TCM Remembers: added in revised versions
2003: Hope Lange
2008: Van Johnson
2010: Blake Edwards
2013: Jean Kent, Audrey Totter, Tom Laughlin, Joan Fontaine and Peter O'Toole
2016: Zsa Zsa Gabor and Carrie Fisher
2018: Mary Carlisle and Penny Marshall
2019: Nancy Gates and Anna Karina
2020: Jeremy Bulloch, Peter Lamont and Barbara Windsor
2008: Van Johnson
2010: Blake Edwards
2013: Jean Kent, Audrey Totter, Tom Laughlin, Joan Fontaine and Peter O'Toole
2016: Zsa Zsa Gabor and Carrie Fisher
2018: Mary Carlisle and Penny Marshall
2019: Nancy Gates and Anna Karina
2020: Jeremy Bulloch, Peter Lamont and Barbara Windsor
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One of the most natural beauties of the 1960s with a gentle voice and personality to match, blonde Hope Lange was born in Redding Ridge, Connecticut, and performed on stage from the age of nine. She studied both drama and dance under Martha Graham, did some modeling and then worked in stock companies and on television, dancing on Jackie Gleason shows. She acted in just a handful of motion pictures, garnering an Academy Award nomination for one, and later won two Emmys for her best-loved role on television.
Hope was one of four children of an actress mother, upon whose shoulders fell the responsibility of supporting the family after the premature death of her father, the composer/arranger John Lange, at age 61 in 1942. Along with her siblings, she worked as a waitress in the family's Greenwich Village restaurant, 'Minette's of Washington Square'. By chance, she made the acquaintance of Eleanor Roosevelt, who owned an apartment in the village, and ended up walking the former First Lady's prized Scotch terrier, Fala. This got her photo into a newspaper, which, in turn, led to an advertising job with pictures on the June 1949 cover of 'Radio-Electronics', sporting the futuristic red 'Man from Mars' pith helmet with built-in radio. Still just fifteen years old, Hope spent the next two years at college in Oregon and New York, then found her first job in television and was subsequently signed by 20th Century-Fox.
After successful screen tests, Lange made her motion picture debut in Bus Stop (1956) (Barbara Eden was one of her competitors for the part) opposite Marilyn Monroe and husband-to-be Don Murray. Even the great Marilyn was said to have felt a little threatened by another blonde who was not only beautiful but five years younger and could act as well. After playing the wife of the titular character in The True Story of Jesse James (1957), a picture which she later referred to as a 'turkey', Lange was cast as the fragile Selena Cross in the melodramatic but good-looking soap opera Peyton Place (1957). This movie was regarded as risqué and controversial at the time, dealing with previously taboo subjects such as rape and incest. For her part of the abused girl, raped by her alcoholic stepfather, whom she finally kills in self-defense, Lange received an Academy Award nomination.
The glossy production values of The Best of Everything (1959), a film about ambitious New York career women working in a magazine publishing house, overshadowed most of the character development. However, Lange (who was billed above the established star Joan Crawford) was dealt with most favorably by the critics. According to Bosley Crowther of The New York Times: "Simply because she has the most to do, and does it gracefully, Miss Lange comes off best' (October 9,1959). The following decade was to be a period of mixed fortunes for Hope Lange.
In 1961, Lange began a long-standing relationship with fellow actor Glenn Ford and left husband Don Murray. Ford, in his dual role of star and associate producer, put pressure on director Frank Capra to cast Lange as the female lead in his next motion picture, the whimsical Damon Runyon-inspired comedy Pocketful of Miracles (1961), even though Shirley Jones had already been assigned to the role. Capra reluctantly gave way, though Hope Lange was likely miscast as the wisecracking showgirl. Lange again co-starred with Ford in the glossy romantic melodrama Love Is a Ball (1963), wherein acting took a back seat to sumptuous costumes and the French Riviera. On the negative side of the ledger, Lange had unsuccessfully auditioned for the part of Maria in West Side Story (1961), which ultimately went to Natalie Wood. Instead, she was cast as Elvis Presley's psychiatrist in Wild in the Country (1961), which was generally panned by critics, except for Variety singling out her performance above the rest as 'intelligent' and 'sensitive'. Lange was also slated to appear as love interest to George Peppard in How the West Was Won (1962), but her scenes ended up on the cutting room floor.
Turning increasingly towards television, Hope Lange achieved her most lasting fame as the popular star of the amiable sitcom The Ghost & Mrs. Muir (1968) as a widow who (with two kids and a housekeeper) takes up residence in a quaint cottage also inhabited by the cantankerous ghost of a sea captain (Edward Mulhare). The show ran for three seasons and Lange won two Emmy Awards for Outstanding Continued Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Comedy Series (1969 and 1970). In her only other recurring TV role, she played Dick Van Dyke's wife in The New Dick Van Dyke Show (1971), but with less rewarding results. She received good notices for portraying Charles Bronson's dying wife, the victim of the original Death Wish (1974) and its raison d'etre. She then acted primarily on television, with few exceptions, including Blue Velvet (1986) and Clear and Present Danger (1994) as a U.S. senator. In 1977, she replaced Tony Award-winning Ellen Burstyn in the starring role of Doris in 'Same Time, Next Year' on Broadway.
In the early '90s, Lange underwent surgery for a brain tumour. While the operation was successful, her health remained precarious and she limited her screen appearances, retiring altogether in 1998. She died of an intestinal infection in December 2003, aged 70.Actress - 2003- Actor
- Soundtrack
Van Johnson was the fresh-faced, well-mannered nice guy on screen you always wanted your daughter to marry! This fair, freckled and invariably friendly-looking MGM song-and-dance star of the 40s emerged a box office favorite (1944-1946) and second only to heartthrob Frank Sinatra during what gossip monger Hedda Hopper dubbed the "Bobby-soxer Blitz" era. Johnson's musical timing proved just as adroit as his legit career timing for he was able to court WWII stardom as a regimented MGM symbol of the war effort with an impressive parade of earnest soldiers. He may have been a second tier musical star behind the likes of Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly, but his easy smile, wholesome, boy-next-door appeal and strawberry-blond good looks made him a solid box-office attraction while MGM's "big boys" were off to war.
Born Charles Van Dell Johnson in Newport, Rhode Island, on August 25, 1916, Van was the only child of Loretta (Snyder) and Charles E. Johnson. His paternal grandparents were Swedish, and his mother was of German, and a small amount of Irish, ancestry. Johnson endured a lonely and unhappy childhood as the sole offspring of an extremely aloof father (who was both a plumber and real estate agent by trade) and an absentee mother (she abandoned the family when he was three, the victim of alcoholism). A paternal grandmother helped in raising the young lad. Happier times were spent drifting into the fantasy world of movies, and he developed an ardent passion to entertain. Taking singing, dancing and violin lessons during his high school years, he disregarded his father's wish to become a lawyer and instead left home following graduation to try his luck in New York.
Early experiences included chorus lines in revues, at hotels and in various small shows around town. A couple of minor breaks occurred with his 40-week stint in the "New Faces of 1936" revue (making his Broadway debut) and in a vaudeville club act (based around star Mary Martin) called "Eight Young Men of Manhattan" that played the Rainbow Room. He served as understudy to the three male leads of Rodgers and Hart's popular musical "Too Many Girls" in October of 1939 and eventually replaced one of them (actor Richard Kollmar left the show to marry reporter Dorothy Kilgallen.) He also formed a lifelong and career-igniting friendship with one of the other leads, Desi Arnaz.
Johnson made an inauspicious film debut with Arnaz in Too Many Girls (1940) when the musical was eventually lensed in Hollywood, but he was cast in a scant chorus boy part. Following a stint on Broadway in "Pal Joey" in 1940, Warner Bros. signed Van to a six-month contract. He went on to co-star with Faye Emerson in Murder in the Big House (1942), but they dropped him quickly feeling that his acting chops were lacking. It was Arnaz's wife Lucille Ball, who had recently signed with MGM, who introduced Van to Billy Grady, MGM's casting head, and instigated a successful screen test.
With the studio's top male talent off to war, Van (along with Peter Lawford) served as an earnest substitute donning fatigues in such stalwart movies as Somewhere I'll Find You (1942) The War Against Mrs. Hadley (1942) and The Human Comedy (1943). In addition, he replaced actor/war pacifist Lew Ayres in the "Dr. Kildare/Dr. Gillespie" film series after Ayres was unceremoniously dumped by the studio for his unpopular beliefs.
Stardom came, and at quite a price, for Van when he was cast yet again as a wholesome serviceman in A Guy Named Joe (1943). During the early part of filming, he was severely injured in a near-fatal car crash (he had a metal plate inserted in his skull, which instantly gave him a 4-F disqualification status for war service). Endangered of being replaced on the film, the two stars of the picture, Spencer Tracy (who became another lifelong friend) and Irene Dunne, insisted that the studio work around his convalescence or they would quit the film. The unusually kind gesture made Van a star following the film's popular release and resulting publicity. Van's career soared during the war years, making him and Lawford the resident heartthrobs not only in musicals (Two Girls and a Sailor (1944), Easy to Wed (1946)), but in airy comedies (Week-End at the Waldorf (1945)) and, of course, more war stories (Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944)).
When the big stars such as Clark Gable, James Stewart and Robert Taylor returned to reclaim post-war stardom, Van willingly relinquished his "golden boy" pedestal, but he remained a high profile musical star opposite the likes of June Allyson, Esther Williams and Judy Garland. He continued to demonstrate his dramatic mettle in such well-regarded films as Command Decision (1948), State of the Union (1948), Battleground (1949), Brigadoon (1954) and The Caine Mutiny (1954) and remained a popular star for three more decades. When MGM's "golden age" phased out by the mid-1950s, Van's movie career took a sharp decline and the studio released him after he co-starred with Elizabeth Taylor in The Last Time I Saw Paris (1954).
While Van continued working as a freelancer in such as the English-made The End of the Affair (1955) with Deborah Kerr; Miracle in the Rain (1956) opposite Jane Wyman, The Bottom of the Bottle (1956) with Joseph Cotten, 23 Paces to Baker Street (1956) co-starring Vera Miles, Kelly and Me (1956) partnered with a dog, and Web of Evidence (1959), he again capitalized on his musical talents by reinventing himself as a nightclub performer and musical stage star on the regional and dinner theater circuits, including "The Music Man," "Damn Yankees," "Guys and Dolls," "Bells Are Ringing," "On a Clear Day...," "Forty Carats," "Bye Bye Birdie," "There's a Girl in My Soup" and "I Do! I Do!"
Van delved heavily into TV from the late 1960's on and served as a guest on such shows as "Laugh-In," "The Name of the Game," "The Red Skelton Show," "Nanny and the Professor," "The Virginian," "The Doris Day Show," "Love, American Style," "Maude," "Quincy," "McMillan & Wife," "The Love Boat," "Fantasy Island" and "Murder, She Wrote." He earned an Emmy nomination for his participation in the mini-series Rich Man, Poor Man (1976), and co-starred or was featured in such TV movies as Call Her Mom (1972), Superdome (1978), Black Beauty (1978), Getting Married (1978) and Three Days to a Kill (1992).
In later years, he grew larger in girth but still continued to work. He earned respectable reviews after replacing Gene Barry as Georges in the smash gay musical "La Cage Aux Folles" in 1985. His last musical role was as Cap' Andy in "Show Boat" in 1991, and his last several movies were primarily filmed overseas in Italy and Australia. Occasional featured roles on film in later years included Concorde Affaire '79 (1979), The Kidnapping of the President (1980), The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985), Killer Crocodile (1989), Delta Force Commando II: Priority Red One (1990) and Clowning Around (1992).
Van was married only once but it was the constant source of tabloid news. Typically in the closet as a high-ranking actor of the 1940s, he was extremely close friends with fellow MGM actor Keenan Wynn and his wife. Shockingly, Van wound up marrying Wynn's ex-wife, one-time stage actress Evie Wynn Johnson, immediately after the Wynn's divorced in 1947. Van and Eve went on to have one child, daughter Schuyler, in 1948, and were a popular Hollywood couple before separating after fifteen years of marriage. The marriage ended acrimoniously in 1968 and decades later Eve published a statement (after her death in 2004) confirming suspicions that MGM had engineered their marriage to cover up Johnson's homosexuality. In declining health, Van, who was estranged from his only child, died at age 92 on December 12, 2008, at a senior living facility in Nyack, New York.Actor - 2008- Writer
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Blake Edwards' stepfather's father J. Gordon Edwards was a silent screen director, and his stepfather Jack McEdward was a stage director and movie production manager. Blake acted in a number films, beginning with Ten Gentlemen from West Point (1942) and wrote a number of others, beginning with Panhandle (1948) and including six for director Richard Quine. He created the popular TV series Peter Gunn (1958), Mr. Lucky (1959) and Dante (1960). He directed a diverse body of films, from comedies to dramas to war films to westerns, including such pictures as Operation Petticoat (1959), Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961), Experiment in Terror (1962), Days of Wine and Roses (1962), The Pink Panther (1963) and A Shot in the Dark (1964). After The Great Race (1965) he began fighting with studios. In England he surfaced again with The Return of the Pink Panther (1975), then went back to Hollywood and a real hit, 10 (1979). Victor/Victoria (1982) won him French and Italian awards for Best Foreign Film.Writer / Director - 2010- Actress
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Vivacious, hazel-eyed, strawberry-haired Jean Kent was a popular star of British films in the 1940's and early 50's. The daughter of variety performers Norman Field and Nina Norre, she was convent-educated. By the age of ten, she accompanied her mother on tour, then spent several years in the chorus line at London's Windmill Theatre in the West End. Having honed her acting skills on the provincial repertory stage, Jean signed with Gainsborough Pictures in 1943. Her first noteworthy performance was in Man of Evil (1944) for which she received fifth billing. Through sheer determination and hard work, she quickly moved up the ladder to integral roles as willful 'scarlet women' in juicy melodramas. These were often parts other leading actresses refused to play, point in case her gypsy wildcat Rosal in Caravan (1946), considered even by Margaret Lockwood as 'too awful'. Using her training to best advantage, Jean performed some striking dance numbers in the film.
She was the femme fatale wartime audiences loved to hate, an early British sex symbol, most effectively paired with the likes of Stewart Granger or James Mason. In one of her best-remembered performances, Jean took sole limelight as the titular star of the cautionary drama Good-Time Girl (1948), as a juvenile delinquent who falls in with spivs and gangsters and ends up in prison. However, within just a few years, Jean's box-office appeal had waned, possibly attributable to having portrayed a woman ten years older than herself in The Browning Version (1951) (though the film itself was a box-office and critical success). Her remaining screen career was thereafter confined to appearances on the small screen, from the much-derided soap opera Crossroads (1964), to playing Queen Elizabeth I in the excellent Sir Francis Drake (1961) or as Daphne Goodlace, potential seductress of both Albert and Harold, in Steptoe and Son (1962).Actress - 2013- Actress
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One is certainly hard-pressed to think of another true "bad girl" representative so closely identifiable with film noir than hard-looking blonde actress Audrey Totter. While she remained a "B"-tier actress for most her career, she was an "A" quality actress and one of filmdom's most intriguing ladies. She always managed to set herself apart even in the most standard of programming.
Born to an Austrian father and Swedish mother on December 20, 1917, in Joliet, Illinois, she treaded lightly on stage ("The Copperhead," "My Sister Eileen") and initially earned notice on the Chicago and New York radio airwaves in the late 1930s before "going Hollywood." MGM developed an interest in her and put her on its payroll in 1944. Still appearing on radio (including the sitcom "Meet Millie"), she made her film bow as, of course, a "bad girl" in Main Street After Dark (1945). That same year the studio usurped her vocal talents to torment poor Phyllis Thaxter in Bewitched (1945). Her voice was prominent again as an unseen phone operator in Ziegfeld Follies (1945). Audrey played one of her rare pure-heart roles in The Cockeyed Miracle (1946). At this point she began to establish herself in the exciting "film noir" market.
Among the certified classics she participated in were The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946) in which she had a small role as John Garfield's blonde floozie pick-up. Things brightened up considerably with Lady in the Lake (1946) co-starring Robert Montgomery as detective Philip Marlowe. The film was not well received and is now better remembered for its interesting subjective camera technique. Audrey's first hit as a femme fatale co-star came on loanout to Warner Bros. In The Unsuspected (1947), she cemented her dubious reputation in "B" noir as a trampy, gold-digging niece married to alcoholic Hurd Hatfield. She then went on a truly enviable roll with High Wall (1947), as a psychiatrist to patient Robert Taylor, The Saxon Charm (1948) with Montgomery (again) and Susan Hayward, Alias Nick Beal (1949) as a loosely-moraled "Girl Friday" to Ray Milland, the boxing film The Set-Up (1949) as the beleaguered wife of washed-up boxer Robert Ryan, Any Number Can Play (1949) with Clark Gable and as a two-timing spouse in Tension (1949) with Richard Basehart.
Although the studio groomed Audrey to become a top star, it was not to be. Perhaps because she was too good at being bad. The 1950s film scene softened considerably and MGM began focusing on family-styled comedy and drama. Audrey's tough-talking dames were no longer a commodity and MGM soon dropped her in 1951. She signed for a time with Columbia Pictures and 20th Century Fox as well but her era had come and gone. Film offers began to evaporate. At around this time she married Leo Fred, a doctor, and instead began focusing on marriage and family.
TV gave her career a slight boost in the 1960s and 1970s, including regular roles in Cimarron City (1958) and Our Man Higgins (1962) as a suburban mom opposite Stanley Holloway's British butler. After a period of semi-retirement, she came back to TV to replace Jayne Meadows in the popular television series Medical Center (1969) starring Chad Everett and James Daly. She played Nurse Wilcox, a recurring role, for four seasons (1972-1976). The 70-year-old Totter retired after a 1987 guest role on "Murder, She Wrote." Her husband died in 1996. On December 12, 2013, Audrey Totter died at age 95 in West Hills, California.Actress - 2013- Actor
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Tom Laughlin was born on 10 August 1931 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA. He was an actor and director, known for Billy Jack (1971), The Trial of Billy Jack (1974) and The Born Losers (1967). He was married to Delores Taylor. He died on 12 December 2013 in Thousand Oaks, California, USA.Actor / Director / Writer - 2013- Actress
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Born Joan de Beauvoir de Havilland on October 22, 1917, in Tokyo, Japan, in what was known as the International Settlement, to British parents, Lilian Augusta (Ruse), a former actress, and Walter Augustus de Havilland, an English professor and patent attorney. Her paternal grandfather's family was from Guernsey in the Channel Islands. Her father had a lucrative practice in Japan, but due to Joan and older sister Olivia de Havilland's recurring ailments the family moved to California in the hopes of improving their health. Mrs. de Havilland and the two girls settled in Saratoga while their father went back to his practice in Japan. Joan's parents did not get along well and divorced soon afterward. Mrs. de Havilland had a desire to be an actress but her dreams were curtailed when she married, but now she hoped to pass on her dream to Olivia and Joan. While Olivia pursued a stage career, Joan went back to Tokyo, where she attended the American School. In 1934 she came back to California, where her sister was already making a name for herself on the stage. Joan likewise joined a theater group in San Jose and then Los Angeles to try her luck there. After moving to L.A., Joan adopted the name of Joan Burfield because she didn't want to infringe upon Olivia, who was using the family surname.
She tested at MGM and gained a small role in No More Ladies (1935), but she was scarcely noticed and Joan was idle for a year and a half. During this time she roomed with Olivia, who was having much more success in films. In 1937, this time calling herself Joan Fontaine, she landed a better role as Trudy Olson in You Can't Beat Love (1937) and then an uncredited part in Quality Street (1937). Although the next two years saw her in better roles, she still yearned for something better. In 1940 she garnered her first Academy Award nomination for Rebecca (1940). Although she thought she should have won, (she lost out to Ginger Rogers in Kitty Foyle (1940)), she was now an established member of the Hollywood set. She would again be Oscar-nominated for her role as Lina McLaidlaw Aysgarth in Suspicion (1941), and this time she won. Joan was making one film a year but choosing her roles well. In 1942 she starred in the well-received This Above All (1942).
The following year she appeared in The Constant Nymph (1943). Once again she was nominated for the Oscar, she lost out to Jennifer Jones in The Song of Bernadette (1943). By now it was safe to say she was more famous than her older sister and more fine films followed. In 1948, she accepted second billing to Bing Crosby in The Emperor Waltz (1948). Joan took the year of 1949 off before coming back in 1950 with September Affair (1950) and Born to Be Bad (1950). In 1951 she starred in Paramount's Darling, How Could You! (1951), which turned out badly for both her and the studio and more weak productions followed.
Absent from the big screen for a while, she took parts in television and dinner theaters. She also starred in many well-produced Broadway plays such as Forty Carats and The Lion in Winter. Her last appearance on the big screen was The Witches (1966) and her final appearance before the cameras was Good King Wenceslas (1994). She is, without a doubt, a lasting movie icon.Actress - 2013- Actor
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A leading man of prodigious talents, Peter O'Toole was born and raised in Leeds, Yorkshire, England, the son of Constance Jane Eliot (Ferguson), a Scottish nurse, and Patrick Joseph O'Toole, an Irish metal plater, football player and racecourse bookmaker. Upon leaving school, he decided to become a journalist, beginning as a newspaper copy boy. Although he succeeded in becoming a reporter, he discovered the theater and made his stage debut at age 17. He served as a radioman in the Royal Navy for two years, then attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, where his classmates included Albert Finney, Alan Bates and Richard Harris.
O'Toole spent several years on-stage at the Bristol Old Vic, then made an inconspicuous film debut in the Disney classic Kidnapped (1960). In 1962, he was chosen by David Lean to play T.E. Lawrence in Lean's epic drama Lawrence of Arabia (1962). The role made O'Toole an international superstar and received him his first Academy Award nomination for Best Actor in a Leading Role. In 1963, he played Hamlet under Laurence Olivier's direction in the premiere production of the Royal National Theater. He continued successfully in artistically rich films as well as less artistic but commercially rewarding projects. He received Academy Award nominations (but no Oscar) for seven different films.
However, medical problems (originally thought to have been brought on by his drinking but which turned out to be stomach cancer) threatened to destroy his career and life in the 1970s. He survived by giving up alcohol and, after serious medical treatment, returned to films with triumphant performances in The Stunt Man (1980) and My Favorite Year (1982). His youthful beauty lost to time and drink, O'Toole has found meaningful roles increasingly difficult to come by, though he remained one of the greatest actors of his generation. He had two daughters, Pat and Kate O'Toole, from his marriage to actress Siân Phillips. He also had a son, Lorcan O'Toole, by model Karen Brown.
On December 14, 2013, Peter O'Toole died at age 81 in London, England.Actor - 2013- Actress
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Undoubtedly the woman who had come to epitomize what we recognize today as "celebrity," Zsa Zsa Gabor, is better known for her many marriages, personal appearances, her "dahlink" catchphrase, her actions, gossip, and quotations on men, rather than her film career.
Zsa Zsa was born as Sári Gabor on February 6, 1917 in Budapest, Hungary, to Jolie Gabor (née Janka Tilleman) and Vilmos Gabor (born Farkas Miklós Grün), both of Jewish descent. Her siblings were Eva Gabor and Magda Gabor. Zsa Zsa studied at a Swiss finishing school, was second runner-up in the fifth Miss Hungary pageant, and began her stage career in Vienna in 1934. In 1941, the year she obtained her first divorce, she followed younger sister Eva to Hollywood.
A radiant, beautiful blonde, Zsa Zsa began to appear on television series and occasional films. Her first film was at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in Lovely to Look At (1952), co-starring Kathryn Grayson and Red Skelton. She next made a comedy called We're Not Married! (1952) at 20th Century Fox with Ginger Rogers. It was far from a star billing; she appeared several names down the cast as a supporting actress. But in 1952 she broke into films big time with her starring role opposite José Ferrer in Moulin Rouge (1952), although it has been said that throughout filming, director John Huston gave her a very difficult time.
In the following years, Zsa Zsa slipped back into supporting roles in films such as Lili (1953) and 3 Ring Circus (1954). Her main period of film work was in the 1950s, with other roles in Death of a Scoundrel (1956), with Yvonne De Carlo, and The Man Who Wouldn't Talk (1958) with Anna Neagle; again, these were supporting roles. By the 1960s, Zsa Zsa was appearing more as herself in films. She now appeared to follow her own persona around, and cameo appearances were the order of the day in films such as Pepe (1960) and Jack of Diamonds (1967). This continued throughout the 1970s.
She was memorable as herself in The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear (1991), in which she humorously poked fun at a 1989 incident where she was convicted of slapping a police officer (Paul Kramer) during a traffic stop. She spent three days in jail and had to do 120 hours of community service. Such infamous incidents contributed to her becoming one of the most all-time recognizable of Hollywood celebrities, and sometimes ridiculed as a result. She was also memorable to British television viewers on The Ruby Wax Show (1997).
In 2002, Gabor was reported to be in a coma in a Los Angeles hospital after a horrifying car accident. The 85-year-old star was injured when the car she was traveling in hit a utility pole in West Hollywood, California. The reports about her coma eventually proved to be inaccurate.
Zsa Zsa's life, spanning two continents, nine husbands, and 11 decades, came to an end on December 18, 2016, when she died of cardiac arrest in Los Angeles, California. She was 99.Actress - 2016- Actress
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Carrie Frances Fisher was born on October 21, 1956 in Burbank, California, to singers/actors Eddie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds. She was an actress and writer known for Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977), Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983). Fisher is also known for her book, "Postcards from the Edge", and she wrote the screenplay for the movie based on her novel. Carrie Fisher and talent agent Bryan Lourd have a daughter, Billie Lourd (Billie Catherine Lourd), born on July 17, 1992.Actress - 2016- Actress
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She was the standard prototype of the porcelain-pretty collegiate and starry-eyed romantic interest in a host of Depression-era films and although her name may not ring a bell to most, Mary Carlisle enjoyed a fairly solid decade in the cinematic limelight.
The petite Boston-born, blue-eyed blonde was born on February 3, 1914, and brought to Hollywood in 1918, at age 4, by her mother after her father passed away. The story goes that the 14-year-old and her mother were having lunch at the Universal commissary when she was noticed by producer Carl Laemmle Jr., who immediately gave her a screen test. Her age was a hindering factor, however, and Mary completed her high school studies before moving into the acting arena. An uncle connected to MGM helped give the young hopeful her break into the movies as a singer/dancer a few years later.
Mary started out typically as an extra and bit player in such films as Madam Satan (1930), The Great Lover (1931) and in Grand Hotel (1932) in which she played a honeymooner. The glamorous, vibrant beauty's career was given a build-up as a "Wampas Baby Star" in 1933 and soon she began finding work in films playing stylish, well-mannered young co-eds. Although she performed as a topline actress in a number of lightweight pictures such as Night Court (1932) with Anita Page, Murder in the Private Car (1934) starring Charles Ruggles, and It's in the Air (1935) alongside Jack Benny, she is perhaps best remembered as a breezy co-star to Bing Crosby in three of his earlier, lightweight '30s musicals: College Humor (1933), Double or Nothing (1937) and Doctor Rhythm (1938). In the last picture mentioned she is the lovely focus of his song "My Heart Is Taking Lessons". Her participation in weightier material such as Kind Lady (1935) was often overshadowed by her even weightier co-stars, in this case Basil Rathbone and Aline MacMahon.
Disappointed with the momentum of her career and her inability to extricate herself from the picture-pretty, paragon-of-virtue stereotype, Mary traveled and lived in London for a time in the late '30s. Following her damsel-in-distress role in the horror opus Dead Men Walk (1943) with George Zucco and Dwight Frye, Mary retired from the screen, prompted by her marriage to James Blakeley, a flying supervisor, the year before. The Beverly Hills couple had one son. Her husband, a former actor who also appeared in '30s musicals with Crosby as a dapper second lead (e.g., in Two for Tonight (1935)), later became an important executive (producer, editor, etc.) at Twentieth Century-Fox.
In later years Mary managed an Elizabeth Arden Salon in Beverly Hills and received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Her husband passed away in 2007. Mary herself lived to the ripe old age of 104 on August 1, 2018.Actress - 2018- Actress
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Penny Marshall was born Carole Penny Marshall on October 15, 1943 in Manhattan. The Libra was 5' 6 1/2", with brown hair and green eyes. She was the daughter of Marjorie (Ward), a tap dance teacher, and Anthony "Tony" Marshall, an industrial film director. She was the younger sister of filmmakers Garry Marshall and Ronny Hallin. Her father was of Italian descent, originally surnamed "Masciarelli," and her mother was of German, Scottish, English, and Irish ancestry.
Penny was known in her family as "the bad one"... because not only did she walk on the ledge of her family's apartment building, but she snuck into the movies as a child and even dated a guy named "Lefty." She attended a private girls' high school in New York and then went to the University of New Mexico for two and a half years. There, Penny got pregnant with daughter, Tracy Reiner, and soon after married the father, Michael Henry, in 1961. The couple divorced two years later in 1963. She worked as a secretary for awhile. Her film debut came from her brother Garry Marshall, who put her in the movie How Sweet It Is! (1968) with the talented Debbie Reynolds and James Garner. She also did a dandruff commercial with Farrah Fawcett - the casting people, of course, giving Farrah the part of the "beautiful girl" and Penny the part of the "plain girl." This only added to Penny's insecurity with her looks.
She then married Rob Reiner on April 10, 1971, shortly after getting her big television break as Oscar Madison's secretary, Myrna Turner, on The Odd Couple (1970). She also played Mary Richards' neighbor, Paula Kovacks, on The Mary Tyler Moore Show (1970) for a couple of episodes. However, her Laverne & Shirley (1976) fame came when her brother needed two women to play "fast girls" who were friends of Arthur Fonzarelli and would date Fonzie and Richie Cunningham on Happy Days (1974). Penny had been working on miscellaneous writing projects ("My Country Tis Of Thee", a bicentennial spoof for Francis Ford Coppola and "Paper Hands" about the Salem Witch Trials) with writing partner Cindy Williams. Cindy happened to be a friend and ex-girlfriend of Henry Winkler's, so Garry asked the two to play the parts of these girls. The audience saw their wonderful chemistry, and loved them so much, a spin-off was created for them.
Penny was well-known as Laverne DeFazio. She and Rob had divorced in 1980. The show ended three years later, half a year after Cindy Williams left the show due to pregnancy (her first baby, Emily, from now ex-husband Bill Hudson)... they wanted Williams to work the week she was supposed to deliver.
Soon after, Penny began directing such films as Jumpin' Jack Flash (1986), Big (1988) and A League of Their Own (1992). Her hobbies included needlepoint, jigsaw puzzles and antique shopping. She was best friends with actress Carrie Fisher and was godmother to Carrie's daughter, Billie.
Penny died at 75 in Los Angeles, California.Actress / Director - 2018- Actress
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Nancy Gates was born February 1, 1926 in Dallas, Texas. She entered show business, at an early age, when she was signed to a contract with RKO Studios when she was 15. Her first production with that studio was in 1942's Hitler's Children (1943). Nancy was also in two more films that year, those being The Great Gildersleeve (1942) and The Magnificent Ambersons (1942). The young actress was equally busy the following year with appearances in Gildersleeve's Bad Day (1943), Behind the Rising Sun (1943) and This Land Is Mine (1943). However, after 1949, Nancy didn't appear in another film until she was 26 years old. In 1952, Nancy appeared in five films, beginning with Target Hong Kong (1953). Up to this point, the beautiful actress appeared mostly in character roles. Two of her finest performances did come in the Fifties. In 1954, Nancy played "Ellen Benson", a woman whose home was commandeered by a would-be assassin (Frank Sinatra) of the President of the U.S., in Suddenly (1954). The other was as "Edith Barclay", the secretary to a small-town jeweler, in 1958's Some Came Running (1958). After the production of Comanche Station (1960), Nancy left film acting to be with her family but continued off and on with guest spots on television shows up to her swan song in an episode of The Mod Squad in 1969.. She had 34 films on her dossier, along with a host of television appearances.Actress - 2019- Actress
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Born in Denmark, she came to Paris at 18. She met Coco Chanel and Pierre Cardin and started as a top model. She met Jean-Luc Godard about a cameo in Breathless (1960), but she had to be naked and she refused to play in the movie. One year later, they wed and she became famous with the "Nouvelle Vague" movies directed by him, Jacques Rivette, and Agnès Varda.
In 1967, Serge Gainsbourg wrote his only film musical Anna (1967) for her, with the hit "Sous le soleil exactement". Then, she went to Hollywood for a few movies and came back to Paris. She wrote and directed Vivre ensemble (1973) after her divorce from Pierre Fabre. She later remarried, to Dennis Berry.Actress - 2019- Jeremy Bulloch was born on February 16, 1945 in Market Harborough, Leicestershire, England, the son of Aziz Diane (Meade) and McGregor Bulloch, an aeronautical engineer. He was the middle of three siblings, along with three older half-brothers from his mother's earlier marriage. Even at the age of five he was on stage in his school show, acting and singing. After failing a school exam at the age of eleven, Jeremy seemed destined for the acting profession and was soon attending Corona Academy Drama School, making his first professional appearance at the age of twelve when he appeared in a commercial for a breakfast cereal.
Following many appearances on children's television, Jeremy's big break came at the age of 17 when he landed a major role in the musical film Summer Holiday (1963) which starred the pop idol Cliff Richard (now Sir Cliff). Shortly after, he went into a BBC soap opera called The Newcomers (1965) which ran for three years and made him a household name in the United Kingdom. In 1969, Jeremy was off to Madrid in Spain to play the leading role in a musical film called Las Leandras (1969). This was followed by two major films: The Virgin and the Gypsy (1970) and Mary, Queen of Scots (1971).
During the 1970s, he made many other screen appearances, including the James Bond films, in which he portrayed the character 'Smithers' (Q's assistant). In 1977, Jeremy spent six months in the Far East, where he was based in Singapore and travelled to the Philippines, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia filming a BBC drama documentary called 'The Sadrina Project'. This documentary was designed to teach the English language to people in the Far East, mainly the Chinese. On a trip to China some 15 years later, where Jeremy was performing in a stage play, he was instantly recognised by hundreds of people who stated they had learnt their English from the Sadrina Project.
In 1978, he was starring in the television comedy series Agony (1979), which was co-written by an American called Len Richmond. It was during this series that Jeremy was asked to play a small part in Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980). The part, of course, was Boba Fett - proving the old theatrical saying that "there is no such thing as a small part"! Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983) soon followed and Jeremy was invited to reprise the role of Boba.
Since the early 1980s, Jeremy played many roles on television and on the stage in London's West End. He also had two worldwide theatre tours covering the Middle and Far East. Jeremy appeared regularly in the favourite television series Robin Hood (1984), in which he played the part of Edward of Wickham. Jeremy's son Robbie was asked to play Matthew in the series. 'Robin of Sherwood' has a great following all around the world, and Jeremy attends the convention 'Spirit of Sherwood' in Novi, Michigan every year, work permitting. Another popular series he has appeared in is Doctor Who (1963) where he played Hal the Archer in 'The Time Warrior' with Jon Pertwee, and also Tor in the 'Space Museum' with William Hartnell as the Doctor.
Since the re-release of Star Wars in 1997, the interest in the character of Boba Fett has meant that Jeremy was invited to many sci-fi conventions and events all around the world. His fan mail has increased five-fold, and he managed somehow to reply to everyone that writes to him. In his little leisure time, he loved nothing more than a game of cricket with his friends. Jeremy also enjoyed travelling; in his last decades, he spent more time abroad than at home. He collected an awesome amount of Boba Fett memorabilia, some given to him by dedicated fans, and some he could not resist buying at toy fairs. His office at home resembles a Boba Fett museum.
Jeremy had three grown-up sons, and lived in London with his wife Maureen, and lucky black cat 'Percy.'Actor - 2020 - Art Department
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Peter Lamont was born on 12 November 1929 in London, England, UK. He was a production designer and art director, known for Titanic (1997), Casino Royale (2006) and Aliens (1986). He was married to Ann Aldridge. He died on 18 December 2020.Production Designer - 2020- Actress
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Legendary EastEnders actress and Carry On star Barbara Windsor was born Barbara Ann Deeks in Stepney, London, the daughter of Rose (Ellis), a dressmaker, and John Deeks, a costermonger. She was a bright pupil at school and her parents wanted her to go to university, but after her first taste of show business, when her grandmother took her backstage at a theatre, she decided acting was what she wanted to do.
Her mother spent all her savings on a place at the Aida Foster Acting School, where Barbara made her stage debut in Aida's 1950s pantomime at the Golders Green Hippodrome. Aida's tutors tried to iron out her Cockney accent but luckily they didn't succeed. In 1952, she was cast as one of the orphans in the musical "Love from Judy", which opened at London's Saville Theatre. With the show's star, she made her television debut in "Variety Parade". Two years later in 1954, she made her film debut as a school girl extra in "The Belles of St. Trinians", and by 1957, she was performing at London's Winston's Club with Amanda Barrie. The producer Joan Littlewood, who was committed to working class theatre, spotted her at an audition and in 1960 gave her the role which changed her life - Rose in "Fings Ain't What They Used to Be" at London's Garrick Theatre where it ran for two and a half years, during which she appeared in the sitcom The Rag Trade (1961).
As a result of the success of "Fings", Littlewood cast her in the film Sparrows Can't Sing (1963), which was seen by producer Peter Rogers who offered her roles in "Carry On" films, the first of which was Carry on Spying (1964). In 1964, She appeared in Joan's stage version of 'Oh! What a Lovely War' on Broadway and toured America with it. On her return, she was cast in the West End production of Lionel Bart's ill fated musical "Twang", which closed after a short run allowing her to take a role in "Come Spy with Me" with Danny La Rue at London's Whitehall Theatre. During the run, she had a complete change in playing one of the Ripper's victims in the film A Study in Terror (1965), then it was back to lighthearted roles in such films as Carry on Doctor (1967) and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968), and in 1968, a British tour with Frankie Howerd in "The Wind in the Sasafras Tree". In late 1969, Ned Sherrin cast her as the music hall legend Marie Lloyd in "Sing a Rude Song" which opened at the Greenwich Theatre before transferring to the West End's Garrick Theatre.
Windsor did become well known in the London theatrical scene, but it was the "Carry On" comedies that made her a star. Although she appeared in only nine films in the long-running series (she left because she thought they were getting too risqué), she made such an impression as the basically good-hearted but dizzy sexpot that many of the series' fans believe she was in many more than she actually was. She almost didn't get the role originally, as she and series regular Kenneth Williams took an instant dislike to each other, but that was soon overcome and they became lifelong friends.
After she left the series, she continued her stage and film work, and became a regular in a long-running British soap opera, EastEnders (1985) as the matriarch of The Queen Victoria - Peggy Mitchell, which she played in over 1,500 episodes. She wrote two autobiographies, "Barbara - the Laughter and Tears of a Cockney Sparrow" and "All of Me - My Extraordinary Life". She was awarded Member of the Order of the British Empire in the 2000 Queen's New Years Honours for her services to entertainment. She was awarded Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 2016 Queen's New Years Honours for her services to entertainment and to charity.
Dame Barbara Windsor died of Alzheimer's disease on December 10, 2020, in London. She is survived by husband Scott Mitchell.Actress - 2020