Deaths: July 1
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Hugh Downs was born on 14 February 1921 in Akron, Ohio, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for Live from Lincoln Center (1976), Car 54, Where Are You? (1961) and Concentration (1958). He was married to Ruth Shaheen. He died on 1 July 2020 in Scottsdale, Arizona, USA.- Alexis Arguello was born on 19 April 1952 in Managua, Nicaragua. He was an actor, known for Miami Vice (1984), Cat Chaser (1989) and Fists of Steel (1989). He was married to Sulvia Urbina, Patricia Barreto and Loretta Martinez. He died on 1 July 2009 in Managua, Nicaragua.
- Actor
- Soundtrack
He was a boy soprano in his school's pierrot troupe and on leaving school became an auctioneer in London's Petticoat Lane Market. In WWII he joined the Royal Air Force for five years attaining the rank of flight sergeant. Finding himself in Italy he had his voice checked at the Italian Conservatoire. On being demobbed he went round theatrical agents then auditioned at The Windmill Theatre at Piccadilly and given a 6 week trial which lasted nearly 2 years. In 1952 he met Paddie O'Neil who was in a show with him. They married and had a daughter Danielle- Very little is known about Alice Elizabeth Nunn with the exception that she appeared in one of the 1980s most famous films, Pee-wee's Big Adventure (1985), as the infamous truck driver, 'Large Marge'.
She was born on October 10, 1927 in Jacksonville, Florida to parents N.G. Nunn and Alice Bush. After the acting bug bit, she eventually made her way westward, and television shows, Camp Runamuck (1965) and Petticoat Junction (1963) were her first Hollywood acting jobs. She went on to appear in dozens of films and television shows, with some of her more memorable roles being in Mommie Dearest (1981) as 'Helga', Who's That Girl (1987), alongside Madonna as a Parole Board Official, and her last film role as 'Nurse Palmer' in Three O'Clock High (1987).
After battling breast cancer for several years, she suffered a stroke and passed away days later of cardiac arrest in her West Hollywood, California apartment on Friday, July 1, 1988. She was survived by her longtime companion, Martha Harris. Alice was cremated her ashes were interred with her parents back in her native Jacksonville.
Even though Alice didn't live long enough to bask in the late fame she so duly earned in the mid-late 1980s, in which she has since attained pop culture status, she did, however, run into Paul Reubens, not long after Pee-wee's Big Adventure (1985) premiered in theaters, and remarked to him the recognition she got from children which had truly touched her.
Alice Nunn will always have a place in Hollywood history - even if it's just mostly being remembered as 'Large Marge' - about which she never complained. - Anna was educated at Rise Hall Convent in Yorkshire and trained as an actress at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London. She followed this with rep at Bristol, Leatherhead and Leeds before embarking on a successful film and television career. Her stage appearances included productions of 'Smith By Any Other Name', 'School for Scandal', 'Present Laughter', 'Butley' (in Vienna), 'Sexual Perversions' (in Chicago) and a number of national tours. She was married to stockbroker Derek Brierley with whom she had a son, Jonathan.
- Actress
- Director
- Writer
Barbara Darinka Zatler, 29, professionally known as Barbara Zatler, was born November 7th, 1980 in Horsens, Denmark to parents Miriam Zatler (of Slovenian/Italian descent) and Poul H. Joergensen (of Danish descent). She is a Danish fashion and glamour model, actress and television personality. Barbara started her career as a model in 2002 when she was discovered! She has now build up an international career and has appeared on several magazines worldwide and she was on the cover of Playboy with the title as playmate of the month September 2009 in Slovenian Playboy.
Her passion for acting came at an early stage when she was 12 and played in some school plays. She started acting at the age of 27. In 2007 Barbara moved to Copenhagen and began her acting career. She starred in some movies and TV series. She made her screen debut in Kim Soenderholms Mental Distortion (2007) where she played the part as Sarah Burton.
Her fame grew from that point with her appearances in Playboy magazine, on the TV series Og det var Danmark , 2900 Happiness, Kristian for her appearances and has had roles in Mental Distortion, and Klovn the movie.
Barbara was featured in Maxim magazine in both Slovenia and Greece in 2009 and has also been featured in FHM magazine in Denmark and Turkey.
She has appeared in several music videos with Danish artists like L.O.C, Suspekt, Alias, Static and Nat Ill. She worked as a dancer for a few years before modeling and acting took over the interest.
She appeared as guest star on several radio shows like GO FM radio Denmark, Twin Towers radio L.A. and on Playboy radio where she also won and award at Playboy radio the morning show where she has appeared several times.
Barbara has been nominated in magazines like Euroman magazine Denmark where she was nominated as one of the ten remarkable people in Denmark. Danish Se&Hør magazine where she was nominated between 100 of Denmarks lovely women and came in 7th place.
Maybe you feel like you have seen or heard about Barbara somewhere? You might have seen her in Playboy magazine Slovenia, Maxim magazine Greece, Slovenia or FHM Denmark, Turkey. Zoom magazine Denmark, Ace magazine Denmark. Masculin magazine France, Q magazine Denmark, Euroman Magazine Denmark, The Rock N Roll magazine Denmark.
Or maybe on the music video with artist's as Alias, L.O.C, Static N Nat ill.
She has appeared in TV shows like Go aften Denmark, Aften Showet and on Radio GO FM Denmark, Twin Towers Radio L.A, Playboy radio L.A. She has also appeared in TV commercials for Nordisk Film, Ekstra Bladet and 3Mobil. Barbara has also had roles in movies like Mental Distortion and Klovn The Movie and in TV series like Kristian, 2900 Happiness Og det var Danmark.- Actor
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First of all, the cross-eyed comedian of silent days was not born that way. Supposedly his right eye slipped out of alignment while playing the role of the similarly afflicted Happy Hooligan in vaudeville and it never adjusted. Ironically, it was this disability that would enhance his comic value and make him a top name.
Ben Turpin was born in New Orleans in 1869, the son of a French-born confectionery store owner. When 7 years old, his father moved to New York's lower East Side. A wanderlust fellow by nature, Turpin lived the life of a hobo in his early adult years. He started up his career by chance while bumming in Chicago where he drew laughs at parties. An ad in a newspaper looking for comedy acts caught his eye and he successfully booked shows along with a partner. Going solo, he performed on the burlesque circuit as well as under circus tents and invariably entertained his audiences by doing tricks, vigorous pratfalls and, of course, crossing his eyes. One of his more familiar sight gags was a backwards tumble he called the "108." He happened upon the Happy Hooligan persona while playing on the road and kept the hapless character as part of routine for 17 years.
He started in films at age 38 in 1907, joining Essanay Studios shortly after the company began operating in Chicago. He also became their resident janitor for a spell. He stayed with the company for two years but remained on the edges of obscurity. Appearing sporadically in silent comedy shorts, he typically played dorky characters who always did something wrong. His big break came when he returned to Essanay and was introduced to Charles Chaplin, who immediately took to him and set him up with Mack Sennett. By 1917 Sennett had turned Turpin into a top comedy draw. With his trademark crossed eyes and thick mustache, he made scores of slapstick films alongside the likes of Mabel Normand and 'Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle', among others. Most notable were his films that parodied hit movies of the day such as his The Shriek of Araby (1923), in which his character lampooned Rudolph Valentino. Turpin's true forte was impersonating the most dashingly romantic and sophisticated stars of the day and turning them into clumsy oafs.
Turpin retired from full time acting in 1924 to care for his ailing wife Canadian comedy actress Carrie Turpin (nee LeMieux). After her death the following year he returned but his marquee value had slipped drastically. The advent of sound pretty much marked the end to his special brand of physical comedy. He was only glimpsed from then on, mostly in comic cameos for other top stars such as a bit as a plumber with Laurel & Hardy in Saps at Sea (1940), his last. He died of heart disease that same year.- Boguslaw Schaeffer was born on 6 June 1929 in Lwów, Lwowskie, Poland [now Lviv, Ukraine]. He was a composer, known for Pielgrzym (1979), Kominiarczyk (1960) and Solo (2008). He was married to Mieczyslawa Hanuszewska-Schaeffer. He died on 1 July 2019 in Salzburg, Austria.
- Claire Kelly was born on 15 March 1934 in San Francisco, California, USA. She was an actress, known for Party Girl (1958), The Loved One (1965) and The Badlanders (1958). She was married to Robert Edward Murphy, John Dutton, Robert Kenaston, Perry Lopez and George DeWitt. She died on 1 July 1998 in Palm Springs, California, USA.
- Derrill Osborn was born on 22 July 1942 in Clovis, New Mexico, USA. He died on 1 July 2019 in Dallas, Texas, USA.
- Dick Feagler was born on 29 July 1938. He was an actor, known for Citizen Cohn (1992) and Feagler & Friends (1996). He was married to Grace. He died on 1 July 2018 in Cleveland, Ohio, USA.
- Actress
- Soundtrack
E. Katherine Kerr was an actress, teacher, author, and director. In addition to her many screen roles, her Broadway credits included the ground-breaking, Pulitzer Prize-winning "No Place to Be Somebody", written and directed by Charles Gordone; Night Watch (1973) by Lucille Fletcher, directed by Fred Coe; "Mert & Phil" directed by Joseph Papp; and "Passion" by Peter Nichols.
Her off-Broadway credits include The Trojan Women (1971) by Euripides, translated by Edith Hamilton, directed by Michael Cacoyannis; "Cloud 9" by Caryl Churchill, directed by Tommy Tune; "Laughing Wild" written by Christopher Durang for Kerr and himself; and Love Letters (1999) by A.R. Gurney. Other credits as an actor include the national tour of "The Gingerbread Lady", starring Maureen Stapleton.
As an author, her works include the plays "Intelejunt Dezyne" ("The God Play") and "Juno's Swans", and the highly esteemed, life-changing "The Four Principles: A Guide for Living From Authentic Acting". She also taught privately in New York City and Connecticut.- Director
- Editor
- Editorial Department
Edward Dmytryk grew up in San Francisco, the son of Ukrainian immigrants. After his mother died when he was 6, his strict disciplinarian father beat the boy frequently, and the child began running away while in his early teens. Eventually, juvenile authorities allowed him to live alone at the age of 15 and helped him find part-time work as a film studio messenger. Dmytryk was an outstanding student in physics and mathematics and gained a scholarship to the California Institute of Technology. However, he dropped out after one year to return to movies, eventually working his way up from film editor to director. By the late 1940s, he was considered one of Hollywood's rising young directing talents, but his career was interrupted by the activities of the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), a congressional committee that employed ruthless tactics aimed at rooting out and destroying what it saw as Communist influence in Hollywood. A lifelong political leftist who had been a Communist Party member briefly during World War II, Dmytryk was one of the so-called "Hollywood Ten" who refused to cooperate with HUAC and had their careers disrupted or ruined as a result. The committee threw him in prison for refusing to cooperate, and after having spent several months behind bars, Dmytryk decided to cooperate after all, and testified again before the committee, this time giving the names of people he said were Communists. He claimed to believe he had done the right thing, but many in the Hollywood community--even those who came along long after the committee was finally disbanded--never forgave him, and that action overshadowed his career the rest of his life. In the 1970s, as his directing career ground to a halt, Dmytryk recalled some advice once given him by Garson Kanin, and returned to academic life, this time as a teacher. From 1976 to 1981 he was a professor of film theory and production at the University of Texas at Austin, and in 1981, was appointed to a chair in filmmaking at the University of Southern California, a position he held until about two years before his death. During his teaching career, he also authored several books on various aspects of filmmaking, as well as two volumes of memoirs.- Cinematographer
- Camera and Electrical Department
- Special Effects
Ennio Guarnieri was born on 12 October 1930 in Rome, Lazio, Italy. He was a cinematographer, known for La Dolce Vita (1960), La Traviata (1982) and Brother Sun, Sister Moon (1972). He died on 1 July 2019 in Licata, Sicily, Italy.- Evelyn Lear was born on 8 January 1926 in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA. She was an actress, known for Great Performances (1971), Die Hochzeit des Figaro (1963) and Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull's History Lesson (1976). She was married to Thomas Stewart and Walter Lear. She died on 1 July 2012 in Sandy Spring, Maryland, USA.
- Actor
- Composer
Ezzat Abu Ouf was born on 21 August 1948 in Egypt. He was an actor and composer, known for Asrar el-banaat (2001), Paparazzi (2015) and Ice Cream in Gleam (1992). He was married to Fateema. He died on 1 July 2019 in Cairo, Egypt.- Actor
- Composer
- Soundtrack
François Corbier was born on 17 October 1944 in Paris, France. He was an actor and composer, known for Pas de pitié pour les croissants (1987), Les aventures de Dorothée: un ami (1987) and Famille fou rire (1993). He died on 1 July 2018 in Évreux, Eure, France.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Geoffrey Hutchings was born on 8 June 1939 in Dorchester, Dorset, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Topsy-Turvy (1999), Henry V (1989) and Cor, Blimey! (2000). He was married to Andrea Godfrey and June Watts. He died on 1 July 2010 in London, England, UK.- Actor
- Writer
- Soundtrack
Czech actor/producer/director/author George Voskovec was born Jirí Wachsmann on June 19, 1905, the son of Jirina Valentina Marie (nee Pinkasová) and Vilem Eduard Voskovec (Wachsmann). His ancestry was Czech, German, and French. Prior to George's birth, the spelling of the family name was Vaksman (Russian). By the time he was born, which was shortly after their return to Bohemia--then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire--it had been changed to Wachsmann. In 1920, the family again changed the name from Wachsmann to Voskovec, a Czech translation, and his father changed his name to Václav Voskovec. George received his education at Lycée Carnot in Dijon and Charles University (School of Law) in Prague. He made his stage début in Prague in 1927 in "Vest Pocket Revue" and subsequently formed a solid partnership with fellow actor/lyricist Jan Werich. For the next 11 years they wrote, produced and performed 26 productions for the avant-garde Liberated Theatre of Prague, Osvobozene divadlo. He also established himself in Czech comedy films as both performer and writer in tandem with Werich.
In the late 1930s, he left his homeland following the German invasion and emigrated to America. Rebuilding his status as a performer/writer/director, he débuted at the Cleveland Playhouse in 1940 in "Heavy Barbara" and "The Ass and the Shadow," again in collaboration with Werich. During the war years he and Werich wrote and broadcast a host of radio programmes for the "Voice of America". He also made his Broadway début in "The Tempest" in 1945. He returned to Prague after the war in 1946 and worked for a time in the theatre before traveling to Paris, where he first worked for UNESCO, later founded the American theatre of Paris in 1949 and served as producer/director.
Upon his return to America in 1950, he was detained for 11 months on Ellis Island on suspicion of being a communist sympathizer. After he was allowed to enter USA, Voskovec appeared in New York with "The Love of Four Colonels," which he later toured. He went on to accumulate a formidable list of theatre credits including "The Seagull," "Festival" and, notably, "Uncle Vanya" for which he won an Obie award in the title role. He made his London stage début as Otto Frank in "The Diary of Anne Frank" in 1956, and was a continued presence on the 1960s Shakespearean stage with "Caesar and Cleopatra" (as Caesar) and John Gielgud's production of "Hamlet" as the Player King, the latter play was filmed.
In films, he played supporting roles in the U.S. from 1952. Affair in Trinidad (1952), The Iron Mistress (1952), The 27th Day (1957), The Bravados (1958), BUtterfield 8 (1960), The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1965) and The Boston Strangler (1968) all benefited from his imposing presence and professional stature. He also played one of the jurors in the classic drama 12 Angry Men (1957) alongside Lee J. Cobb and Henry Fonda. Voskovec was indeed a vital ethnic presence during the "Golden Age of Television" during the 1950s and in episodic 1960s TV. Voskovec was also a songwriter, being the lyricist of some 300 popular songs over his career. He continued to thrive in all three mediums throughout the 1970s practically until his death in 1981 at age 76. One of his final theatrical highlights was in Samuel Beckett's "Happy Days" in which he shared the stage with Irene Worth. This was followed by regular TV stints on Skag (1980) and Nero Wolfe (1981).
Divorced from his first wife and the widower of his second, Broadway stage actress Anne Gerlette, Voskovec later wed poet/journalist Christianne McKeown. He was survived by his third wife and two daughters from his second marriage: Victorie (adopted, born in 1954) and Georgeanne (adopted, born in 1956). He never returned to Prague.- Additional Crew
- Actress
- Director
Gillian Lynne was born on 20 February 1926 in Bromley, Kent, England, UK. She was an actress and director, known for The Phantom of the Opera (2004), National Lampoon's European Vacation (1985) and BBC Sunday-Night Theatre (1950). She was married to Peter Land and Patrick Back. She died on 1 July 2018 in Marylebone, London, England, UK.- Guillermo Patricio Kelly was born on 29 July 1921 in Avellaneda, Buenos Aires, Argentina. He died on 1 July 2005 in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
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- Soundtrack
He was signed by Warner Brothers as a child for his possible future potential but became known as a singer on the San Francisco radio. After U.S. Navy service, he sang with Carmen Cavallaro's band from 1946-1947. In 1950, he joined Columbia records and, accompanied by Mitch Miller and his Orchestra, had some great hits that included gold records for "My Heart Cries for You" in 1950, "My Truly Truly Fair" in 1951, "The Roving Kind" in 1951, "Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania" in 1952 and "Singing the Blues" in 1957. Mitchell appeared in the films Those Redheads from Seattle (1953) in 1953 and Red Garters (1954) in 1954.- Actor
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Heathcote Williams was born on 15 November 1941 in Helsby, Cheshire, England, UK. He was an actor and writer, known for Basic Instinct 2 (2006), City of Ember (2008) and The Legend of 1900 (1998). He died on 1 July 2017 in Oxford, Oxfordshire, England, UK.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Ilene Woods was born in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, the daughter of a backstage mom who was responsible for Ilene getting her show biz start on the stage at 2. At 14, she received an offer to top-line her own radio show once she became available at the end of that school year during a vacation in New York City. The Ilene Woods Show soon started its run on the Blue Network as a 3-nights-a-week, 15-minute musical series. She then did radio work in Chicago before moving to California, where she landed her first & only on-screen movie role (On Stage Everybody (1945)) as well as a stint on the Jack Carson-starring radio series Sealtest Village Store. Her songwriter-friends Mack David & Jerry Livingston asked her to record 2 of their newest songs, not telling her that they were for the upcoming Disney film Cinderella (1950). When Walt Disney heard her voice on the recordings, he chose her to voice that film's title role.- Jacqueline Carlin was born on 20 November 1942 in Essex Fells, New Jersey, USA. She was an actress, known for Thank God It's Friday (1978), Bronk (1975) and The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (1962). She was married to Chevy Chase, Peter Byam Cannon and Terry Melcher. She died on 1 July 2021 in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California, USA.
- Jerry Seltzer was born on 3 June 1932 in Portland, Oregon, USA. He was married to Judi Flowers and Marjorie Sternfield. He died on 1 July 2019 in Sonoma, California, USA.
- Argentinean politician, writer and army lieutenant general. Husband of Eva Perón (aka Evita; nee Eva Duarte) between 1945 and 1952. Founder of the Partido Laborista (Labour Party) which was later renamed as Partido Justicialista (Justicialist Party), also known as "Peronism". Three times President of Argentina (1946-1952; 1953-1955; 1973-1974), was one of the most important political figures of Argentinas' modern history as well as one of the most worldwide-known presidents of the South American country.
- Juan José Lujambio was born on 6 May 1938 in Marcos Paz, Buenos Aires, Argentina. He died on 1 July 2007 in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
- Julian Tudor Hart was born on 9 March 1927 in London, England, UK. He died on 1 July 2018 in the UK.
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- Director
- Soundtrack
Born to a Czech mother and a Serbian father in Chicago as Mladen Sekulovich, on March 22, 1912, Karl Malden did not speak English until he was in kindergarten. After graduating from high school in the nearby steel town of Gary, Indiana, Malden worked in the industry for three years until 1934, when he was frustrated with the drudgery of manual labor. He left to attend the Arkansas State Teacher's College, then the Goodman Theater Dramatic School and never looked back. Three years later, he went to New York City to find fame.
Malden rapidly became involved with the Group Theater, an organization of actors and directors who were changing the face of theater, where he attracted the attention of director Elia Kazan. With Kazan directing, Karl starred in plays such as "All My Sons" by Arthur Miller and "A Streetcar Named Desire" by Tennessee Williams. While Malden had one screen appearance before his military service in World War II, in They Knew What They Wanted (1940), he did not establish his film career until after the war. Malden won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor as Mitch in A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) and showed his range as an actor in roles such as that of Father Corrigan in On the Waterfront (1954) and the lecherous Archie Lee in Baby Doll (1956).
He starred in dozens of films such as Fear Strikes Out (1957), Pollyanna (1960), Birdman of Alcatraz (1962), Gypsy (1962), How the West Was Won (1962), The Cincinnati Kid (1965), and Patton (1970) as General Omar Bradley. In the early 1970s, he built a television career on the tough but honest screen persona he had created when he starred as Detective Mike Stone on The Streets of San Francisco (1972), co-starring with Michael Douglas. He also became the pitchman for American Express, a position he held for 21 years. In 1988, he was elected President of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, a position he held for five years. Following that he, published his memoir entitled, "When Do I Start?: A Memoir", written with his daughter Carla.
Malden also courted controversy by pushing for a special salute to Elia Kazan at the 1999 Academy Awards. Malden defended both Kazan and the award, arguing that Kazan's artistic achievements outshone any shame attached to Kazan's naming names before the Congressional committee investigating Communists in Hollywood. Marlon Brando refused to give Kazan the statuette; Robert De Niro ultimately did. Karl Malden died at age 97 of natural causes at his home in Los Angeles on July 1, 2009. He was buried at Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Westwood, California.- Director
- Actor
- Writer
Kartal Tibet was born on 27 March 1939 in Ankara, Turkey. He was a director and actor, known for Sabaniye (1984), Tarkan (1969) and Turks in Space (2006). He died on 1 July 2021 in Istanbul, Turkey.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Leslie Brooks was born on 13 July 1922 in Lincoln, Nebraska, USA. She was an actress, known for The Man Who Dared (1946), Cigarette Girl (1947) and It's Great to Be Young (1946). She was married to Russ Vincent and Donald Anthony Shay. She died on 1 July 2011 in Sherman Oaks, California, USA.- Music Artist
- Actor
- Music Department
Designated the "heartbeat" of R&B during the 1980s and 1990s, Luther Vandross led a productive singing and songwriting life before to this preeminence. The soul balladeer's strong commitment to the art of music continued on its Grammy-winning course, even after an acute stroke in 2003 left him severely incapacitated and unable to continue public appearances.
Luther Ronzoni Vandross, Jr. was born in Manhattan, New York on April 20, 1951, the baby of four children. His father, also named Luther, was an upholsterer who died of diabetes when the singer was just eight years old. Despite this sadness, his mother, a practical nurse, made sure that music was prevalent in the Vandross household, particularly gospel, soul and doo-wop. Luther was influenced by his older sister Patricia, who became a member of a doo-wop group called The Crests, and scored with the 1958 single "Sixteen Candles".
In high school, Luther formed his own musical group and first started to write and compose. His first big songwriting break came with "Everybody Rejoice (Can You Feel a Brand New Day)", which was used for the Broadway stage and film productions of "The Wiz". He also sang in the film's choir selections. In the 1970s, while still working his way up, Luther voiced commercial jingles (Kentucky Fried Chicken) and provided backup vocals on tour and in session work for such notables as David Bowie, Chaka Khan, Barbra Streisand, Carly Simon, Bette Midler and Donna Summer. After performing with a short-lived singing group called "Luther", which was formed to include the talented musicians Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards, who later formed the group, Chic, Luther returned to the background and took part in various projects for Quincy Jones and others. Insisting on creative control, Luther had a difficult time finding the right contract for himself in record-making.
At age 30, he finally recorded his first solo album with the No. 1 R&B and "Top 20" pop chartmaker, "Never Too Much". He continued steadily with such albums as "Forever, for Always, for Love" (1982) and "Give Me the Reasons" (1986), but it wasn't until 1989 that he had his first "Top 10" single with "Here and Now" (No. 6), which finally placed him securely on the love song pedestal. Such other No. 1 R&B singles would include "Stop to Love", "There's Nothing Better than Love" and "Any Love".
A minimalist stylist whose eloquent, velvety renditions were accentuated by spot-on phrasing and effortless vocal control, his image quickly led to such unwelcome sobriquets as "master of bedroom music" and the restrictive label of being a "ladies only" act. He was also besieged by a wealth of other personal and health problems. A binge eater, his weight fluctuated through his career with his 6' 3" frame handling a diversity of 190 to 340 pounds at various stages, aggravated by constant career pressures and a roller coaster personal and romantic life.
The never-married crooner was besieged by persistent reports that he was gay (he never denied or acknowledged the reports), rumors that threatened his ladies' man career. Moreover, Luther suffered from a mild form of diabetes, the disease that took the life of his father. In 1986, he was the driver in automobile crash that killed one passenger (a close friend) with a charge of vehicular manslaughter finally reduced to reckless driving (speeding).
The 1990s seemed, career-wise, stronger than ever again with a Top 40 hit dueting with Mariah Carey on "Endless Love" (1994) and the release of his No. 1 R&B signature version of "Always and Forever" (1994).
On camera, film and television acting appearances include a cameo in Robert Townsend's film The Meteor Man (1993) and episodes of "Beverly Hills: 90210" (as himself) and "Touched by An Angel". A documentary, Luther Vandross: Always and Forever (1994), is also available. Through his career, Luther continued to write and produce for other artists including Whitney Houston, Dionne Warwick, Teddy Pendergrass, Cheryl Lynn and Aretha Franklin. Following his massive April 2003 stroke, he made a phantom return to the spotlight with the release of his CD "Dance With My Father" (2003), which was recorded before his illness. At the awards show, the absent Luther was rewarded with four Grammy Awards, including song of the year. The success also gave him his first No. 1 album on the pop chart and four NAACP Image Awards.
The beloved 54-year-old musician died of a heart attack on July 1, 2005 at the JFK Medical Center in Edision, New Jersey, and was survived by his Evangelist mother, Mary Ida Vandross, who was instrumental in promoting her son's last work to Grammy glory following his severe debilitation.- Actress
- Additional Crew
Born in Portland, Oregon, she grew up in on a farm in Ketchum, Idaho. But dad was Jack Hemingway, son of the Nobel prize-winning author Ernest Hemingway and, with that heritage, fame was almost foreordained. By the time she was 21, after the lead in the rape melodrama Lipstick (1976), she had a budding movie career, a $1 million promotional contract with Faberge perfume, and her face on magazine covers around the world. But, within the decade, it was all lost. Her sister Mariel Hemingway, whose role in Lipstick (1976) had been suggested by Margaux, was a much greater success. Margaux had started drinking heavily; two marriages had failed. In 1988, she checked herself into the Betty Ford Center for rehabilitation. Attempts to parley her recovery from alcohol into a revived career failed and, by the time she was 41, almost nothing was left. She lived alone in a studio apartment, no children, no lover, few friends. Neighbors informed police that she had not been seen for days and, on July 1, they entered through a 2nd-floor window. Dental records had to be used to confirm her identity.- María Idalia was born on 29 October 1931 in Mexico City, Mexico. She was an actress, known for The Incredible Face of Dr. B (1963), Click, fotógrafo de modelos (1970) and La actriz (1962). She was married to Lorenzo de Rodas. She died on 1 July 2019 in Mexico City, Mexico.
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- Writer
Marlon Brando is widely considered the greatest movie actor of all time, rivaled only by the more theatrically oriented Laurence Olivier in terms of esteem. Unlike Olivier, who preferred the stage to the screen, Brando concentrated his talents on movies after bidding the Broadway stage adieu in 1949, a decision for which he was severely criticized when his star began to dim in the 1960s and he was excoriated for squandering his talents. No actor ever exerted such a profound influence on succeeding generations of actors as did Brando. More than 50 years after he first scorched the screen as Stanley Kowalski in the movie version of Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) and a quarter-century after his last great performance as Col. Kurtz in Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now (1979), all American actors are still being measured by the yardstick that was Brando. It was if the shadow of John Barrymore, the great American actor closest to Brando in terms of talent and stardom, dominated the acting field up until the 1970s. He did not, nor did any other actor so dominate the public's consciousness of what WAS an actor before or since Brando's 1951 on-screen portrayal of Stanley made him a cultural icon. Brando eclipsed the reputation of other great actors circa 1950, such as Paul Muni and Fredric March. Only the luster of Spencer Tracy's reputation hasn't dimmed when seen in the starlight thrown off by Brando. However, neither Tracy nor Olivier created an entire school of acting just by the force of his personality. Brando did.
Marlon Brando, Jr. was born on April 3, 1924, in Omaha, Nebraska, to Marlon Brando, Sr., a calcium carbonate salesman, and his artistically inclined wife, the former Dorothy Julia Pennebaker. "Bud" Brando was one of three children. His ancestry included English, Irish, German, Dutch, French Huguenot, Welsh, and Scottish; his surname originated with a distant German immigrant ancestor named "Brandau." His oldest sister Jocelyn Brando was also an actress, taking after their mother, who engaged in amateur theatricals and mentored a then-unknown Henry Fonda, another Nebraska native, in her role as director of the Omaha Community Playhouse. Frannie, Brando's other sibling, was a visual artist. Both Brando sisters contrived to leave the Midwest for New York City, Jocelyn to study acting and Frannie to study art. Marlon managed to escape the vocational doldrums forecast for him by his cold, distant father and his disapproving schoolteachers by striking out for The Big Apple in 1943, following Jocelyn into the acting profession. Acting was the only thing he was good at, for which he received praise, so he was determined to make it his career - a high-school dropout, he had nothing else to fall back on, having been rejected by the military due to a knee injury he incurred playing football at Shattuck Military Academy, Brando Sr.'s alma mater. The school booted Marlon out as incorrigible before graduation.
Acting was a skill he honed as a child, the lonely son of alcoholic parents. With his father away on the road, and his mother frequently intoxicated to the point of stupefaction, the young Bud would play-act for her to draw her out of her stupor and to attract her attention and love. His mother was exceedingly neglectful, but he loved her, particularly for instilling in him a love of nature, a feeling which informed his character Paul in Last Tango in Paris (1972) ("Last Tango in Paris") when he is recalling his childhood for his young lover Jeanne. "I don't have many good memories," Paul confesses, and neither did Brando of his childhood. Sometimes he had to go down to the town jail to pick up his mother after she had spent the night in the drunk tank and bring her home, events that traumatized the young boy but may have been the grain that irritated the oyster of his talent, producing the pearls of his performances. Anthony Quinn, his Oscar-winning co-star in Viva Zapata! (1952) told Brando's first wife Anna Kashfi, "I admire Marlon's talent, but I don't envy the pain that created it."
Brando enrolled in Erwin Piscator's Dramatic Workshop at New York's New School, and was mentored by Stella Adler, a member of a famous Yiddish Theatre acting family. Adler helped introduce to the New York stage the "emotional memory" technique of Russian theatrical actor, director and impresario Konstantin Stanislavski, whose motto was "Think of your own experiences and use them truthfully." The results of this meeting between an actor and the teacher preparing him for a life in the theater would mark a watershed in American acting and culture.
Brando made his debut on the boards of Broadway on October 19, 1944, in "I Remember Mama," a great success. As a young Broadway actor, Brando was invited by talent scouts from several different studios to screen-test for them, but he turned them down because he would not let himself be bound by the then-standard seven-year contract. Brando would make his film debut quite some time later in Fred Zinnemann's The Men (1950) for producer Stanley Kramer. Playing a paraplegic soldier, Brando brought new levels of realism to the screen, expanding on the verisimilitude brought to movies by Group Theatre alumni John Garfield, the predecessor closest to him in the raw power he projected on-screen. Ironically, it was Garfield whom producer Irene Mayer Selznick had chosen to play the lead in a new Tennessee Williams play she was about to produce, but negotiations broke down when Garfield demanded an ownership stake in "A Streetcar Named Desire." Burt Lancaster was next approached, but couldn't get out of a prior film commitment. Then director Elia Kazan suggested Brando, whom he had directed to great effect in Maxwell Anderson's play "Truckline Café," in which Brando co-starred with Karl Malden, who was to remain a close friend for the next 60 years.
During the production of "Truckline Café," Kazan had found that Brando's presence was so magnetic, he had to re-block the play to keep Marlon near other major characters' stage business, as the audience could not take its eyes off of him. For the scene where Brando's character re-enters the stage after killing his wife, Kazan placed him upstage-center, partially obscured by scenery, but where the audience could still see him as Karl Malden and others played out their scene within the café set. When he eventually entered the scene, crying, the effect was electric. A young Pauline Kael, arriving late to the play, had to avert her eyes when Brando made this entrance as she believed the young actor on stage was having a real-life conniption. She did not look back until her escort commented that the young man was a great actor.
The problem with casting Brando as Stanley was that he was much younger than the character as written by Williams. However, after a meeting between Brando and Williams, the playwright eagerly agreed that Brando would make an ideal Stanley. Williams believed that by casting a younger actor, the Neanderthalish Kowalski would evolve from being a vicious older man to someone whose unintentional cruelty can be attributed to his youthful ignorance. Brando ultimately was dissatisfied with his performance, though, saying he never was able to bring out the humor of the character, which was ironic as his characterization often drew laughs from the audience at the expense of Jessica Tandy's Blanche Dubois. During the out-of-town tryouts, Kazan realized that Brando's magnetism was attracting attention and audience sympathy away from Blanche to Stanley, which was not what the playwright intended. The audience's sympathy should be solely with Blanche, but many spectators were identifying with Stanley. Kazan queried Williams on the matter, broaching the idea of a slight rewrite to tip the scales back to more of a balance between Stanley and Blanche, but Williams demurred, smitten as he was by Brando, just like the preview audiences.
For his part, Brando believed that the audience sided with his Stanley because Jessica Tandy was too shrill. He thought Vivien Leigh, who played the part in the movie, was ideal, as she was not only a great beauty but she WAS Blanche Dubois, troubled as she was in her real life by mental illness and nymphomania. Brando's appearance as Stanley on stage and on screen revolutionized American acting by introducing "The Method" into American consciousness and culture. Method acting, rooted in Adler's study at the Moscow Art Theatre of Stanislavsky's theories that she subsequently introduced to the Group Theatre, was a more naturalistic style of performing, as it engendered a close identification of the actor with the character's emotions. Adler took first place among Brando's acting teachers, and socially she helped turn him from an unsophisticated Midwestern farm boy into a knowledgeable and cosmopolitan artist who one day would socialize with presidents.
Brando didn't like the term "The Method," which quickly became the prominent paradigm taught by such acting gurus as Lee Strasberg at the Actors Studio. Brando denounced Strasberg in his autobiography "Songs My Mother Taught Me" (1994), saying that he was a talentless exploiter who claimed he had been Brando's mentor. The Actors Studio had been founded by Strasberg along with Kazan and Stella Adler's husband, Harold Clurman, all Group Theatre alumni, all political progressives deeply committed to the didactic function of the stage. Brando credits his knowledge of the craft to Adler and Kazan, while Kazan in his autobiography "A Life" claimed that Brando's genius thrived due to the thorough training Adler had given him. Adler's method emphasized that authenticity in acting is achieved by drawing on inner reality to expose deep emotional experience
Interestingly, Elia Kazan believed that Brando had ruined two generations of actors, his contemporaries and those who came after him, all wanting to emulate the great Brando by employing The Method. Kazan felt that Brando was never a Method actor, that he had been highly trained by Adler and did not rely on gut instincts for his performances, as was commonly believed. Many a young actor, mistaken about the true roots of Brando's genius, thought that all it took was to find a character's motivation, empathize with the character through sense and memory association, and regurgitate it all on stage to become the character. That's not how the superbly trained Brando did it; he could, for example, play accents, whereas your average American Method actor could not. There was a method to Brando's art, Kazan felt, but it was not The Method.
After A Streetcar Named Desire (1951), for which he received the first of his eight Academy Award nominations, Brando appeared in a string of Academy Award-nominated performances - in Viva Zapata! (1952), Julius Caesar (1953) and the summit of his early career, Kazan's On the Waterfront (1954). For his "Waterfront" portrayal of meat-headed longshoreman Terry Malloy, the washed-up pug who "coulda been a contender," Brando won his first Oscar. Along with his iconic performance as the rebel-without-a-cause Johnny in The Wild One (1953) ("What are you rebelling against?" Johnny is asked. "What have ya got?" is his reply), the first wave of his career was, according to Jon Voight, unprecedented in its audacious presentation of such a wide range of great acting. Director John Huston said his performance of Marc Antony was like seeing the door of a furnace opened in a dark room, and co-star John Gielgud, the premier Shakespearean actor of the 20th century, invited Brando to join his repertory company.
It was this period of 1951-54 that revolutionized American acting, spawning such imitators as James Dean - who modeled his acting and even his lifestyle on his hero Brando - the young Paul Newman and Steve McQueen. After Brando, every up-and-coming star with true acting talent and a brooding, alienated quality would be hailed as the "New Brando," such as Warren Beatty in Kazan's Splendor in the Grass (1961). "We are all Brando's children," Jack Nicholson pointed out in 1972. "He gave us our freedom." He was truly "The Godfather" of American acting - and he was just 30 years old. Though he had a couple of failures, like Désirée (1954) and The Teahouse of the August Moon (1956), he was clearly miscast in them and hadn't sought out the parts so largely escaped blame.
In the second period of his career, 1955-62, Brando managed to uniquely establish himself as a great actor who also was a Top 10 movie star, although that star began to dim after the box-office high point of his early career, Sayonara (1957) (for which he received his fifth Best Actor Oscar nomination). Brando tried his hand at directing a film, the well-reviewed One-Eyed Jacks (1961) that he made for his own production company, Pennebaker Productions (after his mother's maiden name). Stanley Kubrick had been hired to direct the film, but after months of script rewrites in which Brando participated, Kubrick and Brando had a falling out and Kubrick was sacked. According to his widow Christiane Kubrick, Stanley believed that Brando had wanted to direct the film himself all along.
Tales proliferated about the profligacy of Brando the director, burning up a million and a half feet of expensive VistaVision film at 50 cents a foot, fully ten times the normal amount of raw stock expended during production of an equivalent motion picture. Brando took so long editing the film that he was never able to present the studio with a cut. Paramount took it away from him and tacked on a re-shot ending that Brando was dissatisfied with, as it made the Oedipal figure of Dad Longworth into a villain. In any normal film Dad would have been the heavy, but Brando believed that no one was innately evil, that it was a matter of an individual responding to, and being molded by, one's environment. It was not a black-and-white world, Brando felt, but a gray world in which once-decent people could do horrible things. This attitude explains his sympathetic portrayal of Nazi officer Christian Diestl in the film he made before shooting One-Eyed Jacks (1961), Edward Dmytryk's filming of Irwin Shaw's novel The Young Lions (1958). Shaw denounced Brando's performance, but audiences obviously disagreed, as the film was a major hit. It would be the last hit movie Brando would have for more than a decade.
One-Eyed Jacks (1961) generated respectable numbers at the box office, but the production costs were exorbitant - a then-staggering $6 million - which made it run a deficit. A film essentially is "made" in the editing room, and Brando found cutting to be a terribly boring process, which was why the studio eventually took the film away from him. Despite his proved talent in handling actors and a large production, Brando never again directed another film, though he would claim that all actors essentially direct themselves during the shooting of a picture.
Between the production and release of One-Eyed Jacks (1961), Brando appeared in Sidney Lumet's film version of Tennessee Williams' play "Orpheus Descending," The Fugitive Kind (1960) which teamed him with fellow Oscar winners Anna Magnani and Joanne Woodward. Following in Elizabeth Taylor's trailblazing footsteps, Brando became the second performer to receive a $1-million salary for a motion picture, so high were the expectations for this re-teaming of Kowalski and his creator (in 1961 critic Hollis Alpert had published a book "Brando and the Shadow of Stanley Kowalski"). Critics and audiences waiting for another incendiary display from Brando in a Williams work were disappointed when the renamed The Fugitive Kind (1960) finally released. Though Tennessee was hot, with movie versions of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958) and Suddenly, Last Summer (1959) burning up the box office and receiving kudos from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, The Fugitive Kind (1960) was a failure. This was followed by the so-so box-office reception of One-Eyed Jacks (1961) in 1961 and then by a failure of a more monumental kind: Mutiny on the Bounty (1962), a remake of the famed 1935 film.
Brando signed on to Mutiny on the Bounty (1962) after turning down the lead in the David Lean classic Lawrence of Arabia (1962) because he didn't want to spend a year in the desert riding around on a camel. He received another $1-million salary, plus $200,000 in overages as the shoot went overtime and over budget. During principal photography, highly respected director Carol Reed (an eventual Academy Award winner) was fired, and his replacement, two-time Oscar winner Lewis Milestone, was shunted aside by Brando as Marlon basically took over the direction of the film himself. The long shoot became so notorious that President John F. Kennedy asked director Billy Wilder at a cocktail party not "when" but "if" the "Bounty" shoot would ever be over. The MGM remake of one of its classic Golden Age films garnered a Best Picture Oscar nomination and was one of the top grossing films of 1962, yet failed to go into the black due to its Brobdingnagian budget estimated at $20 million, which is equivalent to $120 million when adjusted for inflation.
Brando and Taylor, whose Cleopatra (1963) nearly bankrupted 20th Century-Fox due to its huge cost overruns (its final budget was more than twice that of Brando's Mutiny on the Bounty (1962)), were pilloried by the show business press for being the epitome of the pampered, self-indulgent stars who were ruining the industry. Seeking scapegoats, the Hollywood press conveniently ignored the financial pressures on the studios. The studios had been hurt by television and by the antitrust-mandated divestiture of their movie theater chains, causing a large outflow of production to Italy and other countries in the 1950s and 1960s in order to lower costs. The studio bosses, seeking to replicate such blockbuster hits as the remakes of The Ten Commandments (1956) and Ben-Hur (1959), were the real culprits behind the losses generated by large-budgeted films that found it impossible to recoup their costs despite long lines at the box office.
While Elizabeth Taylor, receiving the unwanted gift of reams of publicity from her adulterous romance with Cleopatra (1963) co-star Richard Burton, remained hot until the tanking of her own Tennessee Williams-renamed debacle Boom! (1968), Brando from 1963 until the end of the decade appeared in one box-office failure after another as he worked out a contract he had signed with Universal Pictures. The industry had grown tired of Brando and his idiosyncrasies, though he continued to be offered prestige projects up through 1968.
Some of the films Brando made in the 1960s were noble failures, such as The Ugly American (1963), The Appaloosa (1966) and Reflections in a Golden Eye (1967). For every "Reflections," though, there seemed to be two or three outright debacles, such as Bedtime Story (1964), Morituri (1965), The Chase (1966), A Countess from Hong Kong (1967), Candy (1968), The Night of the Following Day (1969). By the time Brando began making the anti-colonialist picture Burn! (1969) in Colombia with Gillo Pontecorvo in the director's chair, he was box-office poison, despite having worked in the previous five years with such top directors as Arthur Penn, John Huston and the legendary Charles Chaplin, and with such top-drawer co-stars as David Niven, Yul Brynner, Sophia Loren and Taylor.
The rap on Brando in the 1960s was that a great talent had ruined his potential to be America's answer to Laurence Olivier, as his friend William Redfield limned the dilemma in his book "Letters from an Actor" (1967), a memoir about Redfield's appearance in Burton's 1964 theatrical production of "Hamlet." By failing to go back on stage and recharge his artistic batteries, something British actors such as Burton were not afraid to do, Brando had stifled his great talent, by refusing to tackle the classical repertoire and contemporary drama. Actors and critics had yearned for an American response to the high-acting style of the Brits, and while Method actors such as Rod Steiger tried to create an American style, they were hampered in their quest, as their king was lost in a wasteland of Hollywood movies that were beneath his talent. Many of his early supporters now turned on him, claiming he was a crass sellout.
Despite evidence in such films as The Appaloosa (1966) and Reflections in a Golden Eye (1967) that Brando was in fact doing some of the best acting of his life, critics, perhaps with an eye on the box office, slammed him for failing to live up to, and nurture, his great gift. Brando's political activism, starting in the early 1960s with his championing of Native Americans' rights, followed by his participation in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference's March on Washington in 1963, and followed by his appearance at a Black Panther rally in 1968, did not win him many admirers in the establishment. In fact, there was a de facto embargo on Brando films in the recently segregated (officially, at least) southeastern US in the 1960s. Southern exhibitors simply would not book his films, and producers took notice. After 1968, Brando would not work for three years.
Pauline Kael wrote of Brando that he was Fortune's fool. She drew a parallel with the latter career of John Barrymore, a similarly gifted thespian with talents as prodigious, who seemingly threw them away. Brando, like the late-career Barrymore, had become a great ham, evidenced by his turn as the faux Indian guru in the egregious Candy (1968), seemingly because the material was so beneath his talent. Most observers of Brando in the 1960s believed that he needed to be reunited with his old mentor Elia Kazan, a relationship that had soured due to Kazan's friendly testimony naming names before the notorious House un-American Activities Committee. Perhaps Brando believed this, too, as he originally accepted an offer to appear as the star of Kazan's film adaptation of his own novel, The Arrangement (1969). However, after the assassination of Martin Luther King, Brando backed out of the film, telling Kazan that he could not appear in a Hollywood film after this tragedy. Also reportedly turning down a role opposite box-office king Paul Newman in a surefire script, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), Brando decided to make Burn! (1969) with Pontecorvo. The film, a searing indictment of racism and colonialism, flopped at the box office but won the esteem of progressive critics and cultural arbiters such as Howard Zinn. He subsequently appeared in the British film The Nightcomers (1971), a prequel to "Turn of the Screw" and another critical and box office failure.
Kazan, after a life in film and the theater, said that, aside from Orson Welles, whose greatness lay in film making, he only met one actor who was a genius: Brando. Richard Burton, an intellectual with a keen eye for observation if not for his own film projects, said that he found Brando to be very bright, unlike the public perception of him as a Terry Malloy-type character that he himself inadvertently promoted through his boorish behavior. Brando's problem, Burton felt, was that he was unique, and that he had gotten too much fame too soon at too early an age. Cut off from being nurtured by normal contact with society, fame had distorted Brando's personality and his ability to cope with the world, as he had not had time to grow up outside the limelight.
Truman Capote, who eviscerated Brando in print in the mid-'50s and had as much to do with the public perception of the dyslexic Brando as a dumbbell, always said that the best actors were ignorant, and that an intelligent person could not be a good actor. However, Brando was highly intelligent, and possessed of a rare genius in a then-deprecated art, acting. The problem that an intelligent performer has in movies is that it is the director, and not the actor, who has the power in his chosen field. Greatness in the other arts is defined by how much control the artist is able to exert over his chosen medium, but in movie acting, the medium is controlled by a person outside the individual artist. It is an axiom of the cinema that a performance, as is a film, is "created" in the cutting room, thus further removing the actor from control over his art. Brando had tried his hand at directing, in controlling the whole artistic enterprise, but he could not abide the cutting room, where a film and the film's performances are made. This lack of control over his art was the root of Brando's discontent with acting, with movies, and, eventually, with the whole wide world that invested so much cachet in movie actors, as long as "they" were at the top of the box-office charts. Hollywood was a matter of "they" and not the work, and Brando became disgusted.
Charlton Heston, who participated in Martin Luther King's 1963 March on Washington with Brando, believes that Marlon was the great actor of his generation. However, noting a story that Brando had once refused a role in the early 1960s with the excuse "How can I act when people are starving in India?," Heston believes that it was this attitude, the inability to separate one's idealism from one's work, that prevented Brando from reaching his potential. As Rod Steiger once said, Brando had it all, great stardom and a great talent. He could have taken his audience on a trip to the stars, but he simply would not. Steiger, one of Brando's children even though a contemporary, could not understand it. When James Mason' was asked in 1971 who was the best American actor, he had replied that since Brando had let his career go belly-up, it had to be George C. Scott, by default.
Paramount thought that only Laurence Olivier would suffice, but Lord Olivier was ill. The young director believed there was only one actor who could play godfather to the group of Young Turk actors he had assembled for his film, The Godfather of method acting himself - Marlon Brando. Francis Ford Coppola won the fight for Brando, Brando won - and refused - his second Oscar, and Paramount won a pot of gold by producing the then top-grossing film of all-time, The Godfather (1972), a gangster movie most critics now judge one of the greatest American films of all time. Brando followed his iconic portrayal of Don Corleone with his Oscar-nominated turn in the high-grossing and highly scandalous Last Tango in Paris (1972) ("Last Tango in Paris"), the first film dealing explicitly with sexuality in which an actor of Brando's stature had participated. He was now again a top ten box office star and once again heralded as the greatest actor of his generation, an unprecedented comeback that put him on the cover of "Time" magazine and would make him the highest-paid actor in the history of motion pictures by the end of the decade. Little did the world know that Brando, who had struggled through many projects in good faith during the 1960s, delivering some of his best acting, only to be excoriated and ignored as the films did not do well at the box office, essentially was through with the movies.
After reaching the summit of his career, a rarefied atmosphere never reached before or since by any actor, Brando essentially walked away. He would give no more of himself after giving everything as he had done in Last Tango in Paris (1972)," a performance that embarrassed him, according to his autobiography. Brando had come as close to any actor to being the "auteur," or author, of a film, as the English-language scenes of "Tango" were created by encouraging Brando to improvise. The improvisations were written down and turned into a shooting script, and the scripted improvisations were shot the next day. Pauline Kael, the Brando of movie critics in that she was the most influential arbiter of cinematic quality of her generation and spawned a whole legion of Kael wannabes, said Brando's performance in Last Tango in Paris (1972) had revolutionized the art of film. Brando, who had to act to gain his mother's attention; Brando, who believed acting at best was nothing special as everyone in the world engaged in it every day of their lives to get what they wanted from other people; Brando, who believed acting at its worst was a childish charade and that movie stardom was a whorish fraud, would have agreed with Sam Peckinpah's summation of Pauline Kael: "Pauline's a brilliant critic but sometimes she's just cracking walnuts with her ass." He probably would have done so in a simulacrum of those words, too.
After another three-year hiatus, Brando took on just one more major role for the next 20 years, as the bounty hunter after Jack Nicholson in Arthur Penn's The Missouri Breaks (1976), a western that succeeded neither with the critics or at the box office. Following The Godfather and Tango, Brando's performance was disappointing for some reviewers, who accused him of giving an erratic and inconsistent performance. In 1977, Brando made a rare appearance on television in the miniseries Roots: The Next Generations (1979), portraying George Lincoln Rockwell; he won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie for his performance. In 1978, he narrated the English version of Raoni (1978), a French-Belgian documentary film directed by Jean-Pierre Dutilleux and Luiz Carlos Saldanha that focused on the life of Raoni Metuktire and issues surrounding the survival of the indigenous Indian tribes of north central Brazil.
Later in his career, Brando concentrated on extracting the maximum amount of capital for the least amount of work from producers, as when he got the Salkind brothers to pony up a then-record $3.7 million against 10% of the gross for 13 days work on Superman (1978). Factoring in inflation, the straight salary for "Superman" equals or exceeds the new record of $1 million a day Harrison Ford set with K-19: The Widowmaker (2002). He agreed to the role only on assurance that he would be paid a large sum for what amounted to a small part, that he would not have to read the script beforehand, and his lines would be displayed somewhere off-camera. Brando also filmed scenes for the movie's sequel, Superman II, but after producers refused to pay him the same percentage he received for the first movie, he denied them permission to use the footage.
Before cashing his first paycheck for Superman (1978), Brando had picked up $2 million for his extended cameo in Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now (1979) in a role, that of Col. Kurtz, that he authored on-camera through improvisation while Coppola shot take after take. It was Brando's last bravura star performance. He co-starred with George C. Scott and John Gielgud in The Formula (1980), but the film was another critical and financial failure. Years later though, he did receive an eighth and final Oscar nomination for his supporting role in A Dry White Season (1989) after coming out of a near-decade-long retirement. Contrary to those who claimed he now only was in it for the money, Brando donated his entire seven-figure salary to an anti-apartheid charity. He then did an amusing performance in the comedy The Freshman (1990), winning rave reviews. He portrayed Tomas de Torquemada in the historical drama 1492: Conquest of Paradise (1992), but his performance was denounced and the film was another box office failure. He made another comeback in the Johnny Depp romantic drama Don Juan DeMarco (1994), which co-starred Faye Dunaway as his wife. He then appeared in The Island of Dr. Moreau (1996), co-starring Val Kilmer, who he didn't get along with. The filming was an unpleasant experience for Brando, as well as another critical and box office failure.
Brando had first attracted media attention at the age of 24, when "Life" magazine ran a photo of himself and his sister Jocelyn, who were both then appearing on Broadway. The curiosity continued, and snowballed. Playing the paraplegic soldier of The Men (1950), Brando had gone to live at a Veterans Administration hospital with actual disabled veterans, and confined himself to a wheelchair for weeks. It was an acting method, research, that no one in Hollywood had ever heard of before, and that willingness to experience life.- Writer
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An Italian filmmaker who started his career as production assistant and assistant director in the early 60s before he shot his very first movie "Ramon the Mexican" in 1965. Several other films followed, like heist movies, war films and two Gialli for which he is best known ("Death Carries a Cane" and "Death Steps in the Dark"). From the late 80s to the early 00s, he focused on the distribution of soft erotic flicks and movies from Asia via his company Megastar Pictures. In the last years he made himself a name as an author of historic novels like "Raffaela e La Fornarina" or "L'Amore Occulto".- Actor
- Producer
- Writer
Michael Landon was born Eugene Maurice Orowitz, on Saturday, October 31st, 1936, in Forest Hills, Queens, New York. In 1941, he and his family moved to Collingswood, New Jersey.
When Eugene was in high school, he participated -- and did very well -- in track and field, especially javelin throwing, and his athletic skills earned him a scholarship to USC. However, an accident injured his arm, ending his athletic career -- and his term at USC -- and he worked a number of odd jobs and small roles to make ends meet and decided that acting was for him. However, he thought that his real name was not a suitable one for an aspiring actor, and so "Michael Landon" was born.
Two of his first big roles were as Tony Rivers in I Was a Teenage Werewolf (1957) and as Tom Dooley in the western The Legend of Tom Dooley (1959). That same year he was approached by producer David Dortort to star in a pilot called The Restless Gun (1957), which was renamed when the series was picked up to Bonanza (1959). Landon played Little Joe Cartwright, the youngest of the three Cartwright brothers, a cocky and somewhat rebellious youth nevertheless had a way with the ladies. For 14 years, Landon became the heart and soul of the show, endearing himself to both younger and older viewers, and he became a household name during the 1960s and 1970s.
In 1968, after almost ten years of playing Little Joe, he wanted an opportunity to direct and write some episodes of the show. After the season finale in 1972, Dan Blocker, who played his older brother Hoss and was also a close friend, died from a blood clot in his lung, after gall bladder surgery, but Michael decided to go back to work, revisiting his own character in a two-part episode called "Forever."
Bonanza (1959) was finally canceled in early 1973, after 14 years and 430 episodes. Michael didn't have to wait long until he landed another successful role that most TV audiences of the 1970s would thoroughly enjoy, his second TV western, for NBC, Little House on the Prairie (1974). That show was based on a popular book written by Laura Ingalls Wilder, and he played enduring patriarch and farmer Charles Ingalls. Unlike Bonanza (1959), where he was mostly just a "hired gun," on this show he served as the producer, writer, director, and executive producer. By the end of its eighth season in 1982, Landon decided to step down from his role on "Little House" as he saw his TV children grown up and moved out of their father's house, and a year later, the show was canceled. After 14 years on Bonanza (1959) and 8 years on Little House on the Prairie (1974), it was about time to focus on something else, and once again, he didn't have to wait too long before Highway to Heaven (1984) came along. Unlike the western shows that he did for 23 years, this NBC fantasy/drama show focused on Jonathan Smith, an angel whose job was to save peoples' lives and work for God, his boss. Victor French played ex-cop Mark Gordon, who turned down a fortune but had redeemed himself by meeting Jonathan.
By the end of the fifth season in 1989, French was diagnosed with lung cancer and died in June of that same year. Landon was devastated by the loss and pulled the plug on Highway to Heaven (1984). In early 1991, after 35 years of working on NBC, he was axed by the network, so he moved to CBS to star in the pilot of a two-hour movie, Us (1991), in which he played Jeff Hayes, a man freed from prison by new evidence after 18 years wrongfully spent inside. This was going to be another one of Landon's shows but, in April 1991, he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. He later appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (1962) to talk about his battle with the disease, and many people in the audience were affected by the courage and energy he showed. Unfortunately, he was already terminally ill by that time, and on Monday, July 1st, 1991, after a three-month battle, he finally succumbed to the disease. His family, his colleagues, and his children were all by his side. His life-time: Saturday, October 31st, 1936 to Monday, July 1st, 1991, was 19,966 days, equaling 2,852 weeks & 2 days.- Actress
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Best remembered as 'Mrs. Slocombe' on the British comedy "Are You Being Served?" Mollie Sugden was born in Keighley, Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. She attended Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. Her first television role came in 1962 with the series "Hugh and I," which ran for four seasons. In 1972, she won the role of the head of the ladies department at Grace Brothers Department Store, 'Mrs. Betty Slocombe,' on "Are You Being Served." Her character was known for her change in hair color, as well as her affection for her cat. The series ran between 1972 and 1985. She reprised the role in the 1990s for the short live revival, "Grace & Favour." After the initial run of "Are You Being Served" ended in 1985 she continued to work on television including the series "My Husband and I," in which she starred with real-life husband, William Moore. In 2002, she was honoured on her 80th birthday with the "Celebrating Mollie Sugden: An Are You Being Served? Special" Mollie Sugden died after a long illness at age 86, just months after her "Are You Being Served? co-star Wendy Richard.- Paul Jenkins was born on 2 August 1938 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. He was an actor, known for Chinatown (1974), Sneakers (1992) and Network (1976). He was married to Sally Kemp. He died on 1 July 2013 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Pedro Aleandro was born on 11 October 1910 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He was an actor, known for Alta comedia (1965), El hermoso Brummel (1951) and Encadenado (1940). He was married to María Luisa Robledo. He died on 1 July 1985 in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
- Pedro Maratea was born on 21 December 1912 in Argentina. He was an actor, known for Crisol de hombres (1954), Pachamama (1944) and Outside the Law (1937). He died on 1 July 2002 in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
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Known as the creator of TV's Basil Brush and for his collaborations (as writer/producer/director/animator) with Oliver Postgate. He and Postgate set up 'Smallfilms' in 1958 and produced such children's classics as Noggin the Nog (1959), Pogle's Wood (1965), The Clangers (1969), Bagpuss (1974) and Ivor the Engine (1976). His daughter Emily Firmin played the part of the little girl Emily in Bagpuss, whilst his wife Joan and another of his six daughters, Charlotte, also made contributions.- Actress
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Philece Sampler was born on 16 July 1953 in San Angelo, Texas, USA. She was an actress, known for The Legend of Korra (2012), Digimon Adventure tri. Part 1: Reunion (2015) and Digimon Adventure tri. Part 2: Determination (2016). She was married to Larry Dean and Brad Blaisdell. She died on 1 July 2021 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Actress
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Phyllis Barry was born Gertrude Hillyard on December 7, 1908, in Leeds, England. She was a gifted dancer and at the age of fourteen she joined an Australian cabaret troupe. Phyllis starred in many stage musicals including No No Nannette and Lady Be Good. She made her film debut in the 1925 Australian film Painted Daughters. At the time her stage name was Phyllis DuBarry. In 1930 she toured America in a production of Rio Rita. Producer Samuel Goldwyn saw her on stage and offered her a part in the drama Cynara starring Kay Francis. Unfortunately the movie flopped and her performance got mixed reviews. She married vaudeville performer Albert Nordlund (also known as Al Nord) in 1932. The following year she landed the lead role in the comedy What - No Beer? opposite Buster Keaton. She had supporting roles in the films Blind Adventure and Forbidden Heaven.
Phyllis and Albert had a rocky marriage and they separated several times. She divorced him in 1936 and said "he told me he didn't think my career meant anything". Phyllis continued to make movies but by 1939 her career had stalled. She appeared in The Three Stooges short Three Little Sew and Sews and had a bit part in the drama Waterloo Bridge. On August 20, 1939 she married decorator Gilbert M. Caldwell. The couple moved to a small house in West Hollywood. Her last film role was playing a waitress in the 1947 drama Love From A Stranger. Phyllis quit acting and tried to settle into life as a housewife. Unfortunately she became increasingly addicted to prescription drugs. On July 1, 1954 she died after accidentally overdosing of phenobarbital. Phyllis was only forty-five years old. She was buried at Mountain View Cemetery in Oakland, California.- At the age of eleven, Richard Ward started in showbiz, accompanying his two sisters in a vaudeville song and dance act called 'Dot, Flo and Dick'. From a tap-dancing kid, Richard grew into a burly, raspy-voiced young adult, whose physique became a major asset in his first career as a prize-fighter. After some 30 wins, both as professional and amateur, he quit and joined the police force, where he served for ten years as a detective with the office of Manhattan district attorney Frank Hogan. He also dabbled in the performing arts, appearing in such plays as "Anna Lucasta" at the American Negro Theatre. During World War II, Richard served as a sergeant major with the Army Signals Corps in the South Pacific. From the 1950's, Richard concentrated on his acting, continuing to appear on stage as well as playing dramatic roles in television.
The high point in his career came, when he was cast in the pivotal role of Willy Loman in the Baltimore Centerstage production of "Death of a Salesman", directed by Lee Sankowich (as part of an all-black cast). On the screen, his dominant gravel-voiced persona lent itself ideally to portraying authority figures, usually police officers like Captain Dobey in Starsky and Hutch (1975). In private life, he was said to have been an amiable character, whose simple pleasures included fishing and cooking. Just prior to his untimely death, Richard had enjoyed his first major breakthrough in motion pictures, playing Steve Martin's father in The Jerk (1979), and one of the long-term inmates in warden Robert Redford's prison in Brubaker (1980). - Actor
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Robert Mitchum was an underrated American leading man of enormous ability, who sublimated his talents beneath an air of disinterest. He was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, to Ann Harriet (Gunderson), a Norwegian immigrant, and James Thomas Mitchum, a shipyard/railroad worker. His father died in a train accident when he was two, and Robert and his siblings (including brother John Mitchum, later also an actor) were raised by his mother and stepfather (a British army major) in Connecticut, New York, and Delaware. An early contempt for authority led to discipline problems, and Mitchum spent good portions of his teen years adventuring on the open road. He later claimed that on one of these trips, at the age of 14, he was charged with vagrancy and sentenced to a Georgia chain gang, from which he escaped. Working a wide variety of jobs (including ghostwriter for astrologist Carroll Righter), Mitchum discovered acting in a Long Beach, California, amateur theater company. He worked at Lockheed Aircraft, where job stress caused him to suffer temporary blindness. About this time he began to obtain small roles in films, appearing in dozens within a very brief time. In 1945, he was cast as Lt. Walker in Story of G.I. Joe (1945) and received an Oscar nomination as Best Supporting Actor. His star ascended rapidly, and he became an icon of 1940s film noir, though equally adept at westerns and romantic dramas. His apparently lazy style and seen-it-all demeanor proved highly attractive to men and women, and by the 1950s, he was a true superstar despite a brief prison term for marijuana usage in 1949, which seemed to enhance rather than diminish his "bad boy" appeal. Though seemingly dismissive of "art," he worked in tremendously artistically thoughtful projects such as Charles Laughton's The Night of the Hunter (1955) and even co-wrote and composed an oratorio produced at the Hollywood Bowl by Orson Welles. A master of accents and seemingly unconcerned about his star image, he played in both forgettable and unforgettable films with unswerving nonchalance, leading many to overlook the prodigious talent he can bring to a project that he finds compelling. He moved into television in the 1980s as his film opportunities diminished, winning new fans with The Winds of War (1983) and War and Remembrance (1988). His sons James Mitchum and Christopher Mitchum are actors, as is his grandson Bentley Mitchum. His last film was James Dean: Race with Destiny (1997) with Casper Van Dien as James Dean.- Actor
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Robin Hardy was born on 2 October 1929 in Wimbledon, London, England, UK. He was an actor and writer, known for The Wicker Man (1973), Forbidden Sun (1988) and The Fantasist (1986). He was married to Victoria. He died on 1 July 2016 in Reading, Berkshire, England, UK.- Rolland Golden was born on 8 November 1931 in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA. He was married to Stella Anne Doussan. He died on 1 July 2019 in the USA.
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Ron Cummins was born on 15 May 1942 in Brooklyn, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for Tango & Cash (1989), Ghostbusters II (1989) and End of Days (1999). He died on 1 July 2016 in Canoga Park, California, USA.- Composer
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Sid Ramin was born on 22 January 1919 in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. He was a composer, known for West Side Story (1961), Demolition Man (1993) and Secretary (2002). He was married to Gloria Breit. He died on 1 July 2019 in New York City, New York, USA.- Producer
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Actress and writer Stevie Ryan was born and raised in the small town of Victorville, California. She made the move to Los Angeles at the age of 19 to pursue her dreams in the entertainment industry. An innate go-getter equipped with a tenacious work ethic, she hit the ground running, booking and scheduling her own photo shoots for head shots, scouring the internet for casting calls, and submitting herself for auditions. All it took was securing an audition for Hillary Duff's music video "So Yesterday" for Stevie to know she had found her calling. Throughout 2006 and 2007, Stevie continued to book various commercial projects on her own while also delving deeper into her true passion: writing, filming, editing, and acting in her own videos which she posted online. The videos soon became a phenomenon and when the characters she was bringing to life began developing a cult like following, industry executives from New York to Los Angeles began to take notice.
In 2010, Stevie was contacted by New Wave Entertainment [NWE] after they saw an online parody Stevie made of one of their shows. Blown away by Stevie's talent and impressive body of work, NWE had a vision to develop a TV series to compliment the online empire Stevie had already built for herself. Together they came up with "Stevie TV", a sketch comedy format parodying top pop culture personalities and phenomenon with Stevie as the star. It didn't take long for the network offers to come in and Stevie and NWE soon found a home for "Stevie TV" at VH1.
When she wasn't working on "Stevie TV" and other projects, Stevie is a self-described homebody. She enjoyed hanging out with her two dogs, doing crafts, making videos, drinking tea, and of course, watching all kinds of TV. After revealing that her grandfather died on June 29, 2017, she committed suicide by hanging on July 1, 2017. She was 33.- Sylvia Sidney was born in The Bronx, New York City, on August 8, 1910 as Sophia Kosow to Jewish parents. Her father was born in Russia and her mother was born in Romania. They divorced not long after her birth. Her mother subsequently remarried and young Sophia was adopted by her stepfather, Sigmund Sidney.
A shy, only child, her parents tried to encourage her to be more outgoing and gregarious. As an early teen, Sophia (later Sylvia) had decided she wanted a stage career. While most parents would have looked down on such an announcement, Sylvia was encouraged to pursue the dream she had made. She enrolled in the Theater Guild's School for Acting. Sylvia later admitted that when she decided to become a stage actress at 15, it wasn't being star struck that occurred to her, but the expression of beauty that encompassed acting. All she wanted was to be identified with good productions.
One school production was held at a Broadway theater and in the audience there was a critic from the New York Times who had nothing but rave reviews for the young woman. On the strength of her performance in New York, she appeared onstage in Washington, D.C. Further stage productions followed, each better than the last and it wasn't long before the film moguls were at the doorstep. She was appearing in the stage production of "Crime" when she made her first appearance on the silver screen in 1927. The film in question was Broadway Nights (1927) which dealt with stage personalities of which Sylvia, despite her extremely tender age, was one. After the film she returned to the stage where she appeared in creations which were, for the most part, forgettable. She moved to Colorado to tour with a stock company. She later returned to Broadway for a series of other plays. By 1929, she was on the big screen with Thru Different Eyes (1929) as Valerie Briand. This was followed by a short film, Five Minutes from the Station (1930). Sylvia Sidney was slowly leaving the stage for the production studios of Paramount.
1931 saw her appear in five films, one of which, City Streets (1931), made her a star. Aware that she was replacing the great Clara Bow, who was suffering from severe and debilitating health issues, mainly depression. The contrast between the two actresses was great but the movie was a hit. The sad-eyed Sylvia made a tremendous impact and her screen career was off a running. Her next film was Ladies of the Big House (1931) as Kathleen Storm McNeil, part of a couple framed for a murder they didn't commit. The film made huge profits at the box-office. She then made Merrily We Go to Hell (1932), appearing opposite Fredric March. The film was an unqualified success. Later, in Madame Butterfly (1932), she starred as the doomed geisha girl (Cho-Cho San); critics agreed that only her performance saved the film from being a total disaster.
In 1933, she starred in the title role in Jennie Gerhardt (1933). Yet another doom and gloom picture, she played a girl beset with poverty and the death of her young husband before the birth of their child. Sidney received the star spotlight in Good Dame (1934). Despite her fine performance, the film failed at the box-office. She scored big with the film critics as the lead female in Mary Burns, Fugitive (1935), a restaurant owner who falls for a big time gangster. Her performance was overshadowed by Alan Baxter, who gave an outstanding portrayal as the gangster. That film was quickly followed by "Accent On Youth", in which she played Linda Brown, a young lady fascinated by older men. In 1938, Sidney played in "You and Me", opposite George Raft. The film critics gave it mixed reviews but it did not fare well at the box-office. Afterward, the roles began to dissipate. She filmed ...One Third of a Nation... (1939) and would not be seen again onscreen until The Wagons Roll at Night (1941). There was a four year hiatus before Blood on the Sun (1945), opposite James Cagney.
In 1946, she starred in The Searching Wind (1946) as Cassie Bowman. The film was based on a Broadway play but it just didn't transfer well onto the big screen. It was widely considered to be too serious and flopped with the movie fans. After Love from a Stranger (1947), she didn't appear onscreen again until Les Miserables (1952), as "Fantine". Only three more films followed that decade. There were no films throughout the 1960s. After appearing in a made-for-television movie, she returned to the big screen in Summer Wishes, Winter Dreams (1973), playing the mother of the character played by Oscar-winning actress Joanne Woodward. For her performance, Sidney received her only Oscar nomination, losing to another actress who also only received one Oscar nomination in her lifetime, Tatum O'Neal (Paper Moon (1973)). O'Neal was 10 years old when she accepted the award.
Aside from a few more supporting role film appearances strewn here and there, Sidney mostly appeared on television thereafter. In 1988, she appeared as Juno in Tim Burton 's hit film Beetlejuice (1988). Her last film for the big screen was Mars Attacks! (1996) as the unlikely heroine whose taste in music saves Earth from an exceptionally brutal Martian victory. She had been seriously injured after being hit by a car but director Burton waited for her to be able to appear (in a wheelchair) rather than recast the role. In 1998, she played Clia, the irritable elderly travel agency clerk, who appeared (along with Fyvush Finkel) at the beginning of every episode of Fantasy Island (1998), the short-lived black-humored reboot of the iconic 1970s series of the same name.
A lifelong heavy smoker, Sidney died on July 1, 1999, aged 88, of throat cancer. - Tony Vilas was born on 3 June 1944 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He was an actor, known for El día que me quieras (1994), Verdad consecuencia (1996) and Por el nombre de Dios (1999). He died on 1 July 2013 in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
- Tyler Skaggs was born on 13 July 1991 in Woodland Hills, California, USA. He was married to Carli Miles. He died on 1 July 2019 in Southlake, Texas, USA.
- Actress
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Delightful child/juvenile actress Virginia Anna Adelaide Weidler (her friends called her "Ginny") had that knowing gleam in her eye that usually spelled trouble in one form or another for anyone nearby. She was born in Eagle Rock, California, in 1927, one of six children. Her mother was former Wagnerian opera singer Margarete Radon (born Margarete Therese Louisa Meyer), and her father was architect Alfred Weidler.
Virginia nearly made her acting debut at age 3 in John Barrymore's Moby Dick (1930) but was summarily replaced. A year later, she scored her first small movie bit in Warner Baxter's Surrender (1931) and was on her way. One of her brothers, child actor and musician George Weidler, was Doris Day's first husband (from 1946 to 1949).
RKO picked up young Virginia after learning that she could speak a bit of French. The average-looking youngster was ably cast as rural tomboy types in Laddie (1935) and Freckles (1935), the latter film allowing her to do a dead-on parody of Shirley Temple. She earned her first lead in Girl of the Ozarks (1936) and showed she could easily hold her own. After an unimpressive stint with Paramount, who tried to groom her as a rival to Fox's bratty Jane Withers, she was finally picked up by MGM and her film career blossomed. Co-starring with Mickey Rooney in Love Is a Headache (1938), she proved a natural young comedienne and precocious scene-stealer in such films as Out West with the Hardys (1938) (again with Rooney) and Too Hot to Handle (1938).
Little Virginia could also shine in dramatic outings, as she did with The Lone Wolf Spy Hunt (1939) and Bad Little Angel (1939), but she was never a good choice for sappy roles, as demonstrated when she played Norma Shearer's whiny imp of a daughter in The Women (1939). Virginia's forte was providing comedy relief, and she reached her young peak with two classic MGM films: Young Tom Edison (1940), as Rooney's creative sister, and The Philadelphia Story (1940), as Katharine Hepburn's smart-alecky younger sister. Her tongue-in-cheek rendition of "Lydia the Tattooed Lady" at the piano was just one of many memorable highlights from this vintage classic.
The young actress's career started to slip away from her when the teenage Shirley Temple signed with MGM, abruptly bumping "Plain-Jane" Virginia back to secondary status. After rather disappointing receptions to Born to Sing (1942), The Youngest Profession (1943), and Best Foot Forward (1943), the awkward teen left films and turned to vaudeville as a song-and-dance comedy performer, utilizing her full-scale talents as a mimic. She made her legitimate stage debut in "The Rich Full Life" at the John Golden Theatre in 1945, but the show closed within a month.
Soon after, Virginia retired from show business, married, and had two children. She passed away from a heart ailment at 41. After her death it was learned that she had suffered from rheumatic fever as a child.- Actor
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Walter Matthau was best known for starring in many films which included Charade (1963), The Odd Couple (1968), Grumpy Old Men (1993), and Dennis the Menace (1993). He often worked with Jack Lemmon and the two were Hollywood's craziest stars.
He was born Walter Jake Matthow in New York City, New York on October 1, 1920. His mother was an immigrant from Lithuania and his father was a Russian Jewish peddler and electrician from Kiev, Ukraine. As a young boy, Matthau attended a Jewish non-profit sleep-away camp. He also attended Surprise Lake Camp. His high school was Seward Park High School.
During World War II, Matthau served in the U.S. Army Air Forces with the Eighth Air Force in Britain as a Consolidated B-24 Liberator radioman-gunner, in the same 453rd Bombardment Group as James Stewart. He was based at RAF Old Buckenham, Norfolk during this time. He reached the rank of staff sergeant and became interested in acting.
Matthau appeared in the pilot of Mister Peepers (1952) alongside Wally Cox. He later appeared in the Elia Kazan classic, A Face in the Crowd (1957), opposite Patricia Neal and Andy Griffith, and then appeared in Lonely Are the Brave (1962), with Kirk Douglas, a film Douglas has often described as his personal favorite. Matthau then appeared in Charade (1963) with Audrey Hepburn and Cary Grant. In 1968, Matthau made his big screen appearance as Oscar Madison in The Odd Couple (1968) alongside Jack Lemmon. The two were also in the sequel (The Odd Couple II (1998)) as well as Grumpy Old Men (1993) and Grumpier Old Men (1995). Matthau was in Dennis the Menace (1993), alongside Mason Gamble. On July 1, 2000, Matthau died of a heart attack in Los Angeles, California. He was 79 years old.- 6'2" blond, Ivy-League-handsome William Ching was just as skilled in the vocal as he was in the acting department but he purposely shied away from the musical film genre in fear of harming his career as a dramatic actor. Had he thought otherwise, the actor might have enjoyed the musical baritone career of a Nelson Eddy, Gordon MacRae, Howard Keel or Dan Dailey. Nevertheless, while full-out stardom proved quite elusive, he did find a modicum of post-war acting work on film and TV for nearly a decade and a half before he abandoned his career and moved successfully into real estate.
Born in St. Louis, Missouri on October 2, 1913, he was christened William Brooks Ching and came from a strong English background. Studying voice as a teen, he earned jobs out of high school in theatre stock shows before gaining valuable experience as a member of a light opera company in Memphis, Tennessee. His career was then interrupted by WWII after enlisting in the Coast Guard.
Following military service, Ching regrouped and found work singing on radio in San Francisco. Spotted by a talent agent, he was brought into the Hollywood fold as a newly-signed Universal contract player. Because his Asian-sounding surname confused audiences, the studio re-named him "William Brooks" and, when not appearing unbilled in such films as Song of Scheherazade (1947) and the Abbott & Costello comedy Buck Privates Come Home (1947), was identified as such in two of his earliest films -- the multi-chaptered cliffhanger The Mysterious Mr. M (1946) and the western Michigan Kid (1947) starring Jon Hall in the title role.
Ching, however, was very protective of his family name and insisted on returning to it, figuring that when he established a firmer reputation with audiences, the problem would fade away. The studio reluctantly consented but the "problem" didn't go away. Primarily handed bland but brawny bit parts, Ching was generally unhappy with his minor standing at Universal and turned to the Broadway stage for fulfillment after a so-so featured role in the studio's Abbott & Costello comedy vehicle The Wistful Widow of Wagon Gap (1947). Cast in one of the top male roles in the lesser known Rodgers & Hammerstein musical "Allegro" in October of 1947 (their third collaboration after "Carousel" and "Oklahoma!"), the New York show, in which Bill introduced the song "A Fellow Needs a Girl," earned mixed reviews but still managed an eight-month run.
Finding some breaks in NY with live TV roles and with his own radio show, Ching eventually returned to films in 1950 when he was cast in a deceptively villainous role in the film noir classic _D.O.A. (1950) starring Edmond O'Brien. His optimism did not last long when he was then given a very minor role in another film noir piece, the Humphrey Bogart starrer In a Lonely Place (1950). Republic Studios saved the day when they signed the actor up, albeit for featured roles in "B" westerns and war dramas. During this period he backed up Bill Elliott in The Showdown (1950), John Carroll and Vera Ralston in both Surrender (1950) and Belle Le Grand (1951), Rod Cameron in both Oh! Susanna (1951) and The Sea Hornet (1951) and 'Wendell Corey and Vera Ralston again in The Wild Blue Yonder (1951). In these (and later) films he was usually typecast in "other man" roles or as a staunch military man.
Finally, Republic had the sense to make use of Ching's strong singing voice by casting him as the lead in its musical crime melodrama Bal Tabarin (1952) wherein he took second billing opposite operatic soprano Muriel Lawrence. Unfortunately the musical, which figured in the historic Parisian nightclub in its plot, was not released by MGM or a highly comparable studio so it came and went without much fanfare. As a result, Ching's reward was that Republic dropped him.
While the actor did appear in another musical, MGM's Give a Girl a Break (1953) starring Gower Champion and then-wife Marge Champion, his was only a minor role and he was given no songs to solo on. MGM did, however, cast the actor in what became arguably his cinematic career highlight, the Tracy/Hepburn vehicle Pat and Mike (1952) as Katharine Hepburn's arrogant husband-to-be. Fourth billed (behind Aldo Ray), Ching would not find an important role in a quality film like this again.
Trying to keep the momentum of his ever-stalling career going, Ching began to include TV assignments, alternately switching between them and film parts. TV proved a stronger medium for his playing of handsome leading men types. He was afforded the opportunity to guest opposite such lovelies as Joan Crawford, Jane Wyman, Laraine Day, Jane Greer, Gale Storm, Marjorie Lord, and others in both dramatic and lightly comedic appearances. In 1955 he enjoyed a minor, recurring part as a physical education teacher who briefly catches the attention of teacher Eve Arden in the popular Our Miss Brooks (1952) series.
In the mid-1950s the twice-married father of five (two from his second wife's first marriage) was forced to focus more and more on selling real estate to make ends meet. Finishing his film career uneventfully with the horror opus My World Dies Screaming (1958) and Escort West (1959) (the latter billed as "Bill Ching" far below star Victor Mature), the actor phased out his career altogether and fully retired in 1959. Bill and his family remained in the Southern California area where he continued to thrive as a realtor. Ching died on July 1, 1989, in Tustin, California of congestive heart failure and was buried at Fairhaven Memorial Park in Santa Ana. - Actor
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Wolfman Jack was born on 21 January 1938 in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for American Graffiti (1973), Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1978) and Motel Hell (1980). He was married to Lucy Lamb. He died on 1 July 1995 in Belvidere, North Carolina, USA.