to attract the attention of a father who typically ignores her. The film's success helped Wood make the transition from child actress to an ingenue. She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.
Her next significant film was The Searchers (1956), a western in which she played the role of abduction victim Debbie Edwards, niece of John Wayne's character. The film was a commercial and critical hit, and has since become regarded as a masterpiece. Also in 1956, Wood graduated from Van Nuys High School. She signed a contract with Warner Brothers, where she was kept busy with several new films. To her disappointment, she was typically cast as the girlfriend of the protagonist and received roles of little depth. For a while, WB had her paired with teen heartthrob Tab Hunter. The studio was hoping that the pairing would serve as a box-office draw, but this did not work out. One of Wood's only serious roles from this period was the title character in Marjorie Morningstar (1958), as a young Jewish girl whose efforts to create her own identity and career path clash with the expectations of her family. The film was a critical success, and fit well with other films exploring the restlessness of youth in the '50s.
Wood's first major box office flop was the biographical film All the Fine Young Cannibals (1960), examining the rags to riches story of jazz musician Chet Baker without actually using his name. The film's box office earnings barely covered the production costs, and MGM recorded a loss of $1,108,000. For the first time. Wood's appeal to the audience was in doubt. With her career in decline following this failure, Wood was seen as "washed up" by many in the film community. But director Elia Kazan gave her the chance to audition for the role of the sexually-repressed Wilma Dean Loomis in his upcoming film Splendor in the Grass (1961). Kazan cast Wood as the female lead, because he found in her (in his words): a "true-blue quality with a wanton side that is held down by social pressure." Kazan is credited for producing Wood's most powerful moment as an actress. The film was a critical success, with Wood nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress.
Wood's next important film was West Side Story (1961), where she played Maria, a restless Puerto Rican girl. Wood was once again called to represent the restlessness of youth, this time in a story involving youth gangs and juvenile delinquents. The film was a great commercial success with about $44 million gross, the highest-grossing film of 1961. It was also critically acclaimed, and is still regarded as one of the best films of Wood's career. Her next film was Gypsy (1962), playing the role of burlesque entertainer and stripper Gypsy Rose Lee. Film historians credit the film as an even better role for Wood than that of Maria, with witty dialogue, a greater emotional range, and complex characterization. The film was the eighth highest-grossing release of 1962, and was well-received critically.
Wood's next significant role was that of Macy's salesclerk Angie Rossini in Love with the Proper Stranger (1963). In the film, Angie has a one-night-stand with musician Rocky Papasano, played by Steve McQueen, finds herself pregnant and desperately seeks an abortion. The film under-performed at the box office but was critically well-received. Wood received her third (and last) nomination for an Academy Award. At age 25, Wood was tied with Teresa Wright as the youngest person to score three Oscar nominations. Wood held that designation until 2013, when Jennifer Lawrence achieved her third nomination at age 23.
Wood continued her successful film career until 1966, but her health status was not as successful. She was suffering emotionally and had sought professional therapy. She paid Warner Bros. $175,000 to cancel her contract and was able to retire for a while. She also fired her entire support team: agents, managers, publicist, accountant, and attorneys. She took a three-year hiatus from acting.
Wood made her comeback in the comedy Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (1969) with the themes of sexual liberation and wife swapping. It was a box office hit. Wood decided to gamble her $750,000 fee on a percentage of the gross, earning a million dollars in profits. She chose not to capitalize on the film's success, however, and did not take another acting job for five years.
In 1970, Wood was married to the screenwriter Richard Gregson and was expecting her first child, Natasha Gregson Wagner. She went into semi-retirement to be a stay-at-home mom, appearing in only four more theatrical films before her death. These films were the mystery comedy Peeper (1975), the science fiction film Meteor (1979), the comedy The Last Married Couple in America (1980), and the posthumously-released science fiction film Brainstorm (1983).
In the late '70s, Wood found success in television roles, appearing in several made-for-TV movies and the mini-series From Here to Eternity (1979). Her project received high ratings, and she had plans to make her theatrical debut in a 1982 production of Anastasia.
On November 28, 1981, Wood joined her last husband Robert Wagner, their married friend Christopher Walken, and captain Dennis Davern on a weekend boat trip to Catalina Island. Conspicuously absent from the group was Christopher's wife, casting director Georgianne Walken. The four of them were on board the Wagners' yacht "Splendour." Earwitness Marilyn Wayne heard cries for help around 11:05 P.M. and a "man's voice slurred, and in aggravated tone, say something to the effect of, 'Oh, hold on, we're coming to get you,' and not long after, the cries for help subsided." On the morning of November 29, Wood's corpse was recovered 1 mile (1.6 kilometers) away from the boat, near small Valiant-brand inflatable dinghy beached nearby. The toxicology report revealed her blood alcohol level was at .14, over the legal limit of .10. Wood was buried on December 2 at Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles. Nine days later, the LACSD officially closed the case.- Norman Burton graduated from The Actor's Studio in New York. He appeared in NY onstage in professional stage productions of "Sound of Hunting", "Anna Christie", and José Quintero's production of Brendan Behan's "The Quare Fellow". He appeared in such notable films as Towering Inferno, Save the Tiger (1973), Diamonds Are Forever (1971), Bloodsport (1988), Planet of the Apes (1968), and Planet of the Apes (1974).
Burton moved from Prescott, Arizona to Ajijic, Mexico. He was killed in a car crash on the California/Arizona border while returning to his home in Mexico in late 2003, six days before what would have been his 80th birthday. A widower, Burton was survived by his daughter, two grandsons, a niece and a nephew. - Actor
- Soundtrack
Ralph Bellamy was a veteran actor who was so well-liked and respected by his peers that he was the recipient of an honorary Oscar in 1987 for his contributions to the acting profession.
Ralph Rexford Bellamy was born June 17, 1904 in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Lilla Louise (Smith), originally from Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, and Charles Rexford Bellamy, who had deep roots in New England. Bellamy began his career as a player right out of high school in 1922, joining a traveling company that put on Shakespearean plays. For the next five years he appeared with stock companies and repertory theaters associated with the Chautauqua Road Co., which brought culture to the hinterlands. He not only learned his craft but by 1927 wound up owning his own theatrical troupe. Two years later he made his Broadway theatrical debut in "Town Boy" (29 years later he would win a Tony Award).
Bellamy made the first of his over 100 films in 1933, appearing as a gangster in The Secret 6 (1931). While he never became a major star or played many leads in "A" pictures, he made a career out of playing second-leads in major productions before developing into a character actor. In his heyday he typically played a rich but dull character who is jilted by the leading lady (he won his only Oscar nomination, for Best Supporting Actor, for just such a role in the 1937 comedy The Awful Truth (1937), in which he lost Irene Dunne to Cary Grant). He also specialized in redoubtable detectives who always find their man (he starred as Ellery Queen in a series of four "B" movies) and as slightly sinister yet stylish villains (such typecasting reaching its apogee with his turn as the not-so-kindly doctor in the horror classic Rosemary's Baby (1968)).
Bellamy's greatest role was as Franklin D. Roosevelt in Dore Schary's play "Sunrise at Campobello," for which he won a 1958 Best Actor-Dramatic Tony Award. He also reprised his portrayal of Roosevelt in Schary's 1960 movie adaptation of his play Sunrise at Campobello (1960), which brought his co-star Greer Garson a Golden Globe award and a Best Actress Academy Award nomination for playing Eleanor Roosevelt.
To play F.D.R. and show his struggle with the onset of polio, Bellamy studied up on Roosevelt as both man and politician, gaining an insight into the future president's psyche. Like Method actors Marlon Brando and Jon Voight, who prepared for their portrayals of paraplegic war veterans in the movies The Men (1950) and Coming Home (1978) by living in veterans hospitals with paraplegics, Bellamy tried to understand the trauma that F.D.R. underwent and the challenges he faced. Bellamy spent a considerable amount of time at a rehabilitation center learning how to master leg braces, crutches and a wheelchair to increase the verisimilitude of his portrayal of Rosevelt. So successful was his portrait of Roosevelt that he was called upon a generation later to recreate F.D.R. for the blockbuster TV miniseries War and Remembrance (1988) (ironically, Voight himself would later play F.D.R. in the movie Pearl Harbor (2001)).
Bellamy also had a prolific career on television, beginning with his 1948 debut in The Philco Television Playhouse (1948). He starred in one of the first TV police shows, Man Against Crime (1949), which was on the air from 1949-54, and later had roles in several other TV series, including The Eleventh Hour (1962), The Survivors (1969) and The Most Deadly Game (1970). He also appeared in countless TV-movies and tele-plays, and was three times nominated for an Emmy Award.
Known as a champion of actors' rights, Bellamy was one of the founders of the Screen Actors Guild, and also served four terms as President of Actors' Equity from 1952 to 1964. He took office during some of the darkest days of McCarthyism, but positioned Actors' Equity and thus, the Broadway theater to the left of Hollywood by resisting blacklisting. Many of those blacklisted in Hollywood found homes in the theater. Under Bellamy, Actors Equity established standards to protect members against charges of Communist Party membership or "exhibiting left-wing sympathies". (One of the charges levied against legendary stage and film director Elia Kazan, including Rod Steiger at the time Kazan received an honorary Oscar, was that he should have defied the House Un-American Activities Committee and not have named names because he could have remained employed in the theater even if he had been blacklisted in Hollywood.)
Under Bellamy's leadership, Actor's Equity managed to double its assets within the first six years of his presidency and was successful in establishing the first pension fund for actors. It was for his services to the acting community that he was the recipient of an honorary Academy Award in 1987.
Ralph Bellamy died on November 29, 1991 in Santa Monica, California. He was 87 years old.- Robert Bilbo Walker was born on 19 February 1937 in Clarksdale, Mississippi, USA. He died on 29 November 2017 in California, USA.
- A prolific character actor of imposing presence, Robert F. Simon drifted into acting via the Cleveland Playhouse, hoping that this would cure his natural propensity for shyness. After training at the Actor's Studio in New York he had a ten year run on Broadway (1942-52) in which he cut his teeth--both as actor and as stage manager--on anything from drama to musical comedy. In a roundabout way, he was even able to fulfill his original career goal of becoming a traveling salesman: as understudy to the great Lee J. Cobb as Willy Loman in Arthur Miller's "Death of a Salesman".
Robert started in films in 1950, but over the years came often to be typecast in stereotypical roles of benevolent authoritarianism or grouchy executive stress. At times he drew unkind reviews from the critics. He was considerably better served by the small screen, where, for some 35 years, he became a familiar face as generals, police captains, doctors, journalists and attorneys. We may remember him most fondly as George Armstrong Custer's disapproving superior, General Alfred Terry, in Custer (1967); as the sympathetic, long-suffering father of Darrin Stephens in Bewitched (1964); or as Maynard M. Mitchell, one of the wackiest of generals ever to have served in the Korean War (or any other war), in M*A*S*H (1972). - Born in turn-of-the-century Yonkers, New York, Robert Shayne (born Robert Shaen Dawe) worked at a variety of jobs before his interests ultimately turned toward acting. He appeared in a succession of legit theater productions throughout the 1930s and even appeared in a few films, making a comedy short in New York in 1929, two features in 1934 and a comedy short shot in New York in 1937. In 1942 he signed with Warner Brothers and trekked to Hollywood, where he became a contract player at their Culver City studios. Warners starred the newly-arrived stage actor in a series of two-reel Westerns before graduating him to supporting roles in "A"-level features. In 1946 he left the studio to freelance. Several years later he got involved in the infant medium of TV, where he played the part for which he is best remembered--Inspector Henderson in the series Adventures of Superman (1952).
- Rocio Gancedo died on 29 November 2017 in Capital Federal, Argentina.
- Music Department
She was one of the first four women admitted to the Princeton University Graduate School program in composition, where she received a fellowship. Two Fulbright Scholarships took her to Paris (1958-60), where she studied composition privately with Darius Milhaud and Nadia Boulanger, who encouraged Ruth to also study Gregorian chant at the Abbey of Solesmes.
Ruth's was a multi-faceted career. She toured as a flutist with the Totenberg Instrumental Ensemble from 1951-58 and was principal flutist with the Boston Pops (1957-58). As a freelance instrumental and choral arranger, she was also an orchestrator for NBC-TV and the Lincoln Center Theater production of Annie Get Your Gun with Ethel Merman (1966) and Show Boat.
Her establishment of the Hunter College Electronic Music Studio and her involvement with the downtown music scene brought a burst of creative activity when her studies of psychoacoustics, Zen Buddhism, and her teaching intersected, sparking a number of works for tape which are truly innovative. She wrote of her work, "It has evolved from an understanding of sound as energy which affects one's state of being. [These are] pieces intended to further wholeness of self and unity with others."- Born in Canada, Sam De Grasse entered films in 1912 and specialized in playing thoroughly disreputable, nasty, slimy bad guys. Douglas Fairbanks was so impressed with De Grasse's villainy that he used the actor in several of his more memorable productions. He wasn't the only member of the De Grasse family in films, though. His brother Joseph De Grasse was an actor and director, and his nephew Robert De Grasse was a cinematographer.
- Director
- Writer
- Production Designer
Slobodan Praljak was born on 2 January 1945 in Capljina, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Yugoslavia. He was a director and writer, known for Povratak Katarine Kozul (1989), Blesan i Tulipan (1976) and Jegulje putuju u Sargasko more (1979). He was married to Kacusa Babic. He died on 29 November 2017 in The Hague, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Susan Luckey was born on 4 April 1938 in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA. She was an actress, known for The Music Man (1962), Carousel (1956) and The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show (1950). She was married to Larry Douglas. She died on 29 November 2012 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- One of the memorable purveyors of screen villainy in the '60s, Theo graduated with a B.A. and M.A. in classical literature from Stanford University and was at one time artist-in-residence. The son of fur designer Theodore Meyer Marcuse (1893-1983), he served with distinction as a lieutenant aboard the USS Tirante during World War II, earning himself a Silver Star and other citations for bravery. After the war, he trained as an actor with the company of Guthrie McClintic. Specializing in Shakespearean roles, he made his Broadway debut in 1947 with "Antony and Cleopatra" (as Demetrius) opposite Katharine Cornell. He then appeared in "Medea"' (1949) with Judith Anderson, again staged and produced by McClintock; and "King Richard II" (1951) with Betsy Blair and Maurice Evans. At the 1959 Oregon Shakespearean Festival Theo acted in both "Twelfth Night" and in "The Life and Death of King John"'.
His classical training stood him in good stead for the menacing roles he was tasked to play on screen, added to which was his somewhat sinister, bald-pated and shifty-eyed appearance. He also looked quite a bit older than his years may have suggested. Theo spent a long time serving his apprenticeship in smallish parts until he established a reputation as a skilled dialectician, ideally cast as assorted eastern Europeans, arrogant Nazi officers or crime figures of Arabic, Italian or Jewish extraction. He frequently veered towards comedic interpretations of villainy, notably for Get Smart (1965) and Hogan's Heroes (1965). His Zoltan Schubach in the spy spoof The Last of the Secret Agents? (1966) (almost certainly a parody of Bond super villain Ernst Stavro Blofeld) may well have inspired the Austin Powers character Dr. Evil.
On occasion, Theo escaped his typecasting. He was particularly effective as the sympathetic scientist Dr. Noel Markham in "The Leeches", one of the best early episodes of The Invaders (1967). He is particularly well-remembered as Korob, an extra-galactic life-form in humanoid shape who captured several crew members of the Enterprise in the Star Trek (1966) episode "Catspaw"'.
Theo's life was tragically cut short at the age of 47 as a result of a car crash while driving under the influence. - Camera and Electrical Department
- Editorial Department
- Editor
Tim Loock was born on 29 January 1960 in Nigeria, British West Africa. He was an editor, known for Fame (1982), Playboy's Erotic Fantasies III (1993) and Playboy Video Centerfold: Playmate of the Year Julie Lynn Cialini (1996). He died on 29 November 2008 in Burbank, California, USA.- Ulises Dumont was born on 7 April 1937 in Belgrano, Buenos Aires City, Argentina. He was an actor, known for Yepeto (1999), El censor (1995) and Rosarigasinos (2001). He died on 29 November 2008 in Almagro, Capital Federal, Argentina.
- Véronique Nordey was born on 15 June 1939 in Paris, France. She was an actress, known for The Big Scare (1964), L'espion aux cent visages (1961) and The Crucible (1957). She was married to Jean-Pierre Mocky. She died on 29 November 2017 in Lyon, France.
- Actress
- Soundtrack
Though she was known best for drawing laughs as whiny, excitable characters throughout her raucous film and TV career, actress/comedienne Wendie Jo Sperber showed a brave, compassionate and humane side in the last years of her life.
The California girl was born on September 15, 1958, in Los Angeles and developed a driving passion for acting in her teen years. She went on to attend the Summer Drama Workshop at California State University, Northridge. Producer Allan Carr discovered this comic bundle when she invited him to see her in an L.A. stage review. He gave her an unbilled part in the John Travolta/Olivia Newton-John smash musical Grease (1978) and she was off and running.
Other films quickly fell into place, notably I Wanna Hold Your Hand (1978) as a no-holds-barred Beatles fanatic, and the role of Linda McFly in Back to the Future (1985) and one of its sequels. Other films included Corvette Summer (1978), Steven Spielberg's 1941 (1979) and Bachelor Party (1984) starring Tom Hanks. Some of her tongue-in-cheek film roles were beneath her, particularly when they used her excess poundage as the butt of a cruel joke, but the actress proved quite game in such lowbrow, youth-oriented comedies as Moving Violations (1985) and Stewardess School (1986).
It was with a then fairly unknown Hanks and Peter Scolari that she earned her biggest laughs with the two-year run of Bosom Buddies (1980), which launched a number of inferior drag film/sitcoms. She also had series co-leads in Private Benjamin (1981), Women in Prison (1987), the plus-sized Babes (1990) and Hearts Afire (1992). In between were roles on the L.A. stage, including "Pizza Man," "Isn't It Romantic," "Reality and Other Nightmares" and Shakespeare's "As You Like It" starring Ron Silver.
At age 39, Wendie was diagnosed with breast cancer. While her career momentum was certainly compromised, the comedienne continued to pursue roles. She even appeared on a poignant breast cancer episode of Murphy Brown (1988). Her cancer went into remission at one point but returned with a vengeance in 2002 and spread throughout her body.
Instead of retreating, Wendie instead reached out and founded weSPARK Cancer Support Center in Sherman Oaks, California, in which free services, including support groups, information on the latest research and classes, provided invaluable aid to cancer patients, their families and friends. Her selfless determination throughout her illness to help others did not go unnoticed, earning several honors.
Eight years later, on November 29, 2005, Wendie lost her battle. She was survived by her parents and two children from a former marriage. Per her request, close friend, former actress Nancy Allen succeeded her as executive director of weSPARK, which continues to serve cancer patients and their families into the 2020's.