Advanced search

Tamara Tunie was born on 14 March 1959 in McKeesport, Pennsylvania, USA. She is an actress and director, known for Flight (2012), The Devil's Advocate (1997) and Snake Eyes (1998). She was previously married to Gregory Generet and Greg Bouquett.

Aline MacMahon was born of Scottish-Irish and Russian-Jewish ancestry on May 3,1899, the daughter of William Marcus MacMahon and Jennie Simon MacMahon. Her father became editor-in-chief of Munsey's Magazine, while her mother pursued a theatrical acting career from middle-age and lived to age107. After the family moved to Brooklyn, Aline was educated at then-prestigious Erasmus Hall High School. She later attended Barnard College where she was graduated in 1920.

MacMahon first appeared onstage in 'The Madras House' at the Neighborhood Playhouse Theater and subsequently made her bow on Broadway in "The Mirage" in 1921. During the 1920s, she had a prolific career on Broadway, first, as a comedienne adept at impersonations (notably, in "The Grand Street Follies" and "Artists and Models"). By 1926, she proved to be equally adept at dramatic roles, making an impact in Eugene O'Neill's "Beyond the Horizon." Noël Coward described her as "astonishing, moving and beautiful", while critic Alexander Woollcott commented on her "extraordinary beauty, vitality and truth" (New York Times, October 14, 1991). Her distinguished career on the stage went on for five and a half decades, highlighted by many critically acclaimed performances in plays like "The Eve of St. Mark" (1942-43), "The Confidential Clerk" (1954), "Pictures in the Hallway" (1956) and "All the Way Home" (1960-61). Her somewhat melancholic, heavy-lidded and thickly eye-browed features inspired sculptor Isamu Noguchi and photographer Cecil Beaton.

MacMahon's film career began on the strength of her wisecracking voice-culture teacher, May Daniels, in the Kaufman and Hart comedy 'Once in a Lifetime', which she had created onstage in Los Angeles in 1931. She reprised her role on screen the following year and was, prior to that, cast in similar roles as feisty secretaries in Five Star Final (1931), (her debut) and The Mouthpiece (1932). Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933) afforded her a well-received co-starring role as the hard-boiled "Trixie Lorraine". McMahon managed to escape typecasting with several strong dramatic performances: Edward G. Robinson's sad, cast-off wife in Silver Dollar (1932); the sympathetic self-sacrificing Mrs. Moore of The Life of Jimmy Dolan (1933); her co-starring role as Guy Kibbee's long-suffering wife Myra in Babbitt (1934); and kindly spinster aunt Lily Davis in Ah Wilderness! (1935). She effortlessly made the transition from Pre-Code films to Post-Code.

In the 1940s, she began playing lower-billed character parts, but was nominated for an Academy Award for her performance as the Chinese mother of Katharine Hepburn's character, Ling Tan, in Dragon Seed (1944). After that, she played a succession of gentle mothers and grandmothers, as, for example, in The Eddie Cantor Story (1953). She was also occasionally employed in meatier outdoor roles in anything from swashbucklers, like The Flame and the Arrow (1950), to westerns, such as her ranch owner in The Man from Laramie (1955). More exotically cast, she portrayed James Darren's Hawaiian mother, Kapiolani Kahana, in Diamond Head (1962). In her last motion picture performance, she re-created her stage role as Aunt Hannah for the Paramount film version of All the Way Home (1963). Based on the novel "A Death in the Family" by James Agee, the picture was a huge success with the critics but performed less well at the box office.

Aside from a handful of guest appearances on television, she retired from the screen after 1964 and died of pneumonia at her Manhattan home at the age of 92 in 1991. She was married to Clarence S. Stern, who predeceased her in 1975.

Bette Ford was born on 24 June 1927 in McKeesport, Pennsylvania, USA. She is an actress, known for Sudden Impact (1983), Valley of the Sun (2011) and L.A. Law (1986). She is married to Scott Wolkoff. She was previously married to John Meston.

Joan Barton was born on 20 September 1925 in McKeesport, Pennsylvania, USA. She was an actress, known for Mary Lou (1948), Angel and the Badman (1947) and Cigarette Girl (1947). She was married to Jerry Gray, Doye O'Dell, Earl Muntz, Frederick Scott Guggenheimer and James Irwin Thomas. She died on 27 August 1976 in Dallas, Texas, USA.

Byron Janis was born on 24 March 1928 in McKeesport, Pennsylvania, USA. He was a writer and composer, known for Hannibal Rising (2007), Untitled Byron Janis Project and Cooper and Hemingway: The True Gen (2013). He was married to Maria Cooper Janis and June Dickson Wright. He died on 14 March 2024 in Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA.

Donna Jean Young was born on 29 May 1936 in East McKeesport, Pennsylvania, USA. She was an actress, known for ABC Stage 67 (1966), Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In (1967) and The Beverly Hillbillies (1962). She was married to James. She died on 29 January 2010 in Sydney, Australia.

Bob Carroll Jr. was born August 12, 1918, in McKeesport, Pennsylvania. At the age of three, Carroll and his family moved to St. Petersburg, Florida. His interest in writing was sparked when as a teenager he entered a radio contest, submitting a script he had written while laid up in bed recovering from a hip ailment; his submission won first prize.

In his early twenties he left for Los Angeles, where he landed a job as an usher with CBS radio affiliate KNX. After a stint in the mail room, he was promoted to the writing staff.

In the late 1940s, along with Madelyn Pugh Davis, who became his writing partner for more than 60 years, he was working on comedian Steve Allen's radio show when he learned that Lucille Ball was looking for writers for her radio show, "My Favorite Husband." Conning Allen into writing his own show one week, the writing duo took the time to write a prospective script to submit to Ball. Ball loved the submission, and Carroll and Davis became the first permanent writers on "My Favorite Husband."

When the show moved to television in 1951, Ball took her writers with her, changing the name of the program to "I Love Lucy" and adding real-life husband Desi Arnaz to the cast.

Carroll and Pugh worked on every episode of the long-running show, as well as many episodes of "The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour," "The Lucy Show," "Here's Lucy" and "Life With Lucy." "Life With Lucy" would be Ball's last show, and it went off the air in 1986, just three years before her death. Carroll and Davis developed the "Lucy formula" that was the mainstay of all her series and won Ball generations of fans. Each of the shows had the basic premise of Lucy developing a bizarre scheme to achieve what she wanted and having the entire plan turn into a pratfall-filled disaster, but Lucy is normally forgiven because of her well-intentioned motives.

Carroll and Davis also collaborated on several other projects, including the 1968 film "Yours, Mine and Ours" and the short-lived Desi Arnaz-produced sitcom "The Mothers-In-Law."

Carroll also wrote and produced the 1977 television special "Lucy Calls the President." This show has been rarely seen since its original airing and is considered by many Lucy fans a must-see. The show, which had Ball playing a concerned mother who calls then-President Jimmy Carter to complain about a federal housing project that would destroy a children's camp, was used as mini-reunion show that reunited Lucy with her longtime co-stars Vivian Vance and Gale Gordon, and it had a star-studded supporting cast. The special also proved to be the last on-screen appearance for Vance and Ball.

Bob Carroll also had several noted projects outside of working with Lucille Ball. He served as a producer and sometime writer for the successful sitcom "Alice" starring Linda Lavin and the short-lived but Golden Globe-nominated "The Paul Lynde Show."

Bob Carroll died of natural causes on January 27, 2007, at the age of 88. He had been married and divorced twice and he was survived by a daughter.

Amy Argyle was born on 21 July 1979 in McKeesport, Pennsylvania, USA. She is an actress and producer, known for Frank & Lola (2016), Gone (2012) and The Lears (2017).

Richard Wilson was born on 25 December 1915 in McKeesport, Pennsylvania, USA. He was a director and producer, known for It's All True: Based on an Unfinished Film by Orson Welles (1993), The Lady from Shanghai (1947) and Raw Wind in Eden (1958). He was married to Elizabeth Wilson. He died on 22 August 1991 in Santa Monica, California, USA.

It was fate and not intention that turned Libby Aubrey from a Beverly Hills housewife into a world class athlete. A Pennsylvania native, Libby's first love was acting, which she began studying at an early age. By the time she was eight, she was performing on the highly respected Bucks County Playhouse, in New Hope, Pennsylvania. She later appeared in theatrical productions on the music theater circuit and went on to study acting at Stephens College for Women, the University of Wisconsin, and the University of Paris, Sorbonne. Returning to the United States, Libby worked as a model, dancer, actress, and voice over specialist, and she appeared in numerous national and regional commercials.

Several years later, while recovering from the death of her mother, Libby determined she must improve her own health and the quality of her life, and soon she found a new sense of freedom in cycling.

In her first year of competition, and at fifty years of age, Libby Aubrey won Silver Medals in the California State Championship in the 500-meter and the two-kilometer time pursuit. She won two more Silvers in Indianapolis for the same events and a Bronze Medal in Manchester, England for the 500 meter.

Just recently, she established a new world record in flying 200 meter Time Trial for women her age. To perpetuate the sport of cycling, Libby has brought together a federation of corporate interests and related associations to form the SCHOOL OF CHAMPIONS. As Chair Person, Libby will develop through School of Champions, a national standard for training and certifying cycling coaches, trainers and instructors at all levels of the United States Cycling Federation (USCF).

Rudy Ricci was born on 14 February 1940 in McKeesport, Pennsylvania, USA. He was a writer and actor, known for Dawn of the Dead (1978), The Return of the Living Dead (1985) and Night of the Living Dead (1968). He was married to Mary Jane Ricci. He died on 8 March 2012 in Clairton, Pennsylvania, USA.

John Alban was born on 2 January 1903 in Mckeesport, Pennsylvania, USA. He was an actor. He was married to Pauline Garon and Renee Evans. He died on 9 August 1978 in Los Angeles, California, USA.

Peggy Maurer was born on 26 February 1931 in McKeesport, Pennsylvania, USA. She was an actress, known for Playhouse 90 (1956), I Bury the Living (1958) and Producers' Showcase (1954). She was married to Arthur Penn. She died on 27 July 2012 in New York City, New York, USA.

Karl Brown was born on 26 December 1896 in McKeesport, Pennsylvania, USA. He was a writer and cinematographer, known for Flames (1932), Stark Love (1927) and White Legion (1936). He was married to Edna Mae Cooper. He died on 25 March 1990 in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA.

Marc Connelly, the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, is best known as being one of the leading wits of the Algonquin Round Table and for being a collaborator with George S. Kaufman, with whom he wrote many plays, including Merton of the Movies (1947). His Broadway career spanned 65 years, from 1915, when he got his first writing credit on a Broadway play for contributing lyrics to that year's edition of the musical revue "Hip! Hip! Hooray!", until the year of his death, 1980. His last play, "The Stitch in Time", started previews on December 29, 1980. (The play, alas, never officially opened.)

He was born ninety years earlier, on December 13, 1890 in McKeesport, Pennsylvania, the son of actors Patrick Joseph Connelly and Mabel Louise Cook, who also ran a hotel. He began writing plays as a youngster, and after serving as a cub reporter for the "Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph", he moved to New York City to seek his fame and fortune. In The Big Apple, he wrote the book for the 1916 musical-comedy "The Amber Empress", a flop that closed after 15 performances. He provided lyrics for the 1918 musical "The Maid of the Mountains", which did a little bit better, closing after 37 curtain calls.

He became a member of the Algonquin Round Table in the year after the Great War ended. Two years later, in 1921, he and fellow Round Table habitué Kauffman scored a success with their first collaboration, the comedy "Dulcy", which ran for 241 performances. Other collaborations followed. They had three productions in 1922, the original comedy "To the Ladies", the musical revue "The '49ers", and "Merton of the Movies", the latter of which proved a hit, running for 392 performances.

The more modestly successful musical comedy "Helen of Troy, New York" followed in 1923, a year that also saw their comedy "The Deep Tangled Wildwood" flop, closing after just 16 performances. They came back in early 1924 with the comedy "Beggar on Horseback", which was a hit (and which was briefly revived in 1925), but their other offering of 1924, the musical comedy "Be Yourself", was not a success.

Their partnership broke up, and in 1926, Connelly scored a modest hit with his original comedy "The Wisdom Tooth", which ran for 160 performances. His next play, the comedy "The Wild Man of Borneo" written in collaboration with Herman J. Mankiewicz (who would go on to win an Oscar writing the original screenplay for Citizen Kane (1941) with Orson Welles) was a flop, closing after 15 performances. But his next venture on The Great White Way, the Old Testament-inspired musical play "The Green Pastures", was his biggest hit yet. Not only did "The Green Pastures" run for 640 performances, it brought Connelly the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

He did not have another play on the boards until 1934's "The Farmer Takes a Wife", which closed after 104 showings. His 1937 comedy "Having Wonderful Time" was a hit, the last of his career, with 372 performances. Though he would write three more original plays between 1942 and 1948, none of them was success. His last, posthumous show, which made it to Broadway 32 years after his last original, didn't even merit an opening.

In addition to writing, Connelly also produced, directed and acted on Broadway, and he also acted on the screen and in TV. He co-directed the 1936 cinema adaptation of his The Green Pastures (1936) and worked as a screenwriter for the movies and television, scoring an Oscar nod for Captains Courageous (1937) and an Emmy nomination for the 1951 "Hallmark Hall of Fame" adaptation of his "The Green Pastures".

Connelly's memoir, "Voices Offstage", was published in 1968. He died on December 21, 1980, eight days before his last play, "The Stitch in Time", went into previews (one of the reasons it likely didn't open as the 90 year old playwright wasn't around to make revisions).

Ted Johnson was born on 25 July 1938 in McKeesport, Pennsylvania, USA. He is an actor and producer, known for Watchmen (2019), Lincoln (2012) and I Am Potential (2015). He has been married to Bonnie Johnson since 28 September 1996.

Cheryl McCall was born on 7 May 1950 in McKeesport, Pennsylvania, USA. She was a writer and producer, known for Streetwise (1984) and Hard Copy (1987). She died on 25 October 2005 in Nevada City, California, USA.

David Tabatsky was born in 1952 in McKeesport, Pennsylvania, USA. He is an actor, known for Stuart Little 2 (2002), Glücklich und manchmal verloren: Die Wege der Ute Lemper (1996) and Le cercle de minuit (1992). He was previously married to Ute Lemper.

Timothy Deenihan was born on 17 March 1970 in McKeesport, Pennsylvania, USA. He is an actor, known for Batman Begins (2005), Black Book (2006) and Law & Order: Criminal Intent (2001).

Peter Vaira was born on 5 March 1937 in McKeesport, Pennsylvania, USA.

Gordon Kent was born in 1954 in McKeesport, Pennsylvania, USA. He was a writer, known for CBS Storybreak (1984), Bonkers (1993) and Taz-Mania (1991). He died on 5 March 2015 in Los Angeles, California, USA.

Roy Barnes was born on 9 February 1936 in McKeesport, Pennsylvania, USA. He was an art director, known for Jurassic Park III (2001), War of the Worlds (2005) and Serenity (2005). He was married to Alta M. Stevens. He died on 29 October 2006 in San Gabriel, California, USA.

Toni-Leslie James was born in McKeesport, Pennsylvania, USA. She is known for Rustin (2023), Come from Away (2021) and A Tale of Two Pizzas (2003). She has been married to David Higham since 28 February 1981. They have two children.

Steve Klisanin was born on 17 May 1929 in McKeesport, Pennsylvania, USA. He was an actor, known for The Wild Women of Wongo (1959) and The Tonight Show (1953). He died on 9 May 2005 in Seal Beach, California, USA.

Steve Hutsko was born on 25 December 1931 in McKeesport, Pennsylvania, USA. He was an actor, known for Night of the Living Dead (1968) and Autopsy of the Dead (2009). He died on 4 March 2009 in Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, USA.