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Tamara Dobson was born on 14 May 1947 in Baltimore, Maryland, USA. She was an actress, known for Cleopatra Jones (1973), Cleopatra Jones and the Casino of Gold (1975) and Chained Heat (1983). She died on 2 October 2006 in Baltimore, Maryland, USA.- Actress
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This enigmatic Stockholm-born beauty had everything going for her, including a rapidly rising film and TV career. Yet on April 30, 1970, at only 35, Inger Stevens would become another tragic Hollywood statistic -- added proof that fame and fortune do not always lead to happiness. Over time, a curious fascination, and perhaps even a morbid interest, has developed over Ms. Stevens and her life. What exactly went wrong? A remote, paradoxical young lady with obvious personal problems, she disguised it all with a seemingly positive attitude, an incredibly healthy figure and a megawatt smile that wouldn't quit. Although very little information has been filtered out about Ms. Stevens and her secretive life over the years, William T. Patterson's eagerly-anticipated biography, "The Farmer's Daughter Remembered: The Biography of Actress Inger Stevens" (2000), finally put an end to much of the mystery. But not quite all. The book claims that a large amount of previously-published information about Ms. Stevens is either untrue or distorted.
A strong talent and consummate dramatic player of the late 50s and 60s, she was born Inger Stensland, the eldest of three children, of Swedish parentage. A painfully shy and sensitive child, she was initially drawn to acting as a girl after witnessing her father perform in amateur theater productions. Her rather bleak childhood could be directed at a mother who abandoned her family for another man when Inger was only 6. Her father moved to the States, remarried, and eventually summoned for Inger and a younger brother in 1944 to join him and his new bride. Family relations did not improve. As a teenager, she ran away from home and ended up in a burlesque chorus line only to be brought home by her father. After graduation and following some menial jobs here and there, she moved to New York and worked briefly as a model while studying at the Actors Studio. She broke into the business through TV commercials and summer stock, rising in the ingénue ranks as a guest in a number of weekly series.
Often viewed as the beautiful loner or lady of mystery, an innate sadness seemed to permeate many of her roles. Inger made her film debut at age 22 opposite Bing Crosby in Man on Fire (1957). Serious problems set in when Inger began falling in love with her co-stars. Broken affairs with Crosby, James Mason, her co-star in Cry Terror! (1958), Anthony Quinn, her director in Cecil B. DeMille's The Buccaneer (1958), and Harry Belafonte, her co-star in The World, the Flesh and the Devil (1959), left her frequently depressed and ultimately despondent. An almost-fatal New Year's day suicide attempt in 1959 led to an intense period of self-examination and a new resolve. A brief Broadway lead in "Roman Candle," an Emmy-nominated role opposite Peter Falk in Price of Tomatoes (1962), and popular appearances on such TV shows as Bonanza (1959), The Twilight Zone (1959) and Route 66 (1960) paved the way to a popular series as "Katy Holstrum," the Swedish governess, in The Farmer's Daughter (1963). This brisk, change-of-pace comedy role earned her a Golden Globe award and Emmy nomination, and lasted three seasons.
Now officially a household name, Inger built up her momentum once again in films. A string of parts came her way within a three-year period including the sex comedy A Guide for the Married Man (1967) as roving eye husband Walter Matthau's unsuspecting wife; Clint Eastwood's first leading film role in Hang 'Em High (1968); the crime drama, Madigan (1968) with Henry Fonda and Richard Widmark; the westerns Firecreek (1968) with Fonda again plus James Stewart, and 5 Card Stud (1968) opposite Dean Martin and Robert Mitchum; the political thriller House of Cards (1968) starring George Peppard and Orson Welles; and A Dream of Kings (1969) which reunited her with old flame Anthony Quinn. Although many of her co-starring roles seemed to be little more than love interest filler, Inger made a noticeable impression in the last movie mentioned, by far the most intense and complex of her film career. Adding to that mixture were a number of well-made TV mini-movies. On the minus side, she also resurrected the bad habit of pursuing affairs with her co-stars, which would include Dean Martin and, most notably, Burt Reynolds, her last.
In April of 1970, Inger signed on as a series lead in a crime whodunit The Most Deadly Game (1970) to be telecast that September. It never came to be. Less than a week later, she was found unconscious on the floor of her kitchen by her housekeeper and died en route to the hospital of acute barbiturate intoxication -- a lethal combination of drugs and alcohol. Yvette Mimieux replaced her in the short-lived series that fall. For all intents and purposes, Ms. Stevens' death was a suicide but Patterson's bio indicates other possibilities. Following her death, it came out in the tabloids that she had been secretly married to a Negro, Ike Jones, since 1961. The couple was estranged at the time of her death.- Actress
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Verna Felton had extensive experience on the stage and in radio before she broke into film and television. Her trademarks was her distinctive husky voice and her no-nonsense attitude. She was quite in demand for voiceover work, as evidenced by her roles in Cinderella (1950), Alice in Wonderland (1951) and Lady and the Tramp (1955). She appeared in many films, but is best remembered as Hilda Crocker in the TV series December Bride (1954), a character she carried over into its spinoff, Pete and Gladys (1960). Verna died in 1966 at 76 years of age of a stroke.- Actress
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Bonnie Ebsen was born on 27 August 1951 in Los Angeles, California, USA. She is an actress, known for Black Magic Woman (1991), Barnaby Jones (1973) and The Fall Guy (1981). She has been married to Bruce Collins Jackson since 22 March 1980.- Adrian Ricard was born on 7 August 1924 in the USA. She was an actress, known for I, Robot (2004), Bulworth (1998) and The Man with Two Brains (1983). She died on 29 December 2016.
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Baby Boomers remember well the dark-haired, diminutive (4'10") comedienne Sheila James, who raised a smile with her portrayals of tomboyish kid sisters and boy-crazy high schoolers on late-'50s and early-'60s TV. For a while she was a huge hit, backed by her characters' plaintive, pony-tailed presences, strategies, and sheer persistence to get what they wanted. In her best known show The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis (1959), Sheila gave plain-Jane teenagers everywhere hope that they too could net the guy of their dreams.
She was born Sheila James Kuehl on February 9, 1941 in Tulsa, Oklahoma and pursued acting as an adolescent. She started things off with quite a bang at age 10 with a five-season regular role as Stuart Erwin and June Collyer's tomboy daughter Jackie in The Stu Erwin Show (1950). She appeared in her first film (using the stage name of Sheila James) at age 12 with an unbilled role in Those Redheads from Seattle (1953) and the next year was glimpsed in the MGM classic musical Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954). Meanwhile, Sheila made appearances on such TV series as "Mayor of the Town", "My Little Margie", "Date with the Angels", "The Bob Cummings Show", "The Millionaire", and "National Velvet" before landing the role that her famous -- squinchy-nosed high-schooler Zelda Gilroy in The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis (1959). As the obsessed student who only had eyes for the poetic, lovelorn title character (Dwayne Hickman), Zelda's confidence in hooking up with the uninterested Dobie never wavered, despite competition in the form of spoiled, dreamy blonde Tuesday Weld as Thalia Meninger.
Sheila was an instant hit as Zelda, so much so that a 1962 pilot entitled "Zelda" was filmed as a possible spinoff. However, when Hollywood gossip spread that 21-year-old Sheila was a lesbian, the powers-that-be decided to permanently shelve the project. The actress began to see her popularity, and her ability to find acting jobs, diminish after this. Despite some comedy roles in "Petticoat Junction", "Ozzie and Harriet", and "The Donna Reed Show", she found Hollywood more than reluctant to cast her. She did appear as Sally Ragsdale not to mention her appearance on a 1964 episode of Petticoat Junction (1963) as one of the singing "Ladybugs" along with the lovely "Petticoat Junction girls, Linda Henning, Jeannine Riley, and Pat Woodell. The pretty foursome even took their act to "The Ed Sullivan Show" in which they appeared as a mop-haired female version of the Beatles and performed the Fab Four's hit song "I Saw Her Standing There" with Henning as drummer "Ringo Starr," Riley as guitarist "John Lennon," Woodell as bassist "Paul McCartney", and James as guitarist "George Harrison". Sheila would appear in one more regular series, co-starring with Kathleen Nolan of "The Real McCoys" fame in the short-lived service comedy Broadside (1964), before seeing the writing on the wall.
After the show's quick demise, a practical Sheila decided to take a different direction in her life. She first found a job as a student campus adviser at UCLA which led to her appointment as the college's associate dean. At age 34 (and back to using her real name, Sheila Kuehl), she was admitted into Harvard Law School, where she rose to the top of her class and was elected student council president. Thereafter, Sheila returned on a rare occasion to TV (guest appearances on "Love American Style", "Emergency!") and film (Bring Me the Head of Dobie Gillis (1988)), a sequel to the popular comedy show in which she and Dobie (Hickman) have married and have a child!
Sheila made bold moves into the political arena on feminist issues and went on to serve as the first openly-gay member of the California State Assembly (6 years) and Senate (8 years). She later focused on community programs and policies as Director of the Public Policy Institute at Santa Monica College and played host of the West Hollywood cable show "Get Used To It", that dealt with gay people and issues. She also worked in tandem with Planned Parenthood of California in helping to develop legislation. To this day, the former child actress continues to be a strong, vital force in Los Angeles politics.- Actress
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Though her TV life was relatively short, baby boomer fans still hold a strong, sentimental fondness for actress Cynthia Pepper. An irresistible Barbie Doll TV version of Sandra Dee at the time of her brief small screen reign, the pert, pretty and pixieish actress with the cutest slight overbite proved to be a lovely fresh-faced by-product of the innocent early 60s.
Born Cynthia Anne Culpepper in Hollywood, California on September 4, 1940, she was drawn early to an acting career by her parents, vaudeville and night club entertainer Jack Pepper (nee Edward Jackson Culpepper, 1902-1979)) and his second wife Dawn (Stanton) Pepper (1913-2006), a former dancer who once worked for showman Billy Rose. Her father Jack, who first worked with his two sisters, Helen and Winnie Mae, in a family act and then a song-and-dance act with Frank Salt called "Salt and Pepper", before headlining as a solo act, also appeared as a character comedian in films. He was previously married and divorced from Ginger Rogers.
Cynthia started out in New York, at the tender age of three, as a Conover child model. A year or so later, she briefly appeared on Broadway in a tiny part in "It's a Gift", starring Julie Harris. Outside of an unbilled part, at age 10, in the movie, Cheaper by the Dozen (1950), Cynthia did not actively pursue acting until returning to Los Angeles and graduating from Hollywood High School. A year later, the 19-year-old married Buck Edwards (nee Mervyn L. Edwards), who was also in the business, behind the scenes.
TV opened its doors once she found an agent. One of her first sightings was as a "malt shop girl" in the comedy series, The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis (1959), starring Dwayne Hickman. Following that, she found work on two popular ABC detective series of 1960, Bourbon Street Beat (1959) with Richard Long, and 77 Sunset Strip (1958) with Efrem Zimbalist Jr., Roger Smith, and the hair-combing Edd Byrnes [aka Kookie].
Cynthia's career gained major momentum, when she won a regular role in the all-male My Three Sons (1960) sitcom. As the girlfriend of oldest son Mike (played by Tim Considine), Pepper was sweet and irresistible, ideally suited to represent the squeaky-clean "Camelot" era on the small screen. On the strength of her "My Three Sons" role, the actress was able to move front-and-center as the star of her own lightweight series, Margie (1961). Twenty-one at the time, she was cast as "Roaring 20s" teen flapper Margie Clayton, the powers-that-be smartly placed her comedy in the time slot directly following "My Three Sons" to kickstart the series. Despite the efforts, however, the series ended after only one season, the comedy proving perhaps a bit too mild and meek to satisfy audience tastes.
There was still promise on the horizon for Cynthia, as 20th Century-Fox was planning to build another TV series around her. However, the financial debacle of Cleopatra (1963) changed all plans and, instead, the studio had to let her go. Filmwise, Pepper had the pleasure of appearing in support of Sandra Dee in the frothy comedy, Take Her, She's Mine (1963), before winning the co-starring role of PFC Midge Riley, opposite Elvis Presley, in one of his more ingratiating vehicles, Kissin' Cousins (1964). Later that year, Pepper returned to the "My Three Sons" set to film one final closure appearance as Considine's (now) former girlfriend. In it, her character learns that Mike has become engaged to another woman (Meredith MacRae).
Two subsequent pilots failed to sell and soon Cynthia was being seen with less and less frequency. Assorted TV guest parts, during this period, included such shows as Perry Mason (1957), The Addams Family (1964), Julia (1968) and The Flying Nun (1967). Following a guest part on The Jimmy Stewart Show (1971) in 1972, Cynthia moved completely out of the limelight, save for a lone appearance in the TV-movie, Crisis in Mid-air (1979).
As for her personal life, Cynthia and husband Mervyn gave birth to their son Michael in 1965, but three years later, she and her husband divorced. Cynthia remarried the following year (1969) to James Pazillo and she abandoned her career to focus on this marriage and raising her son.
These days, Cynthia can be spotted, from time to time, at Elvis gatherings or signing autographs at film/TV nostalgic conventions. One can also spot Cynthia visibly recalling her film experience with "The King" in a couple of his video documentaries. Out of nowhere, she made a rare appearance in the film, Miss Congeniality 2: Armed & Fabulous (2005), starring Sandra Bullock.- Actress
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All this shapely character "broad" had to do was open her mouth to induce laughter--and so she did, primarily on TV during the '50s and '60s. And although she milked that unmistakable rasp for all its worth, she also showed great comedy sense. Born Jean Leete on February 23, 1923, in Charleston, West Virginia, actress Jean Carson (not to be confused with pert British actress Jeannie Carson of Hey, Jeannie! (1956) TV fame) was trained in music and dance and started performing by age 12. With high aspirations of becoming an actress, she subsequently studied at Carnegie-Mellon University.
She was first discovered appearing on Broadway in 1948 in George S. Kaufman's "Bravo!" with a cast including Kevin McCarthy and Oscar Homolka. Set in New York, the show was a bust (running only 44 performances), but Jean made a wonderful comic impression and earned a Theatre World award in the process. She followed this with another Kaufman-staged play, "Metropole," in 1949 as well as "The Bird Cage" (1950) with Melvyn Douglas and Maureen Stapleton and "Men of Distinction" (1953) with Robert Preston, but these shows fared just as badly. A hit Broadway comedy finally came her way with "Anniversary Waltz" in 1954, which ran 544 performances. Jean stood out among the cast just for those inimitable deep tones alone.
She was typically on display throughout the '50s and '60s, gracing many of the popular shows of the day, including "The Red Buttons Show," "The Tom Ewell Show," "Wagon Train," "Sugarfoot," "Perry Mason," "The Untouchables" and "Gomer Pyle." Surprisingly, she never had her own TV sitcom, although she did appear as a regular on the short-lived The Betty Hutton Show (1959) playing a girlfriend to the star. A single standout episode of "The Twilight Zone" had Jean and Fred Clark as a pair of thieves who discover that a camera they've stolen takes pictures of the future. Jean essayed a number of bleached blonde floozies, jailbirds, party girls and gold diggers over the course of her career but was never better than as both convict Jalene Naomi and good time girl Daphne on The Andy Griffith Show (1960). In one classic episode, her character Jalene was partnered up with cohorts Jane Dulo and Reta Shaw as three dames hiding out from the law who hold both Deputy Barney and Floyd hostage while putting designs on them at the same time.
An unfortunate alcohol problem dogged Jean's career for many years. Active with Alcoholics Anonymous, she eventually retired from Hollywood in the early 1980s and moved to the Palm Springs area to be closer to family. There she appeared occasionally in such local theater productions as "The Elephant Man" and "Steel Magnolias." Jean had been in spiraling health since suffering a paralytic stroke in September of 2005. She died in a Palm Desert convalescent home on November 2, 2005, at age 82. Two sons survive.- Actress
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Jo Van Fleet was born on December 29, 1915 in Oakland, California. She established herself as a notable dramatic actress on Broadway over several years, winning a Tony Award in 1954 for her skill in a difficult role, playing an unsympathetic, even abusive character, in Horton Foote's "The Trip to Bountiful" with Lillian Gish and Eva Marie Saint. Her first film role was playing the estranged mother of James Dean's character in East of Eden (1955). This debut performance earned Van Fleet an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Her subsequent film work was steady through 1960, then very sporadic, and include such films as The Rose Tattoo (1955), I'll Cry Tomorrow (1955), The King and Four Queens (1956), Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957) and Cool Hand Luke (1967).
In 1958, Van Fleet was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play for her performance in "Look Homeward, Angel" on Broadway. Other films include Wild River (1960), Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella (1965) and I Love You, Alice B. Toklas! (1968). Her television work include Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955), Bonanza (1959), Thriller (1960) and The Wild Wild West (1965).
Jo Van Fleet died at age 80 of undisclosed causes on June 10, 1996 in Queens, New York City.- Actress
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Marion Ramsey was an American actress and singer from Philadelphia. She is primarily known for her role as the soft-spoken policewoman Laverne Hooks in the "Police Academy" film series (1984-1994). Hooks was depicted as a "diminutive, soft-spoken and unassertive woman" with a high-pitched voice. But switched to a more aggressive and authoritative tone when sufficiently frustrated.
Ramsey was born in 1947, but little is known about her early life. She started her career as a theatrical actress, and became a prominent performer for Broadway shows. She appeared in the Broadway version of the hit musical "Hello, Dolly!" (1964) by Jerry Herman and Michael Stewart, and subsequently was part of the musical's touring productions. The musical was an adaptation of the farce "The Merchant of Yonkers" (1938) by Thornton Wilder (1897 -1975), but was much better received than the original work.
Ramsey made her television debut as part of the regular cast in the variety series "Keep On Truckin'" (1975). This was a summer replacement series, broadcast by ABC on Saturday nights. It only lasted four episodes. In 1976, Ramsey made a guest-star appearance in an episode of the then-popular sitcom "The Jeffersons" (1975-1985).
Also in 1976, Ramsey became part of the regular cast of the short-lived sketch comedy show "Cos". The show was named after its host, the popular comedian Bill Cosby (1937-). The series only lasted for 9 episodes, and was canceled due to low ratings. It was replaced on ABC's schedule by a new show called "The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries" (1977-1979), which was adapting mystery novels for children,. The novels were originally published by the long-running Stratemeyer Syndicate (1899-1987).
In 1977, Ramsey had a guest-star role in the short-lived sitcom "Sanford Arms" (1977). The series was intended as a sequel to the hit show "Sanford and Son" (1972-1977), but focused on a new protagonist. It failed to find an audience, and was canceled after only 4 episodes. Another 4 completed episodes, including the one featuring Ramsey, were never aired, although they became available on later reruns.
In 1978, Ramsey was one of the main performers of the revue "Eubie!" in Broadway. The revue showcased 23 songs by the popular jazz composer Eubie Blake (1887 - 1983). The show ran for 439 performances. Ramsey and the rest of the original cast participated in a recording of the show, which was released on vinyl in 1979.
Ramsey gained her first substantial film role in the police comedy "Police Academy" (1984), when she was 37-years-old. As cadet Laverne Hooks , she received enough screen time to be one of the film's memorable characters. The film was a box office hit, earning 150 million dollars at the worldwide box office. A film series featuring featuring the same cast followed. Ramsey appeared in 5 of the original film's sequels, and her character was soon depicted as a police sergeant. She made her last appearance in the film series in "Police Academy 6: City Under Siege" (1989). She did not appear in the series finale "Police Academy: Mission to Moscow" (1994), which also failed to include several other regular cast members.
In the early 1990s, Ramsey made a few appearances in then-popular television series, such as "MacGyver", "Beverly Hills, 90210", and "The Nanny". Most of her roles were minor unnamed characters. Ramsey worked as a voice actor in the animated series "The Addams Family" (1992 -1993). Her most memorable character in the series was summer camp owner D.I. Holler, who had the mentality of a drill sergeant. The character aimed to teach fitness and self-reliance to rich kids, but was unreasonably strict.
Ramsey had her next film role in the horror comedy "Maniacts" (2001) , where she played an unnamed prostitute. The film featured two serial killers who fall in love with each other, and try to settle down for a while. Ramsey next played a policewoman again in the comedy television film "Recipe for Disaster" (2003). The premise of the film is that the owners of a family restaurant have disappeared, and their underage kids try to operate the restaurant in their absence. The film is remembered for an early starring role for teenage actress Margo Harshman (1986-).
In 2006, Ramsey voiced Laverne Hooks in a comedy sketch of the animated series "Robot Chicken" (2005-). The sketch featured several characters from the "Police Academy" series being recruited as new members of the X-Men. The sketch reunited Ramsey with her former co-star Michael Winslow, an accomplished voice actor.
In 2007, Ramsey had a supporting role in the romantic comedy "Lord Help Us". The film's main plot is that the elderly preacher Henry Thomas (played by Bill Toliver) needs help to repair his reputation, after a rumor suggests that he is having an affair with a much younger woman. Also in 2007, Ramsey had a small role in the thriller film "The Stolen Moments of September". The film depicts the life of a young runaway, who befriends a suspected serial killer.
After a hiatus of a few years, Ramsey returned to film roles with the mystery comedy "Who Killed Soul Glow?" (2012). As the title suggests, it featured a murder mystery. In 2013, Ramsey appeared in the historical film "Return to Babylon", which depicted the lives of famous Hollywood actors in the 1920s. Ramsey played the maid of the famous vamp Barbara La Marr (1896 - 1926). The real life La Marr was highly popular in the 1920s, but died at the age of 29 due to tuberculosis.
In 2014, Ramsey played a supporting role in the sports film "Wal-Bob's". The film depicted the operation of an underground football league in Cincinnati. In 2015, Ramsey had a role in the science fiction horror television film "Lavalantula". The film depicted giant tarantulas unleashed in modern-day Los Angeles. The film notably reunited several veteran actors from the "Police Academy" film series, with the protagonist role reserved for Steve Guttenberg (1958-). Ramsey also appeared in the film's sequel "2 Lava 2 Lantula" (2016).
In 2016, Ramsey appeared in the comedy-drama film "DaZe: Vol. Too (sic) - NonSeNse". The film reunited several veterans of the "Police Academy" film series, and featured the last film role for Ramsey's longtime friend Bubba Smith (1945-2011). In 2018, Ramsey appeared in the biographical film "When I Sing", which was based on the life of singer-songwriter Linda Chorney (1960-). This was Ramsey's last film role.
Ramsey spend her last years in retirement.
In January she died at her residence in Los Angeles, following a short illness. Her cause of death was not announced to the public. She was 73-years-old at the time of her death. She was cremated, and her ashes were scattered at sea. News of her death was covered by the press, as the actress was still well-known and fondly remembered. Ramsey is considered an icon of the 1980s.- Actress
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Lillian Randolph was born on 14 December 1898 in Louisville, Kentucky, USA. She was an actress, known for It's a Wonderful Life (1946), Gildersleeve's Ghost (1944) and Magic (1978). She was married to Garcia Delano "Gossie" McKee and James Lott . She died on 12 September 1980 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Zara Cully was born on 26 January 1892 in Worcester, Massachusetts, USA. She was an actress, known for The Jeffersons (1975), All in the Family (1971) and Sugar Hill (1974). She was married to James M. Brown. She died on 28 February 1978 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
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Sydney Tamiia Poitier (born November 15, 1973) is a Bahamian-American television and film actress.
Born in Los Angeles, Poitier is the daughter of Bahamian actor Sir Sidney Poitier and Canadian actress Joanna Shimkus. Her mother is of Lithuanian Jewish and Irish descent. She has an older sister, Anika. She also has four older half-sisters, Beverly, Pamela, Sherri, and Gina, from her father's first marriage. Poitier's great-uncle has claimed that the Poitier ancestors on her grandfather's side had migrated from Haiti and were probably part of the runaway slaves who had established maroon communities throughout the Bahamas, including Cat Island. He mentions that the surname Poitier is a French name, and there were no white Poitiers from the Bahamas.
Poitier attended NYU's Tisch School of the Arts where she earned a bachelor's degree in acting. She also studied at Stella Adler Studio of Acting.
Poitier began her career of acting in the late 1990s. In 2001, she landed her first role on television in the NBC drama series First Years. The series was canceled after three episodes. In 2003, she starred in the UPN sitcom Abby. That series was also canceled during its first season. Later that same year, she had a recurring role in Joan of Arcadia, where she played Rebecca Askew, the love interest of Joan's older brother, Kevin (Jason Ritter). She was also a regular on the first season of Veronica Mars. However, she left the show after only appearing in four episodes because of budget cuts.
In 2007, Poitier starred in Death Proof, director Quentin Tarantino's segment of the movie Grindhouse, as radio DJ Jungle Julia. The next year, she had a co-starring role in the new Knight Rider series, as FBI Agent Carrie Rivai. In 2011, she guest-starred on two episodes of Private Practice.- Actress
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This dynamic young comedienne hailing from London via Nigeria has taken the comedy world by storm since her debut. In a few short years, she has become one of the most sought after comics in the country, making numerous appearances on Television, radio and the big screen.
This former lift engineer's Edinburgh debut saw her described by the Scotsman Newspaper as 'A British rival for Whoopi Goldberg- Lively and exceptionally funny'. From there she went from strength to strength, securing herself as team captain on Blouse and Skirt (2000), a BBC2 panel show that ran for 3 years. Gina developed a cult following who loved her cheeky wit and bombastic delivery. So much so, that she was able to complete a 30 date sellout tour along the length and breadth of the UK in 2000 and 2001 with more to follow.
Her infectious personality and observations on everything from TV programs to the worldwide image of Nigerians has wowed audiences not just in the UK but in places such as America, Dubai, Hong Kong, Singapore and South Africa, as well as all over Europe. With TV credits which include 'Live at Jongleurs' for UK Gold, The Comedy store for Channel 5, Planet Pop (Channel 4), The I love...series for BBC2, Jo Brand's Hot Potatoes (2002) for BBC1, and Up Late (2001) with Gina Yashere, Gina still found time to write several plays for BBC Radio 4 and sketches for the Richard Blackwood show on CH4.
Although primarily a comedian, Gina has now branched out into acting. She has appeared in two feature films, 'Kiss Kiss Bang Bang' as 'Polythene Pam', a murderess specialising in plastic bag suffocation and more recently Mr In-Between (2001), as well as in the West End show The Vagina Monologues.
Gina has guested on numerous radio shows most notably Radio's 4 News Quiz, Radio 5 Live, London Live and Choice FM. As well as covering Lisa I'anson's afternoon show on BBC London. To add to this seemingly endless list of achievements, she recently won Best female at the Black Comedy Awards. She is definitely a talent to be reckoned with!- Actress
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Ebonie Smith was born on 16 September 1978 in Puerto Rico. She is an actress and composer, known for Lethal Weapon (1987), Lethal Weapon 2 (1989) and Lethal Weapon 4 (1998).- Actress
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Shalita Grant was raised in Petersburg, Virginia and attended high school at the Baltimore School for the Arts in Maryland where she was a YoungArts Winner in Theater and Presidential Scholar in the Arts. At 17, she received a scholarship to attend the Julliard School for her B.F.A. in Drama, graduating in 2010.
In the first season of NCIS: New Orleans (2014), her role as former ATF turned NCIS Agent Sonja Percy, was recurring and was soon followed with a promotion to series regular at the start of the second season. Grant also starred as contraband slave, Aurelia Johnson, in the PBS original Civil War mini-series, Mercy Street (2016). Her television guest star credits include The Good Wife (2009), Battle Creek (2015), Bones (2005), and Melissa & Joey (2010). Her film features include shorts Empire Corner (2010), Invisible (2010), and Oscar-nominated documentary, Rehearsing a Dream (2006).
Grant's stage credits include "Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike" at the Lincoln Center, "The Philanderer" (The Pearl Theatre Company), "Measure for Measure", "The Winter's Tale" and "Merchant of Venice" (The Public Theater). In spring of 2013, she continued her role of Cassandra in "Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike" on Broadway, for which she earned a Tony Award nomination for Featured Actress in a Play and won the 2013 Theatre World Award for Outstanding Broadway Debut.
Following her Tony Award nomination, she moved to Los Angeles to pursue television where she fondly recalls her struggles in auditioning 54 times within one year for various roles and, at one point, while running out of savings, briefly turned to bartending before landing a series of guest star roles and finally series regular. Grant splits her time between New Orleans, Louisiana, where NCIS: New Orleans is filmed, and Los Angeles, California.- Vanessa Ferlito is an American actress. She is known for playing Detective Aiden Burn in the first season of the CBS crime drama CSI: NY, as well as for her recurring portrayal of Claudia Hernandez in FOX drama 24, and for her starring roles as FBI Agent Charlie DeMarco in the USA Network series Graceland and as Tammy Gregorio on the CBS crime drama series NCIS: New Orleans. She has also appeared in a number of films, including Spider-Man 2 (2004), Shadowboxer (2005), Man of the House (2005), Gridiron Gang (2006), Death Proof (2007), Nothing like the Holidays (2008), Madea Goes to Jail (2009), Julie & Julia (2009), Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps (2010), and Stand Up Guys (2012).
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The CCH stands for Carol Christine Hilaria, her birth name. Most of her characters are enriched with positive attributes -- strength, confidence, integrity, strong-mindedness -- and it is a testament to the abilities of this four-time Emmy nominated actress that she continues on such a high plane in a five-decade career.
Born on Christmas Day 1952 in Guyana, she was raised on a sugar cane plantation. Her parents, Betsy Enid Arnella (James) and Ronald Urlington Pounder, moved the family to the States while she was still a young girl, but she and her sister were subsequently sent to a convent boarding school in Britain where they were introduced to art and the classics. Following high school graduation, she arrived in New York and studied at Ithaca College, where her acting talents were strongly tapped into. Regional and classical repertory theater followed, earning roles in such productions as "The Mighty Gents" (1979) with Morgan Freeman at the New York Shakespeare Festival and "Open Admissions" (1984), her Broadway debut. Other stage work includes "Coriolanus," "Antony and Cleopatra," "The Frog," "The Lodger" and "Mumbo Jumbo."
After bit/featured roles in All That Jazz (1979), I'm Dancing as Fast as I Can (1982) and Prizzi's Honor (1985), CCH earned cult status in the art-house film Bagdad Cafe (1987) (aka "Bagdad Café" in the US) as the offbeat owner of a roadside café. She continued to impress with support roles in Postcards from the Edge (1990), The Importance of Being Earnest (1992), an all-black version: as Miss Prism), Benny & Joon (1993), RoboCop 3 (1993), Sliver (1993), Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight (1995),Face/Off (1997), Funny Valentines (1999), The Devil in Miss Jones 6 (1999), Baby of the Family (2002), Rain (2008), Orphan (2009), Avatar (2009) (as the voice of Mo'at, and its sequels), My Girlfriend's Back (2010). Home Again (2012) (as a Jamaican) and The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones (2013).
Pounder's prominence came, however, with television. Often cast as succinct, professional types (doctors, policewoman, judges) or characters with a variety of accents, she is known for her understated intensity and earned an Emmy nomination for her stint on the hospital drama ER (1994). She has also performed in a number of highly acclaimed topical mini-movie dramas, including Go Tell It on the Mountain (1985), Common Ground (1990), Murder in Mississippi (1990), Little Girl Fly Away (1998), A Touch of Hope (1999), Boycott (2001), Redemption: The Stan Tookie Williams Story (2004) (as Winnie Mandela) for which a number of kudos have come her way.
Millennium TV output includes regular/recurring roles on the series The Shield (2002) in which she earned an NAACP Award and Emmy nomination as Detective Claudette Wym; the social drama Ciencias del espacio (2008) as matriarch Mrs. Trainor, and NCIS: New Orleans (2014) as medical examiner Loretta Wade. She later found voice work in animated projects and video games.- A prolific radio and TV actress, Ms. Mitchell was a regular on such classic radio series as "Fibber McGee and Molly" and "The Great Gildersleeve," and on television, "Pete & Gladys" (Janet Colton), "Please Don't Eat the Daisies" (Marge Thornton), and "Bachelor Father" (Kitty Deveraux). She also made frequent appearances on other TV shows, including "The Dick Van Dyke Show" and "Perry Mason." Ms. Mitchell's feature film credits include "Desk Set," "Big Business," and "The War of the Roses." Best Known for playing Lucy Ricardo's girlfriend, Marion Strong on I Love Lucy, in "Lucy and Ethel Buy the Same Dress" (Episode #69). She made two more appearances as Marion, on "Lucy's Club Dance", and on "Lucy Tells the Truth". She was the wife of composer Jay Livingston (1915-2001).
- Blonde Janine Gray was born Janine Catherine Glass in Bombay, India, the daughter of an oil company engineer. Her family moved back to England when she was five. By the age of 13, Janine took drama classes and did her first screen acting gigs in TV commercials three years later. She spent several more years honing her skills in repertory theatre in Worthing and Nottingham. In 1959, she had a small guest spot in the crime drama Dial 999 (1958). Subsequently signed by the ITV franchise holder Associated British Rediffusion, Janine enjoyed better supporting roles in some of the popular TV series of the day, especially spy and crime shows like Danger Man (1960), The Saint (1962), The Avengers (1961) and The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (1964). Her sole starring turn on the big screen was in the John Gilling-directed B-grade crime melodrama Panic (1963), which had Janine playing a Swiss miss unwittingly involved in a London diamond heist. Her other featured role of note was as James Mason 's wife in Harold Pinter 's marital soap opera The Pumpkin Eater (1964).
Janine's first marriage in 1962 was to automobile executive and former Olympic long-distance runner Herman Goffberg. Though this union ended in divorce, she remained based in California from 1964 until 1969. During this tenure, Janine made a number of guest appearances in episodes of popular TV shows like Get Smart (1965) (as a nefarious KAOS agent), Bewitched (1964) (as Abigail, personal secretary to Samantha's warlock father Maurice), The Wild Wild West (1965) (Crystal, a murder victim) and Hogan's Heroes (1965) (as Greta, a member of the 'underground').
After her departure from the world of screen acting, Janine established a new permanent home in Cape Town, South Africa, with her second husband, the eye surgeon Dr. Brian Peter Greaves. - Actress
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Edith Diaz was born on 23 October 1939 in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico. She was an actress, known for Sister Act (1992), Nick of Time (1995) and The Fan (1996). She died on 19 November 2009 in North Hollywood, California, USA.- Actress
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Ebubennem Megalyn Ann Echikunwoke was born May 28, in Spokane, Washington. Her father was Nigerian and her mother is of English and Scots-Irish descent. Her last name, "Echikunwoke", means "leader of men" and Megalyn is the granddaughter of a Nigerian tribal leader of the Igbo, which technically makes her African royalty. She is known for playing "Nicole Palmer" in the first season of 24 (2001), "Angie Barnett" (Kelso's girlfriend) in the seventh season of That '70s Show (1998) and "Isabelle Tyler" in The 4400 (2004). She was raised on a Navajo Indian Reservation in Chinle, Arizona. In early 2008, she starred opposite Alessandro Nivola in an independent movie, directed by Jerry Zaks, titled Who Do You Love (2008) where she played a heroin-addicted lounge singer. She did all of her own singing in the movie.- Actress
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Samantha Marie Ware, also known by her singer stage name Sameya, is an American actress and singer. She is best known for portraying Jane Hayward in the sixth season of Glee (2015), as well as Angela Archer in the Netflix series What/If (2019). Ware also played Lily in the Nike web series Margot vs. Lily (2016).- Actress
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Victoria Gabrielle Platt is an actress, singer and producer, known for Star-Crossed (2013), The Gates (2010), All My Children, Guiding Light (1952), 'Round Midnight (1986) and Winchell (1998). She was born to a West Indian mother and Polish father in Queens, NY. Victoria and Terrell Tilford have been married since September 29, 2001.- Actress
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Sugar, Pepper, Pearl, Bunny, Dottie, Ruby, Ginger, Sunny, Goldie, Bubbles, all those are nicknames borne by petite actress Iris Adrian in several of the 160 movies and television productions she appeared in. With such names, don't expect to see her playing Joan of Arc or Electra but it remains that all these pet names reflect her winning femininity, its sweetness, its spiciness, its radiance. What's more their funny overtones are telltale signs of Iris Adrian's own quick witty sense of humor. Sexy yes, but with a sharp tongue. This aspect of her personality helped her to evolve and last, changing from the roles of blonde chorus girls or waitresses or, on the wilder side, of streetwalkers and other gangsters' molls to colorful bit parts in comedies with Abbott and Costello, Jerry Lewis and Elvis Presley. She ended up playing almost exclusively for Walt Disney productions before retiring at the respectable age of 82. Though she never achieved star status she could easily have if the circumstances had been favorable. For she steals scenes in a lot of movies provided of course her role is fleshed out sufficiently. She was excellent, for instance, in more than one poverty row crime movies. Don't miss her in Gold Diggers of 1937 (1936), Go West (1940) (with the Marx Brothers), Lady of Burlesque (1943), The Paleface (1948), Once a Thief (1950), and The Errand Boy (1961) (with Jerry Lewis).- Actress
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Josephine Premice was born on 21 July 1926 in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA. She was an actress, known for The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman (1974), The Next Step Beyond (1978) and Carnival in April (1953). She was married to Capt. Timothy Fales. She died on 13 April 2001 in Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA.- Elizabeth Hoy is known for The Blues Brothers (1980), Bloody Birthday (1981) and Mork & Mindy (1978).
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Tracy Reed was born on 28 October 1949 in Fort Benning, Georgia, USA. She is an actress, known for Running Scared (1986), McCloud (1970) and Trouble Man (1972).- Rosanna DeSoto was born on 2 September 1950 in San Jose, California, USA. She is an actress, known for Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991), La Bamba (1987) and Stand and Deliver (1988). She has been married to David S. Ward since 20 September 1980. They have two children. She was previously married to Jonathan T. Taplin.
- Rosemary Murphy was born on 13 January 1925 in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. She was an actress, known for To Kill a Mockingbird (1962), Eleanor and Franklin (1976) and After.Life (2009). She was married to Reginald Marsh. She died on 5 July 2014 in New York City, New York, USA.
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Sophie Oda was born on 23 October 1991 in San Francisco, California, USA. She is an actress and producer, known for The Suite Life of Zack & Cody (2005), Hawaii Five-0 (2010) and The Big Bang Theory (2007).- Actress
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Daisy Maywood is known for War of the Worlds (2019), The Bastard Son & The Devil Himself (2022) and National Theatre Live: Medea (2014).- Actress
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Her trademark sass complemented by a distinctively adenoidal voice that could out-snarl Eartha Kitt and Fran Drescher put together, short (4'11"), round, and robust Nell Carter was one indomitable, in-your-face firecracker...and it made her a star. She was born Nell Ruth Hardy in 1948 in Birmingham, Alabama and raised there, one of nine children born to Horace and Edna Hardy. She grew up listening to the sounds of Dinah Washington and Elvis Presley and developed an early interest in singing that led to performances in various youth groups, her church choir, on local radio and even the gospel circuit. This was a positive distraction from the major traumas suffered during her early life which included the tragic death of her father, who was electrocuted when he accidentally stepped on a live power line, and a rape at gunpoint when she was a young teenager.
By age 19, Carter had relocated to New York where she found work singing in assorted niteries (Rainbow Room, Sweeney's), cafés, and musical revues to her liking. Studying at Bill Russell's School of Drama from 1970 to 1973, she made her Broadway debut in "Soon", a two-act musical show that lasted two days, and included such up-and-comers as Richard Gere, Peter Allen and Barry Bostwick. Other musical roles came with "Dude" (1972), "Be Kind to People Week" (1975) and "Don't Bother Me, I Can't Cope" (1976). Receiving further training in London, Carter, who continued to gain both in girth and talent, made a star-making leap when she was cast alongside Armelia McQueen, Charlayne Woodard, André De Shields and Ken Page in the 1978 ensemble revue, "Ain't Misbehavin'", a musical catalogue of Fats Waller songs. The stellar quintet ran for nearly four years and the scene-stealing Carter, with such show-stopping songs as "Mean to Me" and "Cash for Your Trash", received a multitude of awards, including the Theatre World, Drama Desk, Obie and Tony. The show was taped for TV in 1982 for which Carter also nabbed the Emmy, and a Broadway revival with all five performers reunited was restaged in 1988. Later musical vehicles included her own feisty version of "Dolly Levi" in a 1991 African-American revival.
Tough and temperamental with a larger-than-life presence, Carter was invariably drawn toward the small screen and was initially featured in the daytime soap Ryan's Hope (1975) and The Misadventures of Sheriff Lobo (1979), the latter perfectly cast as a police sergeant. Audiences took to her immediately and, eventually, she was handed her own vehicle as the loving but no-nonsense housekeeper of a white family in the NBC sitcom Gimme a Break! (1981). That show, which ran for six seasons, earned her two additional Emmy nominations for "Best Actress in a Comedy". Following this, she co-starred on You Take the Kids (1990), which fizzled, and the already established Hangin' with Mr. Cooper (1992) as Mark Curry's boss. Other spunky guest shots over time included such popular programs as Amen (1986), 227 (1985), Touched by an Angel (1994), Ally McBeal (1997) and Reba (2001), as well as quiz show participations on Match Game (1990) and To Tell the Truth (1990). Her work in films, which included a standout musical song ("White Boys") in Milos Forman's film adaptation of Hair (1979) and a touching role as Piper Laurie's housekeeper in The Grass Harp (1995), was never fully engaged. Carter was notoriously opinionated and audaciously candid as a person, a true survivor in her off-stage life, which was riddled with misfortune. She endured constant weight problems and severe alcohol/cocaine habits (recovered) as well as two divorces, a suicide attempt, several miscarriages, bankruptcy, the death of a brother from AIDS and multiple surgeries after suffering a near-fatal brain aneurysm in 1992. She battled diabetes for much of her adult life and once collapsed on stage during a 1997 performance of "Annie", in which she played the boisterous "Miss Hannigan". To comfort and complete herself, she studied and adopted Judaism as her religion. In 1989 and 1990, she adopted two infant sons, Joshua and Daniel, to her family, which included daughter Tracey.
After a history of ups and downs, the 54-year-old singer/actress collapsed and died alone on January 23, 2003, in her Beverly Hills home, subsequently found by her 13-year-old adopted son, Joshua. The cause of death was not immediately established at the time but it was later established that she had suffered a fatal heart attack, complicated by her diabetes and obesity. She was interred in the Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery in Culver City, California. At the time of her death, she was in rehearsals for another musical stage lead, this time in the Long Beach, California revival of the hit musical "Raisin". The musical opened a few days later as scheduled with Carter's understudy taking over the role.- Actress
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Best known for playing the perpetually-ditzy blonde bimbo in several installments of the "Carry On" franchise, buxom Liz Fraser (born Elizabeth Joan Winch above a corner shop in south London) studied at RADA on a scholarship and first acted in repertory theatre and television before breaking into films. Her first role of note was Cynthia, the daughter of radical left-wing shop steward Fred Kite in The Boulting Brothers comedy I'm All Right Jack (1959) (the film which made Peter Sellers a star). In a second outing with Sellers, (Two Way Stretch (1960), she played his girlfriend Ethel; up next were eight guest appearances on Hancock's Half Hour (1956). By that time, her screen personae were firmly established as scatterbrained blondes or feisty gum-chewing working-class Cockneys. Though she often managed to rise above her material, the typecasting sadly continued through a series of dreadful low-brow '70s sex comedies in the 'Adventures' and 'Confessions' series, which represented a significant step-down from the "Carry Ons" and did nothing for her reputation.
Liz attempted to change her image by playing straight dramatic roles in The Family Way (1966) and Up the Junction (1968) (as the mother) and her later career prospered as a fine character actress with guest spots on The Professionals (1977), Minder (1979), Foyle's War (2002), and Midsomer Murders (1997), along with a string of successes on the West End stage. In her private life, she was known to be fond of animals, and she loved to play bridge and ladies' bowls at the exclusive Hurlingham club in Fulham. Her financial astuteness brought substantial gains at the stock market, which she in turn developed into a healthy property portfolio. She always spoke fondly of her co-stars, many of whom she regarded as her close 'mates' during the sixties, in particular Sidney James, Joan Sims, Tony Hancock and Tommy Cooper.- Actress
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In film, television, and theater, DeWanda Wise has established herself as one of the industry's most consistently critically acclaimed artists.
Of her work as Kayla Watts in Jurassic World Dominion, she's been nearly universally considered a standout of the sixth installment with critics noting her magnetism, swagger, wit, and charisma. Entertainment Weekly notes,
"Dominion's most memorable star might be its newest: DeWanda Wise, who joins the series as high- flying pilot Kayla Watts...Playing a daring pilot, (she) is basically starring in a one- woman Raiders of the Lost Ark in her head. Let's get that concept to the sequel writers stat."
In Sony's Fatherhood directed by Paul Weitz, Wise plays Lizzie Swan. Her performance was similarly singled out for her depth of characterization, charm, and grace. While Variety noted that Swan was, "Saucy, gorgeous, so-supportive-she's-saintly," The Wrap observed how
"Lizzie Swan is the kind of ideal romantic partner that might seem eye-rollingly implausible were it not for the efforts of actor DeWanda Wise who makes Swan's healthy outlook and emotional patience seem like hard-earned positive qualities of a healthy, real human being."
As Erin Kennedy in Jennifer Kaytin Robinson's subversive rom com, "Someone Great," Variety declared,
"It's Wise who's this film's MVP, wittily delivering many hilarious, quotable one-liners with effervescence and charm."
Largely considered her breakout role, In the Netflix adaption of "She's Gotta Have It," created by Spike Lee, Wise appears as the iconic Nola Darling. Following its season one release, the series acquired great critical acclaim, and as a result, won an African-American Film Critics Association (AAFCA) award as one of the "Top 10 Television Shows." The Hollywood Reporter calls Wise's work "superb," while Deadline exclaimed, "With a star revealing herself before us, Underground alum Wise hits nothing but high notes." Other critics describe her performance as "fiery," "complex," "brilliant," and "moving."
Other acclaimed television work includes CBS All Access "The Twilight Zone," FOX's drama "Shots Fired," and WGN's hit historical drama "Underground."
Additional film credits include the 2016 Sundance romantic-comedy hit, "How to Tell You're a Douchebag," by Tahir Jetter. A film in which Wise both starred in and executive produced..
In 2016, Wise expanded her talents into screenwriting and wrote the short film entitled, "Where You Go," which premiered at Cannes in the "Short Film Corner."
Stage credits include Atlantic Theater Company's "Fireflies," by Donja R. Love, a performance universally acclaimed. Sara Holdren at Vulture states:
"Wise's smoldering, taut-as-a-bowstring Olivia is almost part animal. It's an electrically charged performance, the kind that you imagine an actor passing out after. Wise has extraordinary bright hazel eyes, cat-like in their intensity: They're the eyes of a domestic creature that should have been wild, a creature that's never at rest, whose small body contains a whole history of life before walls, before cages, before dependence."
Previous stage credits include a host of theater roles, notably originating the role of 'Nina' in acclaimed playwright Dominique Morisseau's "Sunset Baby." Ben Brantley of The New York Times stated,
"...it's the woman who's the toughest of them all. Ms. Wise, a beauty, makes us see and feel just how ugly Nina is...she also insists we understand why."
The Village Voice called her Nina, "commanding and severe," while The New Yorker described her performance as "Brutal and riveting."
Other praised performances include her work as Susan in the west coast premiere of David Mamet's "Race" with Center Theater Group, Mercy in "Flight," at City Theatre, and Abigail, a Zimbabwean wife grappling with an HIV diagnosis, in Danai Gurira's heartbreaking "In the Continuum" at Playmakers, Chapel Hill.
DeWanda Wise graduated from New York University with honors as a double major in Drama and Urban Social and Cultural Analysis with a minor in Community-based Theater and Performance. She is a Tisch Scholar Award recipient, the Atlantic Achievement in Studio Award recipient, and the BFA Representative of her graduating class of NYU's Tisch School of the Arts.- Actress
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Shohreh Aghdashloo was born Shohreh Vaziri-Tabar on May 11, 1952 in Tehran, Iran. In the 1970s at age 20, she achieved nationwide stardom in her homeland of Iran, starring in some prominent pictures such as The Report (1977) directed by the renowned Abbas Kiarostami, which won critics awards at the Moscow Film Festival. In 1978, she won wider acclaim and established herself as one of Iran's leading ladies with Desiderium (1978) directed by the late Ali Hatami. During the 1978 Islamic revolution, Aghdashloo left Iran for England, to complete her education. Her interest in politics and her concern for social injustice in the world would lead her to receive a Bachelor's degree in International Relations.
She continued to pursue her acting career, which eventually brought her to Los Angeles, California in 1987. She went on to marry actor/playwright Houshang Touzie, performing in a number of his plays, successfully taking them to national and international stages. However, this was not easy getting work in Hollywood as a Middle Eastern actress with an accent; she had roles in some decent, though not great, films, including Twenty Bucks (1993), Surviving Paradise (2000) and Maryam (2002). She received good reviews for her 12 episodes on the fourth season of the Fox television series 24 (2001) as Dina Araz, a terrorist undercover as a well-to-do housewife and mother in Los Angeles. She had to wait quite some time to receive her break in Hollywood.
And finally, years after having read the acclaimed novel "House of Sand and Fog", DreamWorks were in the process of bringing the story to the silver screen. After having cast Ben Kingsley (as Massoud Amir Behrani) and Jennifer Connelly in the lead roles, they were looking for a relatively unknown Iranian actress to play Kingsley's wife, Nadi. Shohreh Aghdashloo was duly cast. She stole the limelight and earned herself an Academy Award nomination as best supporting actress amongst many other prestigious awards, including the Independent Spirit Sward as best supporting actress in a feature film, the New York and Los Angeles film critics award and others.- Actress
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Martha Hyer was born on August 10, 1924 in Fort Worth, Texas. Once she finished her formal schooling, Martha played a bit role in 1946's The Locket (1946). Slowly, Martha began picking up roles with more and more substance. The best years for the beautiful actress began in 1954 when she played in films such as Down Three Dark Streets (1954), Showdown at Abilene (1956) and Battle Hymn (1957). Perhaps the best role of her long career was as "Gwen French" in 1958's Some Came Running (1958) in which she starred opposite Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Shirley MacLaine. As a result of her stellar role, Martha received an Academy Award nomination as Best Supporting Actress, but she lost out to Wendy Hiller in Separate Tables (1958). Afterwards, Martha's stint on the US silver screen's trailed off some. She did make a handful of foreign films, returning to appear in the US from time to time, but nothing compared to the pace she had in the fifties. Her last film was in 1973 in the film The Day of the Wolves (1971). In 1966, she married producer Hal B. Wallis and remained with him until his death in 1986.- Actress
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Yetide Badaki is an actress, writer and producer known for This Is Us, American Gods and Call of Duty Infinite Warfare. She wrote, produced and starred in Hollywoodland. Yetide was born and raised in Nigeria and has also lived in England, Canada and the United States. She was nominated for Joseph Jefferson award for her portrayal of Juliet in the stage play "I have Before Me a Remarkable Document Written By a Young Lady From Rwanda"- Actress
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Neile Adams was born in Manila, the Philippine Islands on July 10, 1932 as María Ruby Neilam Arrastia y Salvador of Eurasian descent as her DNA attests. Her bloodline, to clarify erroneous reports, consists of 26% mixture of Chinese, Japanese, Mongolian, 7% Polynesian and 67% Spanish Basque and English, although her maternal grandmother's name was changed from Sulse to Schultz when that family emigrated to Spain from Germany. She spent WW2 in Japanese-occupied Manila, came to America in 1948, graduated high school the following year from Rosemary Hall (now Choate Rosemary Hall) in Greenwich, Connecticut and immediately went to New York to study dancing where she got a scholarship at the Katherine Dunham School of Dance. To ward off being cast exclusively as a "señorita" or in just plain old Spanish-speaking parts because of her name, her mother claimed Adams was her father's middle name. Never having seen nor met her father she soon became Neile Adams.
In 1953, she was cast as a dancer in "Kismet" and shortly became one of the lead dancers in the show. When the show closed in 1955 she was offered a showy role in the Versailles Nightclub where George Abbott and Bob Fosse caught her performance and offered her the Carol Haney role in "The Pajama Game" just as soon as her contract ended with the club. To meet both deadlines she performed at night and rehearsed during the day. She met Steve McQueen shortly thereafter and married four months after their formal introduction. The couple had two children, Terry McQueen (born 1959) and Chad McQueen (born 1960). The marriage legally ended in 1972. Neile is the grandmother of actor Steven R. McQueen. She remarried in 1980 to Alvin Toffel, a political campaign manager and president of the Norton Simon Museum. This union lasted until Toffel's passing in 2005.
Broadway credits: featured dancer in "Kismet", starred in "Pajama Game" opposite John Raitt and Julie Wilson, and Broadway-bound "At The Grand" opposite Paul Muni. She married McQueen while filming MGM's This Could Be the Night (1957) when she was under contract. Adams opened the Tropicana Hotel in Las Vegas in 1958 with Dick Shawn and Vivian Blaine. Television revues later became her main staple as she raised her family. She appeared on such programs as Perry Como's Kraft Music Hall (1948), The Bob Hope Show (1950), The Pat Boone-Chevy Showroom (1957), The Patrice Munsel Show (1956), The Eddie Fisher Show (1957) and The Walter Winchell Show (1956), among others. She played opposite McQueen and villainous Peter Lorre on a macabre episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955) and starred in two other Hitchcock episodes. In the '60s and '70s she guest-starred in almost all the popular dramatic shows, such as The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (1964), Vega$ (1978), Fantasy Island (1977), The Rockford Files (1974), The Bionic Woman (1976) and Love, American Style (1969), to name a few. On film, she played Burt Reynolds' wife in Fuzz (1972), was directed by Billy Wilder in Buddy Buddy (1981) and appeared in Chu Chu and the Philly Flash (1981). Adams continues to perform her cabaret shows in L.A., New York, London and Paris.- Actress
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Born in Seattle, Frances Farmer studied drama at the University of Washington, Seattle. In 1935, she went to Hollywood where she secured a seven-year contract with Paramount. In 1943, she was wrongfully declared mentally incompetent and committed by her parents to a series of asylums and public mental hospitals, leading to a false rumor that she received a lobotomy. After seven years she was released, and spent some of the remaining years of her life tending the parents who had committed her and taking odd jobs. She appeared on This Is Your Life (1950), and then her own TV show, Frances Farmer Presents (1958) for six years. She died of cancer in 1970.- Jane Alice Brandon was born on 3 October 1945 in Ohio, USA. She was an actress, known for The Incredible Hulk (1978), Kojak (1973) and Another World (1964). She was married to Peter Schwartz. She died on 24 May 2015 in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, USA.
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Direct from Spartanburg, South Carolina, this tall, blonde actress has earned the respect of stage and film audiences alike for her many touching portrayals of matter-of-fact, down-to-earth Southern folk. For someone who first attracted attention as a hash-slinging replacement for Diane Ladd (herself a replacement for the ever-popular Polly Holliday) in the final, languishing years of the popular CBS sitcom Alice (1976), Celia Weston certainly has evolved into one of the more sought-after character performers of "Deep South" film drama.
Born December 14, 1951, and raised in South Carolina, Celia, along with her sister, enjoyed creating their own little world of characters, acting out small skits and later began appearing in local plays. She did not, however, meet the unanimous encouragement of her family when the one-time art and psychology major at Salem College in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, decided to do an abrupt about-face and study acting. She earned an Artist Diploma in Drama at the North Carolina School of the Arts before moving to London to continue her training. More than determined, she eventually returned to the States in 1977 and studied with Uta Hagen and Herbert Berghof while slinging hash herself in New York City. In between, there was sporadic regional and off-off-Broadway work along with summer stock. At age 28, Celia made a big leap with her Broadway debut in "Loose Ends" (1979) starring Kevin Kline. Following her prime theater role in Edward Albee's "The Lady from Dubuque" in 1980 and a small part in Clint Eastwood's film Honky Tonk Freeway (1981), Hollywood showed her the money when she became the new Southern-fried waitress in town alongside Linda Lavin and Beth Howland on the "Alice" series.
Her character of Jolene was given rather short shrift during the four seasons (1981-1985) she appeared. Although Celia valiantly tried the invest the role with some sass, she was the newcomer and was too often overshadowed by the other two. Following the show's demise, she had a number of lean years before her luck changed again. In 1988, she was handed a couple of featured roles in the movies Stars and Bars (1988) and A New Life (1988). Her penchant for toned-down, unaffected realism was not overlooked. While interspersing theater roles with the sudden upswing of film parts now coming her way, she finally came into her own in both venues in the mid-to-late 1990s. After earning critical applause for her brittle dramatic turn as the backwoods mother of a murdered child in Dead Man Walking (1995), she went on to win an Outer Critics Award and Tony nomination for her Southern matron in Broadway's acclaimed "The Last Night of Ballyhoo" (1997).
Preferring art-house obscurity to mainstream popularity, Celia has stayed true for the most part with classier, character-driven drama and it has paid off in career dividends. An always interesting presence, her gals can tangle and backbite with the best of them or show true grit and/or extreme emotional fragility at times of unbearable sorrow. Celia has also played a variety of dialects over the years. A gregarious and eccentric turn as a possible mother to a searching Ben Stiller in the wonderful Flirting with Disaster (1996) led to her Civil War wife in Ride with the Devil (1999); her grieving, prejudicial Teutonic mother in Snow Falling on Cedars (1999); the part of Cate Blanchett's haughty aunt in The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999); and the Southern belle-like mental patient in K-Pax (2001). In addition, her Southern roots have complimented such Tennessee Williams' plays as "Summer and Smoke" and "Suddenly Last Summer" on Broadway.
Into the millennium, Celia is still going strong. She has been a vibrant presence in such ensemble films as In the Bedroom (2001), Far from Heaven (2002) and The Village (2004). In 2005, she received one of her best roles in years as the dressed-down Southern matriarch in the obscure independent film Junebug (2005), which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival.
More recent films include matronly parts in Joshua (2007), The Invasion (2007), The Box (2009), Knight and Day (2010), Goodbye to All That (2014), In the Radiant City (2016), Poms (2019) and Adam (2020). She has essayed just as many parts on both dramatic and comedic series TV, including regular/recurring roles on Our Willie (1913), Memphis Beat (2010), American Horror Story (2011), Modern Family (2009) and Hunters (2020).- Actress
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Ann Rutherford was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
The daughter of a former Metropolitan Opera singer, John Rutherford, and her actress mother, Lillian Mansfield, was destined for show business.
Not long after her birth, her family moved to California, where she made her stage debut in 1925.
Ann appeared in many plays and on radio for the next nine years before making her first screen appearance in Waterfront Lady (1935).
Ann's talent was readily apparent, and she was signed to three films in 1935: Waterfront Lady (1935), Melody Trail (1935), and The Fighting Marines (1935).
By now, she was a leading lady in the fabled Westerns with two legends, John Wayne and Gene Autry.
By the time Ann was 17, she inked a deal with MGM, where she would gain star status for her portrayal of "Polly Benedict" in the popular "Andy Hardy" series with Mickey Rooney. Ann's first role as "Polly" was in 1938, in You're Only Young Once (1937).
Three more Hardy films were produced that same year: Out West with the Hardys (1938), Love Finds Andy Hardy (1938), and Judge Hardy's Children (1938).
Ann found time to play in other productions, too. One that is still loved today is the Charles Dickens' classic A Christmas Carol (1938), in which she played the sweet role of the Spirit of Christmas Past.
In 1939, Ann played the role of "Annie Hawks" in Of Human Hearts (1938) in addition to three more Andy Hardy films.
That year also saw Ann land a role in the most popular film in film history. She played "Careen O'Hara," Scarlett's little sister, in Gone with the Wind (1939). Plenty of fans of the Andy Hardy series went to see it just for Ann. The film was unquestionably a super hit.
She then resumed making other movies. While working for MGM, Ann, along with the other stars, was under the watchful eye of movie mogul Louis B. Mayer.
Mayer was no different from any other film tycoon except for the fact that he ran the classiest studio in Hollywood. The bottom line was profit, and Mayer couldn't really maximize profits unless he kept performers' salaries minimized as much as possible. Most tried to get raises and failed. Even Mickey Rooney was decidedly underpaid during his glory years at MGM.
But not Ann Rutherford. When she asked for a raise, she took out her bankbook and, showing him the amount it contained, and told Mayer she had promised her mother a new house. Ann got her raise.
In 1942 at the age of 22, Ann appeared in her last Andy Hardy film, Andy Hardy's Double Life (1942).
She then left MGM and freelanced her talent. Ann was still in demand.
In 1943, she appeared in Happy Land (1943), but it was a little later in her career when she appeared in two big hits.
In 1947, she played Gertrude Griswold in The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1947) and Donna Elena in Adventures of Don Juan (1948) in 1948.
After that, Ann appeared in several TV programs and didn't return to the silver screen until 1972, in They Only Kill Their Masters (1972).
Her last role came in 1976 in the dismal Won Ton Ton: The Dog Who Saved Hollywood (1976), whereupon she retired.
Ann was approached to play the older Rose in 1998's mega hit Titanic (1997) but turned it down.
She happily enjoyed her retirement being constantly deluged with fan mail and granting several interviews and appearances.
She died at her Beverly Hills home on June 11, 2012 with her close friend Anne Jeffreys by her side. She was 94 years old.- Actress
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The ever-lovely, poised and vivacious blonde Anne Jeffreys was born Annie Jeffreys Carmichael in 1923 in Goldsboro, North Carolina. Firmly managed by her mother, she trained in voice at a fairly early age and received her first break in the entertainment field after signing with the John Robert Powers agency in New York as a junior model. In the interim, she prepared herself for an operatic career and made her debut in a production of "La Boheme" in 1940. The following year, however, Anne won a role in the musical review, "Fun for the Money", that was to be staged in Hollywood. This, in turn, led to her first movie role in the tuneful Rodgers & Hart adaptation of I Married an Angel (1942), starring her singing idols, Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald, in their last cinematic pairing.
Put under contract respectively by Republic then RKO studios, Anne was utilized as a plucky heroine in a flux of 40s "B" westerns and crimers, opposite such stalwarts as Robert Mitchum and Randolph Scott. Also among her roles was the part of "Tess Trueheart" in the "Dick Tracy" series with Morgan Conway as the steel-jawed hero, and a co-star role opposite Frank Sinatra in the war-era musical, Step Lively (1944). None of these, however, were able to propel her into the "A" ranks and her film career quickly dissipated by the end of the 40s. In the meantime, Anne continued to prod her vocal skills with symphonic and stage appearances, including "Tosca" at the Brooklyn Opera House, Kurt Weill's "Street Scene" and the Broadway musical, "My Romance".
After her first marriage was annulled in 1949, Anne met handsome actor Robert Sterling during an extended run (887 performances) of "Kiss Me Kate" on Broadway. She and Sterling married in 1951 and had three sons. In an attempt to revive their flagging careers, the singing couple toured nighteries and hotels in the early 1950s with a highly successful club act. This led to them being cast as sly, engagingly cavalier spirits in the classic Topper (1953) sitcom. Anne played "Marion Kirby" ("the ghostess with the mostest"), alongside Sterling's dapper husband, George Kirby. Successfully, undertaking the ectoplasmic roles originated on film by Constance Bennett and Cary Grant, the two were an absolute hit as the party-hearty ghosts who reclaim their home, to the dismay of current owner Leo G. Carroll.
Anne and Robert weren't able to recreate that same kind of magic when they subsequently co-starred in the short-lived series, Love That Jill (1958). In the 1960s, Anne semi-retired to raise her family, but occasionally took on musical leads ("Camelot", "The King and I") both on Broadway and in regional productions. She later returned full-time to TV and became known for her chic, gregarious, sometimes double-dealing matrons on soap operas (Bright Promise (1969) and General Hospital (1972)). She was nominated for a Golden Globe award for her supporting work in The Delphi Bureau (1972) adventure series, and appeared, occasionally, as the mother of David Hasselhoff on Baywatch (1989). Unlike her husband, who retired decades ago (he died in 2006), Anne remained a tireless performer past age 80. She was recognized over the years for her civic and humanitarian efforts and remained a vibrant presence of "Golden Age" Hollywood society until her death at age 94 on September 27, 2017 in Los Angeles.- A dark-haired, brown-eyed daughter of Ireland, Fintan Meyler (one of seven children) knew from girlhood that she wanted to be an actress, and yet as a kid she never revealed her secret ambition. But after completing her early years of schooling at a Dublin convent, she began studying at the Gate Theatre. Meyler next entered a beauty contest on a whim - and won. A two-week vacation in New York was part of the teenager's prize; she "lost her heart to this country" and refused to go home. Moving to California, she worked as a receptionist and an usherette (and did some stage work) before making her TV debut on the live series 'Matinee Theater'. She lost all interest in acting after the birth of her two daughters, Darcy and Rory. In later years, Meyler worked as a literary agent and acted in commercials.
- Veronica Redd was born on 8 August 1948 in Washington, District of Columbia, USA. She is an actress, known for The Young and the Restless (1973), The Women of Brewster Place (1989) and Scarecrow and Mrs. King (1983).
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Born and raised in San Diego, California, it was evident Sunnie loved to perform from a young age. Having older brothers in the industry, she began acting and modeling at the age of 3. She booked her first job for Huggies Pull Ups soon after. Sunnie continued to work and booked a modeling job for Hanna Andersson then Familiar clothing and Jakks Pacific (toy packaging). She had her first acting audition just after turning 4 and booked the role of Christine Booth in Fox's long running series, Bones. Sunnie is an avid dancer and competed in her first tap solo at age 3. Like her sister, she continues to dance and compete in jazz, tap, lyrical, contemporary and hip hop. She enjoys taking classes at her studio and traveling to compete, take classes and attend conventions. She is the youngest of four children and has two older brothers and a sister.- Ta-Tanisha was born on 15 January 1944 in Detroit, Michigan, USA. She is an actress, known for The Sting (1973), The Stone Killer (1973) and Mission: Impossible (1966). She has been married to Lee Weaver since 10 July 1971. They have one child. She was previously married to Harold Eugene Hambrick Jr..
- Grazia Narciso was born on 21 April 1894 in Ischia, Naples, Campania, Italy. She was an actress, known for Madonna of the Desert (1948), Up Front (1951) and Dragstrip Girl (1957). She was married to Tito Vuolo. She died on 10 December 1967 in North Hollywood, California, USA.
- Patricia received her first break into acting very soon after she graduated from Stephens College in the mid 1940s. Almost immediately after graduating, she received a contract from Columbia Pictures. They recognized that she had the rare combination of beauty, grace and intelligence that would serve her well throughout her long and well-respected career. When she first signed with Columbia Pictures, she was known as Patricia White. A few years later, in the late 1940s, she met Philip Barry Jr., who was to become her husband. Philip was a television producer-director and the son and namesake of the well-known playwright Philip Barry. By 1950, Patricia began using her married name, Barry. Patricia and Philip shared a long and happy marriage that only ended upon his death on May 16, 1998. During their marriage, they collaborated on several projects. Her husband Philip wrote and she acted in episodes of Matinee Theatre (1955) in the late 1950s. Her husband also produced several television programs that she acted in. They include: The Alcoa Hour (1955), a major dramatic TV series than ran from 1955 to 1957, a well-known TV horror film called Crowhaven Farm (1970), and two made-for-TV biographies, First, You Cry (1978), and Bogie (1980). Patricia Barry may well have been one of the hardest working actresses of her time, having performed over 130 movie and television roles. She died of age-related causes on October 12, 2016, at age 93.
- Riann Steele is an English actress born in New York. After studying at Arts Educational Schools, London, and graduating with a First, she appeared in various Royal Shakespeare Company productions including Hamlet (2009) alongside David Tennant and Patrick Stewart. In 2010, Riann made her debut screen performance opposite Aiden Gillen in Treacle Jr. (2010) (winner of the Golden Hitchcock award at the Dinard British Film Festival) and went on to play nurse Lauren Minster as a regular in the television series Holby City (1999). Various television roles followed, including Queen Nefertiti in Dr Who (2012). Riann is most known for playing Suzanne in Crazyhead (2016) and Sydney Halliday in NCIS: New Orleans (2014).
- Susan Seaforth Hayes, the American actress best known for her five-decade-long stint on the Days of Our Lives (1965), was born Susan Seabold on July 11, 1943 in Oakland, California. She was the daughter of the actress and writer, Elizabeth Harrower. She made her debut on the Cavalcade of America (1952) omnibus TV series in 1954 and, beginning in 1956, started working steadily on series television, though not as a regular in any one series.
In 1968, she made the transition to daytime soap operas when she was cast as "Julie Williams" on Days of Our Lives (1965), playing the role continuously from 1968 to 1984 and 1990 to 1993. She made recurring appearances on the show in 1994 and 1996 and has appeared regularly since 1999. She married her co-star, Bill Hayes, in 1974. They became the first soap opera actors to appear on the cover of Time Magazine in its January 12, 1976 issue. She was nominated four times for a Daytime Emmy as Outstanding Actress in a Daytime Drama Series for her work on "Days of Our Lives" from 1975 through 1979. She lost to her fellow "Days of Our Lives" co-star, Susan Flannery, in 1975 and to Helen Gallagher of Ryan's Hope (1975) in 1976, Laurie Heineman of Another World (1964) in 1978, and Irene Daly of Another World (1964) in 1979.
From 1984 to 1989, she appeared as "JoAnna Manning" on The Young and the Restless (1973), with guest appearances in 2005-06 and 2010. She also had a recurring role on the show, Sunset Beach (1997), as "District Attorney Patricia Steele".
In 2005, she and husband Bill Hayes published a joint autobiography, "Like Sands through the Hour Glass", taking its title from their soap opera's catch phrase. - Actress
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Natalia Reyes is a Colombian actress, producer and activist known for her starring role in James Cameron's Terminator: Dark Fate (2019) as Dani Ramos, she's also known for her role in the acclaimed award-winning Birds of Passage (2018) and Sony's hit TV series Lady, La Vendedora de Rosas (2015) (2015 most seen series in Colombia and Netflix Latin America). She has also also worked in Sticks and Stones (2018), Pickpockets (2018), Running with the Devil (2019) and Sumergible (2020). She was born in Bogotá, where she started acting when she was only 9 years old and after participating in numerous theatre plays, TV series and films moved to New York in 2011 where she graduated from The Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute. She lives between USA and Colombia.- Actress
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Moon Bloodgood was born on 20 September 1975 in Alliance, Nebraska, USA. She is an actress, known for Terminator Salvation (2009), Faster (2010) and Eight Below (2006). She was previously married to Grady Hall.- Peggy Mondo played the proverbial "fat lady" of stage and screen. The daughter of ecclesiastical painter Vincent Elipidio Mondo and Emma A. Spignesi, she hailed from New Haven, Connecticut. Beginning her career as a Connecticut Experimental Theater member in the 1950s, she studied voice under the tutelage of 'Francesco Riggio' and 'Hilda Whitworth Riggio', the company's directors. She fulfilled her lifelong desire to perform on 'Broadway' in 1957 upon winning the part of Ethel Toffelmeir in The Music Man. She reprised the role in the film version The Music Man (1962). She is remarkably light on her feet in the Shipoopi spectacular with Buddy Hackett. Following this success, Mondo launched her career as a character actress in film and television. She also played the sister with the remarkable voice in the "Landrews Sisters" sketch in the Jack Benny Las Vegas act.
- Maye Henderson was born on 19 May 1916 in Birmingham, Alabama, USA. She was an actress, known for Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964), Brother John (1971) and Living Between Two Worlds (1963). She died on 11 June 1998 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Diane Sommerfield was born on 24 October 1949 in Washington, District of Columbia, USA. She was an actress, known for Trapper John, M.D. (1979), Love in a Taxi (1980) and Back Roads (1981). She died on 9 March 2001 in Washington, District of Columbia, USA.
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Miriam Colon was born on 20 August 1936 in Ponce, Puerto Rico. She was an actress, known for Scarface (1983), Sabrina (1995) and Goal! The Dream Begins (2005). She was married to Fred Valle, George Paul Edgar and ???. She died on 3 March 2017 in New York City, New York, USA.- Lynne Moody was born on 17 February 1946 in Detroit, Michigan, USA. She is an actress, known for Knots Landing (1979), Magnum, P.I. (1980) and General Hospital (1963).
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Stefanie Powers began her career as a teenager dancing for the Michele Paniaff Ballet Company and Jerome Robbins. At 16 she was put under contract to Columbia Pictures in the twilight of the Hollywood Studio System where she made 15 motion pictures and was loaned to United Artists for the John Wayne production of McLintock! (1963). MGM Television bought her contract from Columbia to present her as The Girl from U.N.C.L.E. (1966). Her television credits include over 200 guest appearances, 18 mini-series and 2 more weekly series, The Feather and Father Gang (1976) and the long-running Hart to Hart (1979).
Her long career has included appearances on the stage beginning in 1964 with "Under the Yum Yum Tree" in San Francisco which ran for 12 years after its initial opening. She has appeared on and off Broadway in musical shows and tributes; in the West End in the musical, "Matador" and "Love Letters". Appearances on the British stage included "The King and I", "The Adjustment" and "84 Charing Cross Road."
Her stage appearances in the United States include "Annie Get Your Gun", "Oliver", "Applause" (the revival), "Sunset Boulevard" and "Gotta Dance" directed by Jerry Mitchell. In 2018 she appeared in the film The Artist's Wife (2019) with Lena Olin and Bruce Dern and a revival in London of "84 Charing Cross Road."
She has an active life in wildlife conservation and is the creator of the William Holden Wildlife Foundation, formed after the death of her long-time life partner William Holden. In that vein she has received numerous fellowships and awards for her tireless field work in conservation and is a faculty member of the Oxford Literary Festival at Christ Church College at Oxford where she heads forums with authors of outstanding books dealing with the crucial environmental issues of our day. She's been on the boards of four zoos in North America and is an independent board member of a cluster of 3 mutual funds which are a part of the American Funds, one of the largest mutual funds families in the world. She presented the PBS 13 part series, "Funding Your Dreams" as a road map for women contemplating investment options.
As a member of the Writers' Guild of America she was nominated for her script of "Family Secrets", received five Emmy nominations for acting roles and a People's Choice Award.
She resides in Los Angeles, London and Kenya.- Actress
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Betty Bolton is known for Devatha (2021).- Anne Barton was born on 20 March 1924 in Evansville, Indiana, USA. She was an actress, known for What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962), The Twilight Zone (1959) and Whirlybirds (1957). She was married to Dan Barton. She died on 27 November 2000 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
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Mary Young was born on 21 June 1879 in New York City, New York, USA. She was an actress, known for The Lost Weekend (1945), Alias Jesse James (1959) and The Stork Club (1945). She was married to John Craig. She died on 23 June 1971 in La Jolla, California, USA.- Actress
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Sarah Selby was born on 30 August 1905 in Middletown, Ohio, USA. She was an actress, known for Tower of London (1962), Beyond the Forest (1949) and The Hardy Boys: The Mystery of the Ghost Farm (1957). She was married to Holger Yngvar Harthern-Jakobsen and Stanley Robert Wuliger. She died on 7 January 1980 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Actress
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Juliette Kaplan was born on 2 October 1939 in Bournemouth, Dorset, England, UK. She was an actress, known for Last of the Summer Wine (1973), Don't Let Go (2013) and A Voice Crying in the Wilderness (1958). She was married to Harold Hoser. She died on 10 October 2019 in Kent, England, UK.- Although Jane Freeman will forever be associated with the redoubtable cafe owner Ivy in Roy Clarke's long-running Last of the Summer Wine - appearing in 274 episodes over a 37-year run and a 1983 stage version - she was also an actor of considerable resources who remained steadfastly committed to the theatre.
If Clarke's BBC hit comedy overshadowed Freeman's later career, she was at pains not to be confined by it, appearing in regional rep, national tours and pantomimes throughout its long television life.
Born in Brentford, near London, she moved to Merthyr Tydfil, South Wales, when her mother remarried, her father having died in an accident when she was nine. There she developed an early interest in performing at school. After graduating from the City of Cardiff [now Royal Welsh] College of Music and Drama in 1955, she moved to London before joining the Gloucestershire-based all-female Osiris Repertory Theatre touring company.
In 1958 she joined the Arena Theatre, Sutton Coldfield, where she began to attract attention, and was seen as Margaret More in the inaugural production of the Welsh Theatre Company, Robert Bolt's A Man for All Seasons, at the New Theatre, Cardiff in 1962.
As a member of Birmingham Rep between 1968 and 1973, she toured to Chicago and made notable appearances in Edward Bond's Saved and the musical Guys and Dolls, and as Maggie Hobson in Harold Brighouse's Hobson's Choice.
When television filming commitments allowed, she could be found playing a number of strong, usually northern, matriarchs in Billy Liar (Nottingham Playhouse, 1980), touring productions of JB Priestley's When We Are Married and Michael Frayn's Noises Off (1987) and Johnnie Mortimer and Brian Cooke's Situation Comedy (1989).
She scored a personal success as the sharp-tongued Emma Hornett in Philip King and Falkland Carey's Sailor Beware! at the Lyric, Hammersmith (1991), subsequently touring with it in 1992 and 1993.
Later theatre appearances included Pam Gems' Deborah's Daughter (Library Theatre, Manchester, 1994) and tours of William Ash's adaptation of Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights in 1995 and again in 1998.
She made her television debut in Troy Kennedy-Martin and John McGrath's Marriage, directed by Ken Loach, in 1964. Her Play for Today appearances included Peter Terson's The Fishing Party (1972) and Alan Bleasdale's Scully's New Year's Eve (1978). Other notable credits included Roy Clarke's Of Funerals and Fish (1973), Blackadder (1982) and Mrs Kimble in Silas Marner (1985).
Her few film appearances included Scrubbers (1982), directed by Mai Zetterling.
She was married to Michael Simpson, the former artistic director of Birmingham Rep, from 1971 until his death in December 2007.
Jane Freeman died of lung cancer on March 9, 2017, aged 81. - Donna LaBrie is known for Hill Street Blues (1981), Falcon Crest (1981) and Scarecrow and Mrs. King (1983).
- Jan Holden was a stage actress with a reputation for light comedy, who also appeared in several popular television series during the 1950s and 1960s.
She was elegant and pretty, with pale blue eyes. She grew up in Cawnpore in India and was educated at a school in the hills near Simla.
On the outbreak of the Second World War, she and her mother returned to England, where she boarded at Lowther College in North Wales. She holidayed with her schoolfriends.
When she was 18, she was offered places at RADA, the Old Vic School and at Bristol Old Vic; but her father declined his permission. He disapproved of his daughter's theatrical ambitions.
He eventually relented and allowed her to take a directors' course at the Old Vic. She was one of two pupils selected to become assistant stage managers at the Old Vic upon its reopening in 1951.
Jan Holden appeared in repertory, where she met her first husband, actor Edwin Richfield. They were married in 1952, when they were appearing together in Blackpool in a stage version of "The Blue Lamp".
She entered television during the fifties, in series such as Patrol Car (1954), Rheingold Theatre (1953), The Vise (1954), Harpers West One (1961) and The Avengers (1961). She later appeared in Agony (1979) and Oh Happy Band! (1980).
She made several film appearances in pictures, such as: The Best House in London (1969), The Stranglers of Bombay (1959) and Work Is a Four Letter Word (1968).
She endured heartbreak as her twin brother, Geoffrey, drowned in the early 1960s and her marriage broke down in 1973, leaving her with three teenage children. One of her twin daughters died from a brain tumour in 1999. She endured poor health, herself, during her final two decades, but remained cheerful.
She remarried in 1988 to Louis Manson, solicitor and business executive who survived her, with a son and a daughter from her first marriage and two stepsons and two stepdaughters. - Carol Arthur was born on 4 August 1935 in Hackensack, New Jersey, USA. She was an actress, known for Blazing Saddles (1974), Intrepid (2000) and Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993). She was married to Dom DeLuise. She died on 1 November 2020 in Woodland Hills, California, USA.
- Kathleen Crowley represented her home state of New Jersey in the Miss America pageant in 1949, placed sixth and (with the scholarship money she won) enrolled at the American Academy of Dramatic Art in New York. She played the plum title roles in prestigious TV productions of A Star Is Born (1951) and Jane Eyre (1951), caught the eye of Hollywood and became a 20th Century-Fox contractee in 1952. Freelancing after leaving the studio, she kept busy in feature films (mostly Westerns and horror/sci-fi titles) and TV. Crowley turned up at film conventions in Memphis, Baltimore and New Jersey before her death in 2017.
- Virginia has a long career as a character actress on the screen, but she will always be best remembered as the Swedish "Mrs. Olsen", who somehow knew everything about making coffee, and we somehow always found her in the kitchen of some hapless young housewife who just couldn't seem to make good coffee. Mrs. Olsen taught these women how to do so, as long as it involved using "Mountain Grown" Folger's brand Coffee. For some reason only Mrs. Olsen knew, no other kind of coffee you could buy was any good. And if you believe her, I have some land you'll be interested in!
Virginia was born in the small Iowa town of Stanton, which later converted its water tower to resemble a coffee pot in honor of its most famous citizen. When her family moved to Los Angeles, Virginia worked in radio while attending the University of California, Los Angeles. She was trained for a theatrical career by actor/director Fritz Feld, whom she married in 1940. In 1942, she signed a contract with Warner Bros. and started appearing in various films. Her first film was, Edge of Darkness (1943), in which she played a Norwegian peasant girl called "Miss Olson". Over the years, she appeared in prestigious films such as High Noon (1952) and Judgment at Nuremberg (1961) - to horror in The Mummy's Curse (1944) and Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956). She was a favorite of Stanley Kramer, appearing in a number of his films. But her greatest fame came in the 1960's when she started her 21-year stint as the matronly "Mrs. Olsen", who always had comforting words for young married couples while pouring Folger's Coffee in the TV ads. - Actress
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Claire Forlani was born in the United Kingdom and grew up in London. Educated at Arts Educational School, she moved to the United States with her parents Pier Luigi and Barbara Forlani when she was 19 and began starring in films.
Claire has had leading roles in such films as Meet Joe Black (1998), Basquiat (1996), The Rock (1996), Mystery Men (1999), Mallrats (1995), Antitrust (2001), Boys and Girls (2000), The Medallion, Hallam Foe (2007), Flashbacks of a Fool (2008) and Green Street Hooligans (2005).
Claire is now starring in the Sky International show Domina, about ancient Rome .She appeared with Christopher Plummer in the television series Departure . Other television appearances include STARZ original series Camelot (2011) playing Queen Igraine, The Pentagon Papers (2003), Nightmares & Dreamscapes: From the Stories of Stephen King (2006), and she has had recurring roles on NCIS: Los Angeles (2009) and CSI: NY (2004).
Claire has also appeared in campaigns for Dewars, L'Oréal, Banana Republic, Shiesido and Dior.
She is married to actor Dougray Scott in 2007 and welcomed their son Milo Thomas Scott born 12.27.14- Actress
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Valarie Pettiford's career glitters like the lights on Broadway. An award-winning triple-threat, Valarie has worked with some of the biggest names in entertainment, but has never let her brushes with fame go to her head. Although some would argue that she is a celebrity in her own right, Valarie is still a humble girl from Queens.
On screen, at age 14, Pettiford starred in the chorus of the film The Wiz (1978). She has appeared in such films as The Cotton Club (1984), Glitter (2001), Stomp the Yard (2007), Why Did I Get Married Too? (2010), the short film musical Not Your Time (2010), the award-winning short film Response (2009) and Jumping the Broom (2011) from Sony Pictures. Her role in the acclaimed independent film Why Am I Doing This? (2009) earned her a glowing mention in the L.A. Times. Her role as Big Dee Dee Thorne on the hit sitcom Half & Half (2002) earned her three NAACP Image Award nominations. Valarie plays the recurring role of Sandra Lucas on Tyler Perry's House of Payne (2006). Other notable television appearances include guest-starring roles on Criminal Minds (2005), CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (2000), CSI: Miami (2002), The District (2000), The West Wing (1999), Frasier (1993), One Life to Live (1968), Bones (2005), The Cape (1996) and The Finder (2012). She had a recurring guest star on the hit HBO series Treme (2010).
Valarie's theatre credits read like a prestigious shopping list, with numerous accolades for the execution of her craft. Valarie won NAACP Theatre and Garland Awards for Best Actress in "The Wild Party." She was honored with NAACP, Robby and Reader's Choice Awardsfor for her role in "Show Boat." Both performances were nominated for Ovation Awards. Valarie was a member of the original casts of "Sophisticated Ladies", understudying Judith Jamison, and "Fosse", for which she was recognized by the Drama League and nominated for Outer Critics Circle, Dora Mavor Moore and Tony Awards.
Valarie performed alongside Chita Rivera in the West End debut of "Chicago", and subsequently performed "All That Jazz" as a tribute to Rivera at the Kennedy Center Honors. However, her self-proclaimed career highlight was the fulfillment of a life-long dream; she recorded her first album, "Hear My Soul". An accomplished stage performer, Valarie has performed her successful one-woman shows to sold-out audiences coast to coast. She has performed with Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz in New York and Miami in the musical tribute to their father, called "Babalu". Valarie enjoyed stellar reviews in both cities. Proving that her voice ad presence are both Broadway bold, she is a regular guest soloist with the Pasadena Symphony for their annual Pops program.
In the traditional sense of the word, Valarie Pettiford is a diva, a master of her craft who has the ability to command attention. Whether she would agree, or try to harness that power, is anyone's guess.- Barbara Stuart was born on 3 January 1930 in Paris, Illinois, USA. She was an actress, known for Bachelor Party (1984), Airplane! (1980) and One Step Beyond (1959). She was married to Dick Gautier. She died on 15 May 2011 in St. George, Utah, USA.
- Shirley Patterson was born on 26 December 1922 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. She was an actress, known for World Without End (1956), The Land Unknown (1957) and Batman (1943). She was married to Alfred Smith, Jr. She died on 4 April 1995 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA.
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Christen Sharice has quickly burst onto the scene as an undeniable talent in the entertainment industry. Regardless of the role, she possesses a youthful disposition that belies a sophisticated maturity.
Sharice most recently guest starred in Hulu's biographical drama series "Wu-Tang: An American Saga" playing Inspectah Deck's sexy and spunky love interest. She can also be seen in Dick Wolf's CBS police procedural "FBI: Most Wanted," as an NBA wife and stunning supermodel-turned-lifestyle guru. Shortly thereafter, she appeared in Dick Wolf's NBC original flagship legal drama "Law & Order," as a superstar tennis player who takes back the reins of her own life.
On the film front, Sharice stars in indie horror feature "Spookt," which premiered in August 2023 at the FrightFest Glasgow Film Festival in London. Film follows a sceptic (played by Sharice) and a paranormal investigator as they join forces to discover the truth behind a missing girl in a small town where unexplained occurrences begin to happen. Her other film credits include the MGM biopic, "Respect," and a Gravitas Ventures indie "Good," to name a few.- Trish Stewart was born on 14 June 1946 in Hot Springs, Arkansas, USA. She is an actress, known for Salvage 1 (1979), CHiPs (1977) and The Streets of San Francisco (1972).
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Multi-talented actress Lynne Thigpen was born Cherlynne Thigpen in Joliet, Illinois, on December 22, 1948. She performed in community theater and university theater productions while attending the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Following graduation, she taught high-school English for a short time, but her interest in acting eventually prevailed over teaching. Her desire to act professionally was further fueled by a strong set of vocal chops.
Moving to New York, Lynne subsequently won a singing role as part of the ragtag disciple ensemble in the hip, flower-powered musical "Godspell" in 1971. Two years later she transferred her role to film along with several other members of the original stage cast. Godspell (1973) opened a major door for the actress as a performer of boundless energy and vocal power, as exemplified by her rousing version of "O Bless the Lord My Soul."
Lynne continued on the 1970s musical stage with roles in "The Magic Show" and the blue-collar piece "Working," and in 1981 earned a Tony nomination for her powerhouse performance in "Tintypes." She eventually reasoned, however, that if she was to be taken seriously as a dramatic actress, she would need to refocus her energies. She then abandoned her tuneful ways and ventured assertively into films and TV.
During her 30-year career, Lynne went on to appear in nearly 40 movies and numerous television series, usually secondary in nature but alternately fiery and dignified in character. Lynne became a strong, set-jawed figure in social and urban drama as she managed to avoid the easy pitfalls of typecasting. Though most of her early film parts seemed small and insignificant, she continued to grow and gain a more assured footing while appearing in such popular features as Tootsie (1982), Sweet Liberty (1986), Hello Again (1987), and Running on Empty (1988).
Every now and then she was given a chance to shine, as with her volatile school parent in Lean on Me (1989). TV was a more palpable and productive medium for her with a stand-out recurring role as a judge on L.A. Law (1986) and a long-running part on the daytime soap All My Children (1970). She also committed herself to wholesome viewing for children, portraying the unnamed Chief on the PBS children's series Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego? (1991) and Where in Time Is Carmen Sandiego? (1996), earning four Emmy nominations in the process.
Throughout the years, Lynne remained a vital force on the stage. She won a Los Angeles Drama Critics award for her performance in August Wilson's "Fences," two off-Broadway Obies for Athol Fugard's "Boesman and Lena" (1992) and "Jar the Floor" (2000), and a Tony for "Best Supporting Actress" for her portrayal of a half-Black, half-Jewish feminist in "An American Daughter" (1997).
Other strong theater roles came with "A Month of Sundays" (1987) and as a spunky 101-year-old maiden woman in "Having Our Say." Lynne's dusky-voiced command was also utilized to narrate more than 20 socially relevant books on tape. Her last regular TV series role was as police clerk and computer expert Ella Farmer on The District (2000), a role she played until her sudden death.
Lynne was found unconscious at her home in Marina del Rey, California, by a friend. She died on March 12, 2003, age 54, of a cerebral hemorrhage. Her final film Anger Management (2003), which starred Adam Sandler and Jack Nicholson, was released posthumously.- Actress
Karen Steele was born on March 20, 1931, in Honolulu, Hawaii. A former cover girl and model, she was one of the most strikingly beautiful actresses to ever work in film and television. She went to the University of Hawaii and to Rollins College in Florida before gracing our film screens with her first film in 1952. Rumor has it she was mistaken for another actress by producer Delbert Mann when he cast her as a hard case in the drama film Marty (1955). Like many actresses, as she got older, she turned to television commercials for income. She also became involved in charitable causes and community service. Karen Steele died of cancer in Kingman, Arizona, on March 12, 1988, little more than a week before her 57th birthday.- Fay Spain was was your typical B-movie drive-in bad girl - sometimes blonde, sometimes brunette, always bodacious. A tease, a taunt, and a temptress throughout most her career, Fay Spain was born in Phoenix, Arizona, in 1932, as Lona May Spain to R.C. Spain and Arminta Frances Cochran. She headed to New York where she initially found summer stock work and a bit of television exposure. One of her earliest TV appearances was not as an actress but as a contestant on You Bet Your Life (1950), starring Groucho Marx.
By 1956, this fetching starlet was winning episodic roles on the more popular shows of the day, including Perry Mason (1957), Cheyenne (1955) and Gunsmoke (1955). She was also gaining notice on the covers of magazines. This cheesecake attention led directly to her juvenile delinquent debut in Dragstrip Girl (1957) with John Ashley and Steven Terrell, where she immediately established herself as the party girl boys are willing to race cars and fight over. Other equally low-budget films followed, with Teenage Doll (1957), The Crooked Circle (1957), and The Abductors (1957).
She made an aggressive move into higher quality films with Erskine Caldwell's best-seller God's Little Acre (1958) as "Darlin' Jill", another amoral sexpot, and as Rod Steiger's moll in Al Capone (1959), but then it was right back to Grade Z level work with The Beat Generation (1959) co-starring Mamie Van Doren, The Private Lives of Adam and Eve (1960) in which she tempts Martin Milner with the old forbidden fruit routine, and a 1962 Italian spectacle as an evil queen trying to thwart the actions of Hercules. Although Fay made some efforts to return to TV work, her career was pretty much over by the mid-60s. One of her last roles was a bit part as a mafioso matriarch in The Godfather Part II (1974). Fay Spain died of cancer at age 50 in 1983. - Actress
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With the goal of writing and acting, she studied at the University of Michigan and Cornell University, and then moved to New York to study and perform with the greats of the Actors Studio - Lee Strasberg, Clifford Odets, Stella Adler, Elia Kazan. At the same time, she also married Jerry Adelman, worked as a model for illustrators and began searching for a stage name. She settled on Tracy--sometimes credited as Tracey--Roberts in homage to two actors she admired, Spencer Tracy and Robert Montgomery. The blue-eyed, raven-haired Roberts landed a role in Odets' "Paradise Lost" and performed in several well-known plays, including "The Women," "Hedda Gabler," "The Seagull" and the Broadway and Los Angeles premieres of "Orpheus Descending." In Los Angeles, she also performed in such plays as "Winter Kill" with Robert Alda. Motion pictures followed, and she appeared in several from Westerns to comedies during the 1950s, including an uncredited role as the "redhead" in Dean Martin's 1956 Hollywood or Bust (1956) and her personal favorite, the 1952 _Actors and Sin (1952)_ with Eddie Albert. But brains, beauty and talent were never enough to make her a star. She quickly established herself as a respected acting coach and director and producer of plays featuring her students. In 1986, after a quarter-century or so in the profession, she told The Los Angeles Times she had indeed gone into teaching "kicking and screaming" but had since "fallen in love" with the job. Roberts taught camera classes, audition and production workshops, speech, movement, musical comedy and script analysis classes, but all with the same focus, she said. Known for her independence and intelligence, Roberts was perhaps best described by her friend Anais Nin who dedicated one of her books: "For T--Who is all the women I ever wrote about and not according to men's patterns."- Actress
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Florida-born Peggy O'Rourke's parents divorced when she was very young. Peggy's mother eventually married a wealthy attorney named Stewart, and Peggy took his name. She grew up in Atlanta (where she developed the athletic skills she would later demonstrate in her many westerns for Republic Pictures). On a family vacation to Los Angeles to visit her grandmother, Peggy, as a lark, attended classes at a dramatic school, but the acting bug hit her hard and when it was time to return to Atlanta, Peggy talked her mother into letting her staying with her grandmother. As luck would have it, a resident of the apartment building they lived in was character actor Henry O'Neill, who took a liking to Peggy and got her cast in her first film, Wells Fargo (1937). She picked up a few more small roles, and acquitted herself so well the parts started getting bigger and she was working more often. She married actor Don 'Red' Barry in 1940, and was eventually signed by Republic Pictures, Barry's studio, to make westerns and serials. In three years, Peggy did almost 30 films at Republic, most of them westerns. She appeared in two of the studio's more successful serials, but when Republic assigned her to another one, she protested. She didn't particularly like working in serials, preferring the feature westerns, which didn't take as long to film. Eventually, the struggle with Republic got to the point where Peggy asked for her release, and she got it. Although she wanted to start doing films other than westerns, she had made so many at Republic that she found herself basically unable to find work in any other genre. She freelanced for Monogram, Allied Artists, PRC and other small studios until she was picked up by Columbia--which immediately put her into serials. She eventually decided to leave the film business, and did so in 1953. She did do some television work (mostly westerns!) while raising her family, and also performed in the Los Angeles theatrical community. She kept her hand in the film business, making occasional appearances in some lower-budget westerns, made-for-TV movies and inexpensive horror pictures.- Actress
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- Anne Francine was best known for her stage portrayal of the flamboyant Vera Charles in "Mame". She played the role--her favorite--both on Broadway and in touring productions.
Her long and successful career began in the nightclubs. She made her professional debut in New York at the elegant Coq Rouge, where a one-night booking turned into a celebrated three-year engagement. Early in her career she made a successful transition from nightclubs to the legitimate stage, performing in both drama and musical comedy. She was featured on Broadway with Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne in "The Great Sebastions", with Shirley Booth in "By The Beautiful Sea" and with Maurice Evans in "Tenderloin". She spent two seasons as a member of Ellis Rabb's acclaimed APA Repertory Company, alternating with Helen Hayes as "Mrs. Candor" in "School For Scandal", joining Rabb and Rosemary Harris in "You Can't Take It With You" as the "Grand Duchess Olga Katrina", and appearing in Jean Anouilh's "The Flies" under the direction of Vinnette Carroll. In regional theatre she had starred in "Mother Courage", "The Importance Of Being Earnest", "The Skin Of Our Teeth", "Twelfth Night" and "Company". She appeared in films including Federico Fellini's Juliet of the Spirits (1965), Mike Frankovich's Stand Up and Be Counted (1972) and Savages (1972). - Actress
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Armed with an entrancing whiskey-like voice that complemented her stunning, creamy blonde looks, Southern-bred beauty Joanna Moore had so much going for her when her film and TV career first took off in the late 1950s. Sadly, what began as an exciting Hollywood carnival ride would all too soon careen out of control and turn into a dangerous and tragic rollercoaster ride filled with personal and professional ups and downs.
Born Dorothy Joan Cook on November 10, 1934 in Americus, Georgia, Joanna was the elder daughter of Dorothy Martha (née English) and Henry Anderson Cook III. A fatal car accident in 1941 took the lives of both her mother and her baby sister. When her father died from his severe injuries a year later, 7-year-old Joanna lived with her grandmother; when the lady grew too feeble to look after her, Joanna was adopted locally by a well-to-do family who changed her name from Dorothy to Joanna. In 1951, the 16-year-old girl married another teenager, Willis Moore, and divorced him within the year. She later enrolled at Agnes Scott, a women's college in Decatur, Georgia (near Atlanta).
Around this time, Joanna won a local Georgia beauty contest that would take her straight to Hollywood. Spotted at a party by a Universal producer, the actress was tested and quickly signed. A brief, impulsive marriage (1956-1957) to minor actor Don Oreck also occurred during this early career stage. She began as a lovely presence on such TV anthologies as "Lux Video Theatre," "Goodyear Theatre," "Studio One in Hollywood" and "Kraft Theatre," and also found work in top female lead and second lead roles in "B" movies. She started out promisingly as handsome George Nader's love interest in the film noir Appointment with a Shadow (1957), directed by Richard Carlson wherein both play crime reporters--he with an alcohol problem. She followed this with second femme roles in both the western comedy Slim Carter (1957) starring Julie Adams and Jock Mahoney as the title country singer, and the romantic drama Flood Tide (1958), which reunited her with Nader.
After Orson Welles gave her a small cryptic role in his classic film noir Touch of Evil (1958), Joanna went on to a secondary femme role in the Audie Murphy western Ride a Crooked Trail (1958) and co-starred as Arthur Franz's fiancée in the cult sci-fi horror programmer Monster on the Campus (1958) with Franz playing a Jekyll-and-Hyde college professor who turns ape caveman-like thanks to his radioactive exposure. She ended the decade with another second femme role in an "A" picture--The Last Angry Man (1959) starring Oscar-nominated Paul Muni as a Jewish doctor and featuring Joanna in a romantic subplot involving married TV producer David Wayne.
In the early 1960s, Joanna suffered severe auditory nerve loss (otosclerosis) to the point of having to read lips. An operation thankfully restored her hearing (in one ear) in 1962. By this time, Joanna had moved more towards TV and enjoyed guest parts on such dramatic shows as "Bourbon Street Beat," "Maverick," "The Rifleman," "Bat Masterson," "Tales of Wells Fargo," "The Rebel," "Adventures in Paradise" and "The Untouchables," with a few comedy shows such as "Bachelor Father" and "The Real McCoys" thrown in for good measure.
Joanna went on to portray more than a few wily females on screen as she did with her neurotic "Miss Precious" in the drama Walk on the Wild Side (1962), sexy "Alisha Claypoole" in the Elvis Presley vehicle Follow That Dream (1962), and Southern belle "Desiree de La Roche" in the light-hearted Disney comedy Son of Flubber (1962). She played the same kind of crafty gals on such TV shows as "Perry Mason," "Route 66," "Alfred Hitchcock Presents," "Bewitched", and "The Wild Wild West." She is perhaps best remembered, however, for her down-home benevolent role of Peggy, the four-episode girlfriend of Sheriff Andy Taylor (Andy Griffith) in the third season of TV's The Andy Griffith Show (1960).
At the peak of her career, Joanna married her third husband, "Prince Charming" actor Ryan O'Neal, on April 3, 1963. O'Neal would soon make a huge TV impact as handsome but troubled "Rodney Harrington" on the prime time soaper Peyton Place (1964). The exceptionally good-looking couple became a popular Hollywood twosome and went on to have two children who also became actors: Tatum O'Neal and Griffin O'Neal. Joanna's marriage to O'Neal was stormy, to say the least, and they divorced in February 1967.
Joanna went into a gradual, deep decline after her divorce from O'Neal. Depression set in and she developed a severe amphetamine and alcohol addiction. Multiple arrests over time for drunk driving (one much later resulted in the loss of three fingers) led to her losing custody of her children in 1970. That same year she checked into a state hospital for psychiatric treatment. Sadly, both her children, Tatum and Griffin, would battle similar substance abuse problems as adults. There was also talk that Joanna was growing more and more bizarre, living in self-styled communes and isolating herself from any Hollywood contact. She went on to marry and divorce a third and fourth time.
For awhile Joanna managed to stay afloat on both film with such occasional second-string offers as the sci-fi chiller Countdown (1967); the comedy caper Never a Dull Moment (1968); the "bikersploitation" yarn J.C. (1972) and the all-star thriller The Hindenburg (1975). She also co-starred in the TV adaptation of Three Coins in the Fountain (1970) with Yvonne Craig and Cynthia Pepper and was seen fairly regularly on such late 1960's TV programs as "The Virginian," "Judd for the Defense," "The High Chaparral," "The F.B.I.," "The Name of the Game," "The Waltons," "Kung Fu," "Bronk," "Police Story," "Petrocelli", and "The Blue Knight."
After this, however, Joanna's personal life unravel dramatically, which spilled into her professional career. By the late 1970s, Joanna, still abusing drugs and alcohol, had to be supported financially by daughter, Tatum, now an Oscar-winning film star. Little was heard for nearly a decade when it was learned that the actress was living in the Palm Springs area (Indian Wells) involving herself in small theater projects.
A long-time smoker, Joanna was diagnosed with lung cancer in 1996 and died a year later on November 22, 1997, age 63, with Tatum by her side. She was interred at Oak Grove Cemetery in her hometown of Americus, Georgia. In 2015, grandson Kevin Jack McEnroe (son of Tatum and her then-husband/tennis star John McEnroe) published a gripping novel entitled "Our Town," a "fictionalized account" of the damaging effects of substance abuse on a family. It is said to be strongly based on his own grandmother's devastating struggles.- Actress
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Shirley Prestia was born on 18 August 1947 in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA. She was an actress and writer, known for Species (1995), Wag the Dog (1997) and What Women Want (2000). She died on 6 October 2011 in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA.- Actress
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Singer-actress Carol Lawrence earned widespread stardom quite early in her singing career with the immortal role of Maria in the Broadway musical "West Side Story." However, that success would not parlay into film stardom for Carol as established star Natalie Wood, in spite of the fact that she would need to be vocally dubbed by Marni Nixon, had the requisite clout to play Maria in the classic 1961 film version. Carol, however, endured as a celebrity and marched on from Broadway stage to Broadway stage to the tune of "Subways Are for Sleeping," "Saratoga," "I Do! I Do!" and "Kiss of the Spiderwoman." The dark, vivid beauty also stayed alive in clubs, cabarets, concerts and summer stock stages opposite then-husband, singer Robert Goulet, as a highly popular couple in the 60s. Born Carolina Maria Laraia in 1932, the Chicago-born hopeful started out as a singer/dancer in the chorus lines and made her Broadway debut with the "New Faces of 1952." Though Carol never matched the success brought on by her "West Side Story" role, she managed quite well with numerous TV guest spots and commercials that has welcomed her warm, inviting presence and graceful style. At age 70+, she continues to freshen up her durable talents, most recently on stage in "Amy's View" and the title role of "Mame." Carol has kept busy over the years as a talk show host and author, publishing her autobiography in 1990 and recently putting out a cook book.- Actress
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Ginger Rogers was born Virginia Katherine McMath in Independence, Missouri on July 16, 1911, the daughter of Lela E. Rogers (née Lela Emogene Owens) and William Eddins McMath. Her mother went to Independence to have Ginger away from her husband. She had a baby earlier in their marriage and he allowed the doctor to use forceps and the baby died. She was kidnapped by her father several times until her mother took him to court. Ginger's mother left her child in the care of her parents while she went in search of a job as a scriptwriter in Hollywood and later to New York City. Mrs. McMath found herself with an income good enough to where she could send for Ginger. Lelee became a Marine in 1918 and was in the publicity department and Ginger went back to her grandparents in Missouri. During this time her mother met John Rogers. After leaving the Marines they married in May, 1920 in Liberty, Missouri. He was transferred to Dallas and Ginger (who treated him as a father) went too. Ginger won a Charleston contest in 1925 (age 14) and a 4-week contract on the Interstate circuit. She also appeared in vaudeville acts which she did until she was 17 with her mother by her side to guide her. Now she had discovered true acting.
She married in March 1929, and after several months realized she had made a mistake. She acquired an agent and she did several short films. She went to New York where she appeared in the Broadway production of "Top Speed" which debuted Christmas Day, 1929. Her first film was in 1929 in A Night in a Dormitory (1930). It was a bit part, but it was a start. Later that year, Ginger appeared, briefly, in two more films, A Day of a Man of Affairs (1929) and Campus Sweethearts (1930). For awhile she did both movies and theatre. The following year she began to get better parts in films such as Office Blues (1930) and The Tip-Off (1931). But the movie that enamored her to the public was Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933). She did not have top billing, but her beauty and voice were enough to have the public want more. One song she popularized in the film was the now famous, "We're in the Money". Also in 1933, she was in 42nd Street (1933). She suggested using a monocle, and this also set her apart. In 1934, she starred with Dick Powell in Twenty Million Sweethearts (1934). It was a well-received film about the popularity of radio.
Ginger's real stardom occurred when she was teamed with Fred Astaire where they were one of the best cinematic couples ever to hit the silver screen. This is where she achieved real stardom. They were first paired in 1933's Flying Down to Rio (1933) and later in 1935's Roberta (1935) and Top Hat (1935). Ginger also appeared in some very good comedies such as Bachelor Mother (1939) and Fifth Avenue Girl (1939), both in 1939. Also that year, she appeared with Astaire in The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle (1939). The film made money but was not anywhere successful as they had hoped. After that, studio executives at RKO wanted Ginger to strike out on her own.
She made several dramatic pictures, but it was 1940's Kitty Foyle (1940) that allowed her to shine. Playing a young lady from the wrong side of the tracks, she played the lead role well, so well in fact, that she won an Academy Award for her portrayal. Ginger followed that project with the delightful comedy, Tom, Dick and Harry (1941) the following year. It's a story where she has to choose which of three men she wants to marry. Through the rest of the 1940s and early 1950s she continued to make movies but not near the caliber before World War II. After Oh, Men! Oh, Women! (1957) in 1957, Ginger didn't appear on the silver screen for seven years. By 1965, she had appeared for the last time in Harlow (1965). Afterward, she appeared on Broadway and other stage plays traveling in Europe, the U.S., and Canada. After 1984, she retired and wrote an autobiography in 1991 entitled, "Ginger, My Story".
On April 25, 1995, Ginger died of natural causes in Rancho Mirage, California. She was 83.- Actress
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2023 marks AppleTV's long awaited Season Two of the Tiffany Haddish, Sam Richardson, Zoe Chao led mystery comedy series by Oscar winning team Chris Miller and Phil Lord, The Afterparty, with Jade creating the major recurring role of Aunt Ruth.
Also a screenwriter, Jade placed in the 2023 Screencraft TV Pilot Quarterfinals for her series, "The Copper Bucket" and in the 2023 BlueCat TV Pilot Quarterfinals for two series, "Cogito Ergo" and "Ersatz."
In 2022, she became part of the DC Comics universe in a major recurring role of Susie Lin alongside Rosario Dawson leading the Ava DuVernay/Roberto Patino HBO Max series "DMZ."
In the 2021 Toronto Intl Fest preem of the Samuel Goldwyn release, Snakehead, Jade created the Variety critically acclaimed lead role of Dai Mah.
She has played recurring Judicial Judge roles on all three major networks. In 2021, Jade entered the return of the NBC mothership Law & Order series as Judge Carol Ward. For two seasons, she recurred as Judge Julie Tanaka in Hank Steinberg's ABC "For Life" led by Nicholas Pinnock. On CBS' long running hit Bull led by Michael Weatherly, Jade recurred for three seasons as Judge Cara Bergen.
In 2020-21, Jade guest starred as Cousin Rosalind opposite Grandma in Comedy Central's hit "Awkwafina is Nora from Queens" and played Oleen opposite the hilarious Bobby Lee in "Magnum, P.I."
Part of the Marvel universe in the Disney/Netflix hit "Luke Cage", Jade created the recurring role of Genghis Connie Lin for two seasons.
Jade was first known for her breakout lead role as Ahma Chin in the Spirit Award nom, Sundance pedigree, Humanitas Award-winning film The Motel by Mike Kang, produced by Matthew Greenfield, Miguel Arteta, Gina Kwon and Richard and Esther Shapiro.
Additional television guest star roles include Linda Chu in Jenji Kohan's "Teenage Bounty Hunters," Warden Glynnis Robinson in Showtime's "Billions," recurring as the Chinese Delegate in NBC's "Blacklist," and recurring as Sul Rae Roh in the Tom Fontana/Barry Levinson's "Homicide: Life on the Streets" on NBC.
On stage, in one of only four coveted female roles in the Tony Kushner's adaptation of "Mother Courage and her Children" directed by George C. Wolfe, starring Meryl Streep and Kevin Kline, Jade played a newly created role, The Farmer's Wife.
In 2019, in the six week run of Play On Shakespeare in collaboration with Classic Stage and Oregon Shakespeare of 34 new modern translations by famous contemporary playwrights, Jade played some of The Bard's favorite characters, both male and female, Warwick in Henry VI/Part III, King Henry in Henry IV/Part I, and Paulina in Winters Tale.
In 2002-4, Jade was critically acclaimed in the New York Times and Variety for her lead roles in Off-Broadway's "Barriers" playing Naima and in the first revival of the 1920's scandalous Broadway hit "The Shanghai Gesture" playing the infamous Mother God Damn originated by Florence Reed.
In 1980, she received a Best Actress nomination for Medea in "Medea, A Journey, A Dream" at the Edinburgh Festival in Scotland.
Other stage include Trojan Women direct by JoAnne Akalaitis at Shakespeare Theatre of DC, Off-Broadway's Primary English Class directed by Gerald Gutierrez, Red directed by Blanka Zizka and The Great American Quiz Show Scandal directed by Alan Schneider.
Jade has workshop and developed works by award winning playwrights Lucy Thurber, Susan Soon He Stanton, Leah Nanako Winkler, Jen Silverman, Max Yu, Teresa Huang, Don Nguyen, and Alexa Junge.
Jade is a screenwriter, director and producer under her banner production company Cogito Ergo Productions, Inc. She is also a documentary filmmaker screening her films as official selections of the IFP, Asian American International Film Festival, Anthology Film Archives, Angelika and a finalist in the Sundance Producers Conference.
Her novel "The Jesus of Burma" was a PEN America Rosenthal Emerging Writers Finalist.
She is a grant recipient from the Jerome Foundation, Film/Video Arts and Ms Foundation for Documentary Filmmaking and Writing and has served on Jury Panels for the International Emmy Awards, National Endowment for the Arts and the New York State Council on the Arts.
She has been a Guest Lecturer and Associate Professor at Cal State East Bay, Bard College, and The Raul Julia Performing Arts Institute.- A Canadian character actress with a penchant for comedy, Jill is best remembered as Darrin Stephens' Girl Friday Betty in Bewitched (1964) -- oft-married, it seems, since her character's surname was changed three times in the course of her ten appearances. The job must have been pretty taxing: seven other secretaries (all played by different actresses) were also variously employed at McMann & Tate in the same capacity!
She was born in Toronto, Canada, as Florence Jill Hancock. By 1952, Florence was balancing a job at a stockbroker's office with theatrical work, including a starring turn in the lead role of Born Yesterday (the part played by Judy Holliday on screen). In July 1953, she married the writer Bernard Slade. A rehearsal for a skit with the comedy duo Peppiatt & Aylesworth and a resulting audition led to a contract with the newly established Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) and the opportunity for Jill Foster (her newly adopted nom-de-plume) to make regular TV appearances in early variety and anthology programs (including Encounter (1952) in which she played eight different parts). The couple moved to California in 1964 where Slade's work as a script consultant and writer for ABC (he also created the character of the bumbling witch Aunt Clara) paved the way for Jill's casting in the sitcoms Love on a Rooftop (1966) and Bewitched. Little was seen of Jill on screen thereafter, though she continued to make sporadic appearances on the Canadian stage. In 1977, she starred in her husband's marital comedy play Same Time, Next Year at the Citadel Theatre in Edmonton. It was made into a motion picture the following year with Ellen Burstyn and Alan Alda in the lead roles. - Adrienne was born to Patrick Bengtsson and Erin Bydalek in Northern California and was raised in the Bay Area with her two siblings Jackson and Nathan Bengtsson. She's known for her role as Erin Bell, younger sister to Maggie Bell in CBS's hit show FBI. Adrienne earned her BFA in New York City as part of the first graduating class of the Film, Television, Commercial, and Voiceover major. She is currently represented by Davis Spylios Management.
- One of four children, lovely Detroit-born actress Doris Dowling (born May 15, 1923) would follow older sister Constance Dowling (who died relatively young in 1969) into show business. Raised in New York City, she briefly spent some time with a San Francisco Folies Bergère company before returning to New York and studying at Hunter College.
Following several years as a singing/dancing Broadway chorine in such musicals as Panama Hattie (debut at age 17), Banjo Eyes, Beat the Band and New Faces of 1943, Doris decided to pattern sister Constance's career formula by relocating to Hollywood and pursue films. After a couple of bit parts, she scored with the second femme role of a barfly, prostitute and enabler to fellow alcoholic Ray Milland in the sobering classic film The Lost Weekend (1945). That movie, which won "Best Picture" and "Best Actor" for Milland, was the first to deal with the harrowing effects of alcoholism. This success led to an equally choice victimy part in the Raymond Chandler film noir The Blue Dahlia (1946) starring Alan Ladd and Veronica Lake as Ladd's ill-fated wife. From there she was relegated to "B"-level post-war films. She co-starred with Kent Taylor in the crime mystery The Crimson Key (1947), but then found herself uncredited a year later in the Bing Crosby musical romancer The Emperor Waltz (1948).
Seeing the writing on the wall, Doris (like sister Constance) decided to move and continue her movie career abroad. With her dark, earthy, exotic-eyed beauty, she complemented several dramas, including a starring role in the Italian classic Bitter Rice (1949) that also starred Vittorio Gassman and made an international sex star out of Silvana Mangano. Filmed entirely in Cuba, she then starred in the minor musical drama Sarumba (1950) playing a singer and love interest to handsome sailor Michael Whalen, followed by a second femme role in the Italian drama Alina (1950) starring rising goddess Gina Lollobrigida. Doris' last starring film was in the romantic adventure Cuori sul mare (1950) (Hearts at Sea) with handsome Jacques Sernas. Before departing Italy, she also played Bianca in Orson Welles' troubled European production of Othello (1951), which was filmed in Italy and Morocco.
Returning to the US by 1952, theater and TV would comprised much of Doris' later work. She appeared on several anthology programs, including "Armstrong Circle Theatre," "Goodyear Playhouse" and "Schlitz Playhouse," and guested on the popular dramatic shows of the day such as "Medic," "Cheyenne," "Richard Diamond, Private Detective," Mike Hammer," "Have Gun--Will Travel," "Checkmate," Shirley Temple's Storybook," "Alfred Hitchcock Presents," "Perry Mason," "The Andy Griffith Show" and "Bonanza," "Barnaby Jones," "The Dukes of Hazzard," and the mini-series "Scruples." She also enjoyed a regular role on the Julie Newmar-hyped female robot sitcom My Living Doll (1964).
In 1973, Doris returned to the stage and shared an Outer Critics Circle award for her performance in the all-star stage production of "The Women" on Broadway. Her final film roles were in The Car (1977) and Separate Ways (1981)
Married three times, she was wife #7 to band leader Artie Shaw, her first husband, with whom she had a son, Jonathan Shaw. Doris died June 18, 2004 at age 81, and was interred at Holy Cross Cemetery in Los Angeles. - Actress
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Tiffany Hines was born on 2 September 1983 in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA. She is an actress, known for Magnum P.I. (2018), 24: Legacy (2016) and Bones (2005).- Actress
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Bever-Leigh Banfield was born on 3 October 1953 in New York City, New York, USA. She is an actress and director, known for Open All Night (1981), Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland (1989) and Roots: The Next Generations (1979).- Actress
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Mel Giedroyc was born on 5 June 1968 in Epsom, London, England, UK. She is an actress and writer, known for Spies of Warsaw (2013), The Great British Baking Show (2010) and Mist: Sheepdog Tales (2007). She is married to Ben Morris. They have two children.- Actress
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Emma was born Emma Gwynedd Mary Chambers born in Doncaster, South Yorkshire in 1964 to John, a consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist, and Noelle (nee Strange). The family moved around and, while attending St Swithun's school, Winchester, Chambers acted in Winchester college productions - saying she "enjoyed showing off" - and played lacrosse for Hampshire. Her parents eventually split up and she trained at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art, where the former EastEnders actor Ross Kemp was one of her contemporaries.
Her best remembered film role, in Curtis's 1999 romcom Notting Hill, was the eccentric Honey Thacker, star-struck and overawed at meeting the Hollywood actor (played by Julia Roberts) who has fallen for her bookshop-owner brother (Hugh Grant). Honey explains her own difficulties in finding a partner: "I don't have hair - I've got feathers - and I've got funny, goggly eyes, and I'm attracted to cruel men and no one will ever marry me because my boosies have actually started shrinking." She eventually becomes engaged to her brother's slovenly housemate (Rhys Ifans).
Her sister, Sarah Doukas, and brother, Simon, went on to run Storm Model Management, which discovered Kate Moss at the age of 14.
Chambers made her television debut as Margaret, one of the young Brangwen children, in a 1988 BBC adaptation of the DH Lawrence novel The Rainbow. In between one-off roles on TV, she played Charity Pecksniff in a six-part serialisation of Charles Dickens's Martin Chuzzlewit, which began in the same week as The Vicar of Dibley (1994).
The popular BBC sitcom, written by Richard Curtis with Paul Mayhew-Archer, ran for two series, from 1994 to 1998, finishing with Alice's marriage to Hugo Horton (played by James Fleet), her second cousin once removed. Geraldine described both as having the intellectual capacity of a cactus and the wedding was notable for the two bridal attendants dressed as Teletubbies. Chambers won the 1998 British Comedy Award for best actress and returned as Alice in various Vicar of Dibley specials between 1999 and 2007.
She had significant supporting roles in the sitcom How Do You Want Me? (1998-99) as Helen Yardley, sister of the newlywed Lisa (Charlotte Coleman) returning from London to be near her family in the countryside, and Take a Girl Like You (2000), Andrew Davies's adaptation of Kingsley Amis's comic novel, as Martha Thompson, the bored housewife hostile to her beautiful, northern lodger.
Chambers' West End theatre debut came with the part of Geain, estranged daughter of Ian McKellen's composer Jerome, in Alan Ayckbourn's comedy Henceforward... (Vaudeville theatre, 1988-89) after appearing in the original 1987 production at the Stephen Joseph theatre, Scarborough. In his casting notes for Geain, Ayckbourn stipulated: "Not a child, please. Just a very small actress." Chambers lodged with McKellen for a while and said she regarded him as a father figure.
When, in 1989, she starred in the Scarborough premiere of Ayckbourn's Invisible Friends as another teenage daughter, Lucy Baines, who has an imaginary companion to relieve the awfulness of living with her family, the critic Harry Eyres praised Chambers' skill in "conveying Lucy's kaleidoscopic emotional states with startling immediacy" and negotiating the tricky device of also acting as the play's narrator. She reprised the role in London at the Cottesloe during two stints with the National Theatre company (1991-92) that included appearances in productions such as Franz Kafka's The Trial and Alan Bennett's The Madness of George III.
She gave a hilarious performance as Orgon's daughter Mariane in Tartuffe (Almeida theatre, 1996) and starred as Sheila in Michael Frayn's Benefactors (Albery theatre, 2002), a performance described by one critic as "a touching study in parasitic helplessness".
Chambers who suffered from asthma, attacks of which were often brought on by an acute allergy to animals, withdrew largely but not entirely from public life after the final episode of The Vicar of Dibley (1994) in 2007, which was also to remain her final television role. On the evening of 21st February 2018 Chambers suffered a heart attack and died at her home in Lymington, Hampshire, England at the age of just 53. Her death was announced three days later by her agent John Grant.
Chambers was survived by her husband, the actor Ian Dunn, whom she married in 1991, and by her siblings.- Actress
- Writer
- Director
Ginger is an improviser, actor, writer, and director.
In television, Ginger is best known for her role as "Christy" on the Duplass Brothers' critical darling Togetherness (2015) on HBO, "Maggie" on Showtime's Dramedy I'm Dying Up Here (2017), Peggy of FX's Legit (2013), and "Lorena" on Hulu's drama Chance (2016) opposite Hugh Laurie and Ethan Suplee. Ginger was also the lead of ABC's Mixology (2013), and a regular on TBS's Wrecked (2016), as well as the host of Hulu's comedic daily pop culture recap show The Morning After (2011), for which she also wrote. Other television credits include her recurring roles on Mindy Kalling's NBC comedy Champions (2018), Tad Quill's Jane Lynch comedy Angel from Hell (2016) for CBS, NBC's Trial & Error (2017), Comedy Central's Key and Peele (2012), and Freeform's Alone Together (2018). She was seen opposite Jim Carrey in the Michel Gondry directed Showtime series Kidding (2018).
Ginger's film debut was in Seth MacFarlane's popular 2012 comedy Ted (2012). She can also be seen Demetri Martin's comedy drama and Tribeca Film Festival Winner Dean (2016) (opposite Demetri Martin and Gillian Jacobs), as well as the Henry Phillips' Punching the Clown (2009) (opposite J.K Simmons and Jim Jefferies). She made her directorial debut with the short film Your Day (2017) starring herself and Jason Ritter, which she also wrote.
Ginger also sings and received B.A in Political Science/International Relations and a minor in Chinese from UC Santa Barbara before training at The Groundlings and Second City Theaters.- Joan Banks was born on 30 October 1918 in New York City, New York, USA. She was an actress, known for Cry Danger (1951), Hazel (1961) and Mister Cory (1957). She was married to Allan Raymond Johnson and Frank Lovejoy. She died on 18 January 1998 in Los Angeles, California, USA.